Växjö (SE)

Inhabited milieu's challenges

Växjö is the commercial and cultural centre of the region. The fires inVäxjö’s history redefined and still imprints the cityscape. The grid city that was established after the first fire is today a national interest. The project site is today a hospital area with buildings from the 20th century. 2027 the hospital will be moved to a new location west of the city centre. Left at site will be many square meters of buildings with no function, but with its very central location it has the possibility to develop Växjö towards future. The project site lies within the grid city’s spread but does not follow its structure. The buildings originating from the 1960s and 1980s diverge from the city’s scale and form a barrier. They are in close proximity to the historical and commercial centre.
The material values. The existing situation presents a great building volume. Reused and reformed this can give the new area interesting traces. It is important to asses what is not valuable to keep or reuse.
The cultural values that imprints the project site lies mainly outside the same, that is the historical centre, its buildings and coherent grid structure. The care for these values will mainly be about establishing a relationship with the rest of the city’s structure.
The symbolical value of “care” in the city, that the presence of the hospital gives.When that function is moved out of central Växjö, new dynamics are needed. New meeting places, living ground floors and activities need to be added, as it is an important aspect of “care” to enable people’s social needs.
The natural values that characterize the city,surrounds the project site. The direct proximity of Växjösjön, the promenade along it and the large Strandbjörket park provide a place with great opportunity to shape the meeting between the urban grid city and its strong natural values.
The building tradition in Växjö is strongly linked to the city’s location in the forested landscape. This is not the case in the hospital area, but the addition may create connections to the region through the use of wood as a building material.

Questions to the competitors

The competition task is to investigate how the structure within the hospital block can be developed to create better connections with the rest of the city, how the existing buildings or their material can be transformed or reused, and also to suggest a new programmatic content for the site.
The buildings don’t have an obvious purpose or value once the hospital has moved, but the option to demolish them stands againstVäxjö’s sustainability policy where the city has a high ecological ambition. The municipality wants suggestions to a new building structure as well as a transformation and reuse of the site, its buildings and possibly their material. It is up to the proposer to suggest how to open up the building structures, connect them to the city grid and the surroundings.
Examples of activities within the area are: cultural activities, performing arts centre, activities linked to the campus, association life, culture, innovation, health centre, sales hall, preschool, congress hall and library (for children). The parts of the area facing the promenade and the park need special activation.
Since the transformation of the block will be a long rebuilding process in a central part of the city, it is important to suggest how the area can be attractive already early in that process.
The proposals will form the basis for citizen dialogues and the development of a planning program for the area. Priority is given to new construction with the least climate impact.