Building volumen ‘Nobelhuset’

The placement of the new building as a solitaire remains fundament to our urban and architectural considerations, reflecting the notion of a house as a civic building. The reduction of the programme by 15% as well as our consideration to locate museum programme also on basement floors gives us the opportunity to substantially reduce the volume by 6 m in height, 5 m in length and 3.5 m in width. In this way the character of the building as a house is strengthened, tying in more harmoniously with its urban context whilst maintaining its status as a solitaire on Blasieholmen along with the National Museum.

Urban setting

The modification to the positioning of the building is related to a number of factors: the refinement of the garden topography, the clarification of the location of the entrances in relation to the open ground floor as well as the enhancement of the quality of the urban space along Hovslagargatan.

We propose to place the building at a slight angle towards the northern building block on Hovslagargatan opening the space of the street towards the water. In this way it not only strengthens its status as a solitaire, but allows us to create an inviting front of house area at the corner of Hovslagargatan and Nybrokajen, which will be designated for a generous entrance and drop off zone next to the main water front entrance. This is made possible through our recommendation to reduce the length of the ramp leading to the underground car park based on the reorganisation of delivery access.

Nobel Garden

In relation to our considerations regarding the positioning of the building we have also refined the relationship between the topography of the garden, the house and the quay line. We suggest aligning the ground level of the house with the existing ground level of the garden, one meter above the quay line. In this way the house sits in the garden and already introduces a notion of nature even on its more urban, north-eastern side.

Internal Organisation – Circulation

Every organisational idea we propose is always influenced by our undisputed decision in the first phase of the competition to place the auditorium on the top floor. Under the premises of reducing the building volumes as well as establishing greater efficiency and orientation between the various activities, we propose a circulation that maintains the idea of the vertical route as a public path, guided by the activities of the museum leading to the auditorium on the uppermost floor. In order to accomplish this propose to split the museum into three sections; temporary exhibition on the first and second floors; permanent exhibition on the first basement floor and open exhibition spaces distributed throughout the public areas on all floor always in connection with the vertical circulation. In this way the open exhibition functions like a Nobel path connecting all functions and floors and making them all part of the Nobel Community and as such reflects what this building is about, a place to meet, gather, dine, celebrate, work, study, learn, see, enjoy and find inspiration.