Glänta – Cultural centre and hotel in Skellefteå
Skellefteå municipality are planning for a new cultural centre and hotel with the vision of creating a vibrant, centrally located public meeting space. The Glänta proposal is derived from the prevailing subarctic climatic conditions and sets out to create a highly welcoming and accessible building, clearly rooted in the city’s existing scale and the activities of the local community.
A flexible building
The programme comprises of several programmes including a hotel, a library, and a collection of settings for the exhibition of art, theatre, children’s activities and concerts. In order to create clear connections with the surrounding fabric as well a distinct urban flavour, Glänta offers an open character with multiple entrances. The building’s rich programming is distributed across a shared plaza which enables open interaction between user groups as well as providing flexibility in terms of scale across both formal and informal meeting venues.
Reflecting the local character
Timber has been chosen as the main renewable material for structural elements, façades and interior surfaces, reducing the building´s carbon footprint and creating optimized conditions from a sustainable life cycle perspective. Timber can be produced locally by Skellefteå’s timber industry, cutting transportation costs and making the project more efficient in every sense.
A clearing in the woods
The design of the interior sets up large and small spaces where visitors can seek seclusion or gather in groups. In order to enact freedom and flow through the cultural centre, a spiral-like transition zone links the floors from the entrance level up to the balcony and the hotel restaurant. The proximity of interior forest is articulated by the informal movement of patterns inside the space, the choice of materials and the dappled light falling into the building combine to give visitors the feeling of being in a clearing in the woods.
