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The carbon-negative Sara Cultural Centre in Sweden wins WAF Awards
Awarded in the world’s largest global annual architectural event in the category Completed Buildings: Culture.
By JOHAN MAGNUSSON
2 Dec 2022

When the architectural firm behind the building, White Arkitekter, describes it as carbon-negative, it’s the fact that the embodied carbon and operational energy are less than the carbon sequestration in wood, also described in a special carbon budget.

The 20-storey tower has put the fast-growing city of Skellefteå in northern Sweden on the map, serving as a great example of sustainable architecture. It topped The Guardian’s list of 2021’s best architecture and has also been recognised by the New European Bauhaus initiative as a project that inspires positive change. This week, the project was named winner in the category Completed Buildings: Culture at the 2022 WAF Awards, after competing against 16 finalists. Being named the winner in its category, the project is also competing for World Building of the Year.

— Sara Cultural Centre demonstrates the power of culture to create an attractive and inclusive city centre, and how innovative architectural thinking can create new opportunities for collaboration and creativity. This building is on a new scale for Skellefteå, yet it is born out of the city’s identity, knowledge, and tradition with a focus on wood as a building material, Oskar Norelius and Robert Schmitz, lead architects at White Arkitekter say, adding,

— We have worked in a new way with wood that characterises the culture building both externally and internally, while at the same time making the 20-storey high massive wooden building visible.