Urban Concept
This proposal for the Sundsvall Performing Arts Theater is based on the creation of a radically contemporary urban space to revitalize the Sundsvall waterfront. While the competition brief calls for the new building to be oriented to allow for a plaza facing the development zone to the west, our scheme consciously orients the plaza to the oceanfront. This plaza is characterized by trees, landscaped topography, and water features which create a microclimate and protect the space from the noise produced by the E4 roadway.
The new building is connected to the existing Kultur Maganiset via its glass atrium, which becomes the main entry for the new building. The two buildings become one complex, although they have radically different architectural sensibilities. While the existing building speaks to the cultural and architectural history of Sundvall, the new building is a distinctly contemporary expression of structure, space, and atmosphere.

Topological Geometry
The shell of the building is based on topological torus geometry. It was generated by stretching a soft volume in response to environmental conditions. An architectural ‘desiring’ of the oceanfront and riverfront generated two smooth protrusions in the volume to the north and east. These cantilever out of the building allowing unobstructed views out over the E4 roadway to the Baltic Sea.

Other areas of the shell are pushed inward, spatially drawing the outside into the interior. These involutions interconnect on the interior of the building, creating structural ‘columns’ in the space. They also operate as building circulation, connecting the performing arts theaters to the foyer on main and balcony levels. The project becomes a continuous manifold which aligns systems of envelope, structure, and circulation.

Vector-to-Shell Structural Hybrid
The structure of the building is based on a hybrid of shell behavior, which is surface-based, and spaceframe behavior, which is vector-based. The structure adapts from an underdimensioned condition based on local geometrical and bending moment conditions. Where the building shape allows for shell behavior, the depth approaches this minimum. Where bending occurs, member depth is increased on a smooth gradient up to the maximum economical depth for a plate girder, at which point the structure delaminates to become a three dimensional vector-based spaceframe. This is a kind of structural phase change, or emergent effect, where the structural system changes in kind rather than simply in degree. It produces highly intricate and ornamental spatial conditions which can be understood qualitatively as well as quantitatively.

Based on adaptive rather than compositional logic, the cladding of the shell is also opportunistic. It was generated from the inside-out based primarily on views and ambient and direct lighting effects in the space, but also on structural performance. Clad areas of the shell resist shear forces, and so areas with high shear stresses tend to become clad. These competing criteria formed a multi-objective search which is a continuing interest of our office.