Wisdome Stockholm | Elding Oscarson

Extension of the National Swedish Museum of Technology, housing a visualization dome, a spherical space where visualization technology achieves an immersive audiovisual experience, along with a café and an exhibition hall. The building splices together museum functions around an unused courtyard, and though the dome function is tall, the addition is sensitive to the vaulted hall and lower buildings defining the courtyard today. Conventionally, the program would generate a low volume with a protruding dome, but to utilize the unique dome to create a strong interior space as well as a telling exterior form, the dome is given a focal position under a free form timber structure. The roof mediates between the tall dome and the low facades of the one-story building, spanning 26x48m across the dome. This generates an overwhelming interior space, while the oddly vaulted exterior communicates a unique function. The gridshell structure is constructed from flat standard LVL panels. This has never been done before and has required great commitment from everyone involved. Architecturally and technologically material properties, and the potential of timber construction, is explored. Sustainable construction should include experimental projects, whose benefits are well into the future and are perhaps more geared towards innovation, than more acutely applicable timber solutions. In all technological leaps, research that pushes boundaries have been pivotal. This is happening at The National Museum of Science and Technology.

The building opened in December 2023.

Wisdome Stockholm
Museivägen 7
115 27 Stockholm

Type of project: Public museum building, new construction/extension

Completion: 2023 (inauguration December 5)

Construction method: Free form, timber gridshell of LVL, massive columns of LVL with concealed steel tension bars, foundation of “green” concrete. Dome and café volume of self supportive timber structures of CLT.

Building area: 1325 m2

Client: Tekniska Museet

Architect: Elding Oscarson

Contractor:
Main contractor: Oljibe. Contractor timber structure: Blumer Lehmann, Switzerland.

Structural Engineer:

Design concept och head structural engineer: Florian Kosche, DIFK, Norway. Structural engineer timber structure: SJB Kempter Fitze, Switzerland and Hermann Blumer, Creation Holz, Switzerland.

Other Data:

Visualization dome: outer diameter 22 m, height 12 m, number of seats 100. Roof structure: gridshell 5 x 5 layers of 31mm LVL. Free span of roof: aprx 25 x 48 meter. Country of manufacture CLT and LVL: Sweden and Finland. Material treatment and development: Sweden, Switzerland. Transports: Volume efficency through flat packages to the construction site. Construction of timber structure: 6 months, 3 - 5 people. Stored CO2 in structure: totally 677 metric tonnes. Regrowth time of used timber for structure: 0,02 hours.

Photographer: Mikael Olsson