A vibrant new neighbourhood woven seamlessly into Norrköping’s distinguished urban fabric.
Where life, movement, and meeting places intertwine to create a thriving new neighbourhood. A new cohesive place that is efficient, resilient, and sustainable — with people at the centre.
New life as a dynamic public hub
Diversity & Growth
Growth, catalysed by new infrastructure, flourishes through a holistic mixed-use urban structure seamlessly weaving the historic city into the fabric of the new to generate a successful & economically diverse city quarter.
Integrated Transport Hub
A beacon of modern, seamless travel, Central Station boasts beautiful, safe and efficient travel environments integrated with the urban fabric. Intuitive wayfinding, convenient interchange, & multi-modal services are achieved in parallel with high-quality social & urban experience outcomes.
Integration of built heritage
Embracing the value of local heritage, the Old Station building gains new life as a prominent vibrant community social hub at the heart of the Central Station quarter.
High quality characterful public spaces
Designed to offer distinct purpose and activity, a series of new public spaces are linked by water, strengthening Norrköping's unique identity and celebrating the area's future environmental resilience. The public realm design offers excellent active transport environments and promotes social cohesion through lively meeting spaces for residents, visitors, and travellers.
High quality & Sustainable urban design
Sustainability is a driving force, evident in the low carbon building design approach focussed on efficient use and material choices, incorporation of green & blue infrastructure and passive systems. A holistic approach to sustainability creates a green, resilient and inviting neighbourhood.
Key moves
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Compact transport zone:
— Optimises activation & safety of the viaduct zone
— Efficient transport & interchange functions
— Releases land for public realm & development
— Optimises clarity of wayfinding & functional zones
— Adaptable for future travel needs
Prioritised public realm quality:
— Minimises transport footprint open to sky
— Optimises landscaping & biodiversity
— Creates safe and attractive permeable routes
— Offers variety of spaces for urban interest & character
— Optimises access to sunlight & space for active uses
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Attractive & active groundplane:
— Minimises inactive street edges
— Prioritises safe pedestrian routes
— Enhances diversity of commercial space offer
— Maximises utilisation of the new viaduct structure
— Acts as a connector from heritage centre to the north
Weaving Norrköping into the future:
— Meets future growth objectives
— Creates a strong identity, expanding the city with a sequence of spaces, each with unique character and identity
— Extends the city footprint with new uses & spaces
— Enhances existing city characteristics
A Vibrant Place
The central area of Södra Butängen serves as the gateway to the city for visitors, the first point of arrival to Norrköping, and a vibrant place for the community.
An attractive and sustainable place:
A welcoming sustainable place to live, work, as well as a destination where people spend time together.
It feels lively, well-connected, and there is plenty to do. The public realm takes centre stage, defined by a
series of connected spaces and squares, lined with activity at street level, with its edges framed by high
quality architecture.
A sense of arrival:
Upon arriving into the city , the elevated view from the new high speed train offers a wonderful sense
of welcome, overlooking the new urban square, the Old Station and Norrköping’s historic centre and
skyline beyond.
The social heart:
The central square is a meeting place for both residents and visitors. Surrounded by workplaces,
homes, hotels, retail, food, and beverage outlets, it is the heart of the area and a natural gathering place.
The landscape is rich with greenery, spaces for activity, information, play, and room for weekly and
seasonal events.
Norrköping Central Station:
Key to unlocking the area is its vital function as the city’s main transport hub. Elegantly incorporated into the public realm to provide excellent mobility, Norrköping Central Station is easy to navigate, efficient in operation while delivering a high quality experience for all.
Identity:
Embracing water as the unifying character. The thread that connects new and old, guiding us through the area, it builds on Norrköping’s strong identity, and proudly showcases the sustainable systems embedded in this new future-focused place.
A Sustainable Place
A holistic approach to sustainability, based on Citylab principles, is a fundamental driving force and integrated into the design principles.
Mobility:
Encouraging sustainable travel modes through transport layout & prioritisation of active & publictravel. Limiting car access & including segregated, safe, heated cycle zones within whole site to promote modal shift.
Nature based systems:
Celebrating water through open stormwater drainage, temporary storage, and local reuse for landscaping, cleaning, and other purposes. Multifunctional reservoir areas capable of managing short-term flooding through design. Reduces heat island effect, provides amenity andfuture resilience. Noise-reducing, purifying plant species to enhance health and well-being for all. Building design codes for urban greenery, green façades, blue and green roofs, as well as residential comfort. Reduced heating and cooling demands by minimizing closed climate systems, utilising smartenergy systems, district heating and cooling, BIPV, thermal mass, car/bus electric charging and storage.
Socio-economics:
Development frames ‘urban rooms’ creating a sense of place, identity & belonging. Maximised and diverse development offer to capitalise on proximity to station.
1 — Old Station House — contemporary timber extension complements heritage; social hub for food, beverage, art, music, events, creating active frontage to the square.2 -— Central urban square — programmable event space, meeting, dwell, activity with water feature.
3 — Transport plaza — landscaped multi-modal interchange.
4 — Central Station — multi-modal interchange. Platform canopy design strengthens the intersection of Drottiningatan’s historic urban connector North-South and the prime mobility corridor introduced by the modern railway East-West.
5 — Green park — lush naturally landscaped space with water for play and activities associated with the school and residential areas nearby
6 — Characterful commercial buildings — facing Drottningatan and the city square. Permeable and active market hall on the ground floor.
