Prestigious architectural award for Kristallen
The European Steel Design Awards are given to encourage the creative and outstanding use of steel in architecture and construction. One of this year's winners was Kiruna's new city hall, Kristallen.
The European Convention for Constructional Steelwork gives the award every two years to the project owners, architects, engineering and building and steel contractors behind the winning projects. This year there were 28 nominees from 13 countries, four of which were from Sweden. From these nominees Kristallen and eleven other finalists were chosen and the awards were given at a special ceremony held in Brussels on 14 October.
“Visiting our beautiful city hall is a fantastic experience and I am impressed by the challenging complexity that was realized based on the concept, drawings, steel structures and the construction of Kristallen. Right from the start of the project in autumn 2013, excellent relations were formed among all of the partners,” says Victoria Aidanpää, section manager for urban transformation projects in Kiruna.
“I can only agree with Victoria. Those of us who work with urban transformation in the orefields communities must have good collaboration with suppliers both locally and regionally, as well as across national boundaries, and the Kristallen project is a brilliant example of good Nordic collaboration. And we at LKAB are especially proud, since the award was for the special steel construction in Kristallen,” says Stefan Holmblad, department manager for urban transformation projects.
On hand for the ceremony to receive the award were Stefan Holmblad and Victoria Aidanpää from LKAB, together with representatives from steel contractor Ruukki Construction, engineering firm WSP Sweden and Henning Larsen Architects. A plaque commemorating the distinction will now be given to the Municipality of Kiruna and mounted at the entrance to the new city hall.
