Åsbovägen

In the spring of 2015, two high-rise blocks built from wood appeared, nicely situated in a small forest on a hill outside of Borås. The apartment blocks with a contemporary character, featuring vaulted roofs and a façade made from wood chips certainly attract people’s attention. But attention or bragging was never the goal for the flats in Fristad. Instead, the people Borås municipality spoke about focusing on wood due to its excellent environmental qualities.

The public housing company Fristadbostäder, Fribo, had not built anything new since 1991, so there was a great need for new apartments in Fristad and when the time came to invest, they wanted to do it and still have as little impact on the environment as possible. The procurement was given to the local company Fristad Bygg – experts in industrial construction in wood for 75 years.

“We really did not want to see anyone else construct wooden buildings in our own backyard”, says Daniel Lyckvik, project manager at Fristad Bygg, to Byggindustrin in the article ‘Wood frames resulted in a better live cycle analysis’ (24 Feb 2016).

To build and construct in wood

Fribo elected to construct houses with wooden frames to reduce the impact on the environment.

“In conjunction with the contractor, we made a life cycle analysis which showed that based on a life cycle of 50 years, we will have reduced the carbon dioxide emissions from the buildings by half simply by choosing a wood frame, compared with if we had built the same buildings with a concrete frame”, says Kjell-Ove Sethsson, CEO at Fribo, to Byggindustrin.

The architects at Tengbom, Magnus Almung and Jan Izikowitz, fired on all cylinders when presented with the municipality’s ambitions and worked according to the motto ‘wood all the way’. Contrary to popular belief, constructing from wood does not necessarily lead to high production costs, and then to high rents which in turn leads to segregation and exclusive dwellings. Instead, our architects tried to think outside the box and focused on a very rational construction.

“The buildings have been erected using industrial methods with a high level of prefabrication.”

Jan Izikowitz, Architect

Smart, efficient, and sustainable construction

“The buildings have been erected using industrial methods with a high level of prefabrication. For example, the up to 16-metre long solid wood elements were prepared with milled grooves for electrical installations and window openings. Building using wood shortens the construction time on site because there aren’t any drying times to wait for which you have to do if you construct from concrete.

The low weight of the wood also facilitates transports and foundations so there are many advantages”, says Jan Izikowitz.

By working with wood all the way, from frame to internal top layers, a small carbon dioxide footprint is guaranteed since wood is such a durable material. In addition, it ages well and at the end, it can be recycled as fuel. Solid wood can also store energy and air humidity. The wood chip façade is also an economical option since it consists of waste from the manufacturing of cedar façades in Canada. As we were saying, the price is also an advantage. Let’s do some calculations; the price per m2 for a home in Fristad is on average SEK 1,450, which means that a two room flat of 60 m2 costs roughly SEK 7,500 a month.

The feeling of being surrounded by natural materials is hard to put a price on.

Quality of life

That’s all very well, but what is it like to live in these environmentally optimised, low-energy buildings? The quality of life that you experience when you live and spend time in wooden houses is a bonus included in the price. The feeling of being surrounded by natural materials is hard to put a price on.

Even indoors, wood surrounds the residents, creating a warm and cosy atmosphere. The internal walls, stained white, enhance this feeling. See-through stairwells, daylight from multiple angles, and views in two directions make the apartment blocks in Fristad truly special. And it’s not just us who think so—the residents themselves praise the project.

“We haven’t put up any pictures yet—the wooden walls are far too beautiful to cover,” says Rickard Harvonen to GP Bostad in the article “The apartment block raises wood to new heights” (1 Feb 2016).

The same article features interviews with several residents who highlight the sound insulation as another key advantage. Sound travels easily in wooden buildings, but architects Magnus Almung and Jan Izikowitz solved this by designing each flat as a separate, sound-insulated box. These boxes are then stacked on top of each other. We never settle for existing solutions if they don’t meet our standards. This approach posed an economic challenge, but we found a way to make it work—at a cost comparable to a standard apartment block. Once again, we proved that building with wood doesn’t have to be more expensive.

“It is very motivating to construct flats of high quality. These houses stand out in more ways than one”, says Magnus Almung at Tengbom.

Praised and loved by all

Praise has been coming from many directions when it comes to the apartment blocks in Fristad. Our proudest moment was when we won Borås Town Construction award 2015 for the category Residential building. The prize is awarded every three years to showcase good examples in architecture and city construction in the municipality. The jury focused on ours and our partners’ way of thinking out of the box. The clear character of the buildings and the fact that they help making the central parts of Fristad more dense.

Leif Josefsson who lives in Fristad says the following to GP Bostad (1 Feb 2016):

“The houses have style, they are a little different. Everybody appreciates them so I think that we may see many more of these in the future.”