7 — Hotel — can be connected to the Old Station House to provide accommodation.
8 — Active ground floors — including local amenities, cafés, restaurants, spill out space & outside seating areas.
9 — Pavilion — feature building creating enclosure and sheltering the square from the transport plaza. Public facilities, microretail and local information centre.
10 — Viaduct edge activation units — flexible lettable space for small industry, start-up, performance, creative, and maker
spaces, forming outward facing active frontages to the length of the viaduct structure.
11 — Formal street-wall building edge — enhancing the civic Norra promenade, stepping down in scale to frame the Old Station building.
12 — Courtyard block typologies — secondary permeability and green spaces internally. Sustainable building design codes with green & blue infrastructure.
13 — Variable building heights — to take advantage of far reaching views including Johannisborg, Matteus church and beyond.
14 — Special character buildings — urban landmarks for orientation, frontage to open spaces, and linking key urban spaces
A Place in Motion
Norrköping’s new transport hub sets a benchmark by epitomising a new model of integrated urban mobility.
Calm, efficient, easy to use, and comfortable, this high-quality multimodal interchange is a welcoming destination in its own right, seamlessly woven into the city’s urban fabric.
Compact Transport Hub:
The new railway viaduct provides an opportunity to efficiently utilise a sheltered space within its footprint. By maximising the use of the area under the tracks for transport functions, including buses and coaches, more high-quality space is unlocked outside the viaduct, improving passenger experience and safety. The viaduct provides a continuous roof housing comfortable and intuitive interchange between different modes. This key move creates a compact transport hub, concentrating footfall and activity within the railway corridor, making it feel safe and active, and therefore encouraging connectivity.
Permeable Station:
At the intersection between Drottningatan and the new viaduct, the enclosed main concourse serves as the focal point, offering comfortable customer facilities with clear visible links to all platforms. To increase ease of use, minimise conflicts, improve accessibility, interchange, and permeability, additional external circulation cores are placed along the platform lengths.
Transport Plaza:
Transport plaza is arranged to the south of the railway providing clear and intuitive route into the stationunobstructed by busy bus stops. Careful consideration is given to the layout to minimise conflicts betweenvarious modes of transportation. The entire central zone is car-free - prioritising high quality public realmfor active travel and public transport while ensuring future resilience and flexibility.
A Meeting Place for People and Nature
Humanising the structure introduced by the railway, the viaduct is seamlessly integrated into the urban fabric through edge activation and
considerate architecture.
Focus is placed on creating a neighbourhood that embodies Norrköping’s identity, with an abundance of nature and landscape
Landscape:
The public realm is inspired by the work of Eric Chambert and designed to provide distinct character and a sense of place across the network of surrounding public spaces. A wide and distinct north-south landscaped zone is established across the area, bordered by Drottninggatan. Along its length, a succession of unique character areas is developed, each serving a specific purpose to introduce diversity and link the existing city to the emerging neighbourhoods in Södra Butängen. Along its length it brings together the heritage of the Old Station House, the vibrancy of the new urban square, the functionality of the transport plaza, the accessibility of the station concourse, the serenity of the new green park, and anticipates the inclusion of the future school to the north.
Integrating Infrastructure:
Designed to create occupied city blocks with street edges, active frontages, facades, and a network of characterful routes, the infrastructure corridor is unified with the wider context. The viaduct is intentionally flanked by occupied spaces along its edges, enhancing the quality of the surrounding ground plane, safety, and the north-south transition through the viaduct to the surrounding city blocks and public realm.
A Resilient Place
A resilient and vibrant community, with a world class transport hub at its core. It encourages people to explore, visit, and spend time in the area through increased diversity in development and variety of
public spaces, facilitated by active travel and easy to use mobility systems.
With its priority strongly focused on people, an urban framework addresses infrastructure severance while also demonstrates resilience in the face of future climate and technological changes.
Choice & Capacity:
Offering a variety of public transport options, efficient and clear interchange, and safe and pleasant walking routes, station is planned to accommodate future capacity increase and evolution in travel technology and trends. Beyond the station, the framework establishes a strong identity through a network of healthy streets and spaces, allowing the surrounding development to be planned and phased in response to future growth demands.
Flexibility & Adaptability:
Areas have been designed with both present functionality and future adaptability in mind. For instance, private car parking and drop-off facilities are located peripherally, with priority given to public transport and pedestrian environment in the centre. Nonetheless, access to the road system remains convenient, and car parking zones are easily adjustable for potential charging stations, shared transport hubs, or additional bicycle parking in the future.
Climate & Environment:
A diverse array of routes and a pedestrian-friendly environment simplify navigation, establishing crucial connections between various spaces and facilities at key nodes. This encourages walking and cycling, reducing reliance on cars. Human comfort underpins the design by providing shelter, covered routes & dwell spaces, enclosed interchange, and bike parking facilities. Optimising natural daylight penetration to reduce energy use while creating inviting spaces. The management of storm water is showcased through a variety of feature and nature-based systems. Rainwater is collected, purified, infiltrated, or reused on-site, intentionally allowing rainwater to form ponds and flow through open natural swales and channels. Additionally, sustainable buildings and landscape codes are implemented to incorporate passive systems, enhance biodiversity, and mitigate the heat island effect