Project update: Glæshus Tower
Notes from the first three months of design work on the studio’s largest commission, after winning the invited competition in Malmö.
By Studio
Glæshus Tower came to us through an invited competition in late February, four weeks after the studio opened. The brief was twelve storeys of workspace on a corner site in central Malmö, with stepped terraces facing south. We submitted in April, and were told the news on a Friday afternoon over a poor phone line.
First decisions: brass, glass, winter sun
The first sketches are about the cladding. We are testing brushed brass mullions against low-iron glass, with samples sitting on the window sill in the studio so that we can watch them through a week of weather. The brass we are after is a warm grey-pink that the foundry warned us about but no sample has yet properly shown.
Stepped terraces, in cardboard
The geometry of the stepped terraces is being set by a 1:50 cardboard model held up to the courtyard sky every afternoon between two and four. The steps will not be readable until the building is occupied in 2028, but we can already feel the angle of light they are made for.
- Concept design: in progress, to be issued mid-summer.
- Cladding studies: brass and glass mock-ups under way in the studio.
- Terrace geometry: 1:50 cardboard models, week eleven.
- Anticipated handover: late autumn 2028.
