City of Walkable Roofs

Residential district named Klarastaden, which in Swedish means “Clean City” is planned to be built over the railroad tracks leading along the shore of Clear Lake Channel (Klara Sjo) to the Central Station in Stockholm. Its distinctive feature is a system of “air tracks” connecting the roofs of houses and opening panoramic views across the Swedish capital. A main goal of the project is to create a comfortable urban environment by increasing the building density.

Anders Berensson Architects has designed this new city area in central Stockholm. The firm was commissioned by “Stockholm Centre Party” to make a dense and green city on top of the train track area next to Stockholm Central Station.

Stockholm is growing and to accommodate population growth the city needs to build more houses. One of the most sustainable ways of doing this is to densify the existing neighborhoods and take advantage of existing infrastructure.

Stockholm, in particular its historic areas, has always been characterized by a high population density, sometimes reaching 4.3 thousand people per 1 sq. km. Moreover, the capital is already a home for 20% of Swedish citizens, and their number continues to grow. In 2015, Stockholm was named the fastest growing city in Europe - it is expected that by 2020 the number of its inhabitants will be increased by 11% to reach 1.01 million people.

The train track area in the West part of Stockholm City is one of Stockholm’s most central locations with a high attraction value. Given the cost of covering the existing train tracks and the area’s central location, the new proposal aims to build a tight and high city area in order to make room for as many people as possible in central Stockholm.

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Materials provided by Anders Berensson Architects