Strängnäs Cathedral Building Restoration, West Stockholm Architecture Images, Sweden

Strängnäs Domkyrka, Stockholm

26 Oct 2020

Strängnäs Cathedral Building Renewal

Design: AART Architects

Location: Strängnäs, just west of Stockholm, Sweden

Danish architects to develop thousand-year-old cathedral in Sweden

The Danish practice AART has won the internationally open competition to restore and develop Sweden’s best-preserved medieval cathedral, the Strängnäs Cathedral, west of Stockholm, amongst 97 submissions from all over the world.

For more than 1,000 years the Strängnäs Cathedral have been a nerve centre of religion and culture in Sweden. Now a new chapter begins as the medieval cathedral will undertake change when the Danish practice AART, together with Swedish practice Bach Architects as sub-consultants, add a new chapter to the historical cathedral and its surrounding area.

As developers on the project, Strängnäs Cathedral Assembly aim to embrace a diverse selection of activities and improve the area in and around the cathedral that depicts a vital, culture-bearing part of Strängnäs and the region at large.

A crossing between history and modernity

With this restoration AART creates space for new activities inside the hilltop cathedral, for example, housing exhibitions. Simultaneously, creating a new meeting point outside the cathedral, where the historical framework is complimented by three new buildings, that includes reception, café, fellowship hall, meeting facilities, and an information centre for visitors.

“The winning piece have convincingly and inspiringly created an interaction between the old and the new buildings surrounding the cathedral, which strengthens the identity of the cathedral as a living meeting place. The jury values the proposal ability to develop and show empathy and consideration for the existing, historical values as well as highlighting those values that the cathedral in captures,” the jury says in their assessment.

“Based on the building programme, we have analysed and identified the different needs of the audience. From this, we have created a proposal that strengthens the interaction between, not only the many activities, but between modernity and history. We did so by having a strong ambition to create an architectural entirety, thus, making sure that the cathedral – on the inside and outside – stands as a collective, historical environment with modern, accessible facilities,” head of AARTs Stockholm office, Marcus Grieser, adds.

From hilltop cathedral to underground cold-war museum

With the development of the hilltop cathedral, as well as other significant cultural buildings all over Scandinavia, such as, the new Viking Age Museum in Oslo and the new Danish Cold War Museum, REGAN-Vest, concealed 60-metre under Rold Forest in the northern part of Denmark, AART underpins their position as one of Scandinavia’s leading architectural firms in the field of culture.

Strängnäs Domkyrka, Stockholm – Building Information

Location: Strängnäs, Sweden

Developer: Strängnäs Cathedral Assembly

Size: 2,500 sqm new building and restoration of existing cathedral

Status: Under development

Architect and full-service consultant: AART

Sub-consultant: Bach Architects

Strängnäs Domkyrka Sweden images / information received 260220

AART architects

Location: Strängnäs, west of Stockholm, Sweden, north east Europe

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