This eight-story building features 67 energy-efficient apartments ranging from 1 to 3 rooms, measuring between 25 and 67 square meters. These apartments cater to single households, young adults, families with children, and retirees, offering housing options for various stages of life.

Placemaking

The Tallkotten building is part of a wider placemaking scheme that brings together several developers, including Gavlegårdarna, NCC, PEAB, Riksbyggen, and K2A, to create a mixed housing area with both rental and tenant-owned apartments, townhouses, and student apartments in the Godisfabriken district.

This district was originally the factory site for making medicinal lozenges, Läkerol, Ako caramel, and jelly candy, for the past 100 years and holds particular significance for the local residents who worked there as such the new street names such as Pastillplatsen, Karamellgatan, Kolabågen, and Ahlgrens Torg, reflect the area's rich history of candy production.

The sustainable, modern housing is set amongst old factory buildings that include shops, restaurants, cafés, parks, greenery, squares, and a market hall, making Godisfabriken a meeting place for both residents and visitors. A total of 750 homes are being built in the area, designed to enable a lifestyle without car ownership, encouraging cycling, carpooling, and walking.

In the same block, Pure Housing is converting the old Ahlgrenshuset warehouse into a primary school and building for a new preschool.

Inspired by the surrounding forest and nature, the facade of Tallkotten features black-tarred panels that resemble fallen pinecones with their distinct scales, adding an exciting silhouette to Gävle's cityscape.

Project details

The ground floor is adorned with ochre-yellow plaster, reminiscent of the neighboring Ahlgrensfabriken, the first candy factory in the area, which is preserved within the district.

Inside the apartments, natural wood finishes on the ceilings and several walls continue the connection to nature. Many of the apartments have French balconies with generous double doors, allowing ample natural light to flood in and creating a warm and inviting atmosphere.

This green oasis features a beautiful pergola and lush greenery, providing the perfect setting for enjoyable summer evenings and sunsets. The ground floor houses a well-equipped bicycle room and a stroller room, and residents have access to a shared vehicle pool located in the district's mobility hub.

The CLT was prefabricated into a mass timber kit of parts (Sylva™), offering numerous benefits in terms of construction efficiency and environmental sustainability.

Sustainability

The Sylva kit used in this project generated 94 tonnes of greenhouse gases (CO₂e) during manufacturing and 133 tonnes during transportation. However, compared to the 1367 tonnes of carbon dioxide that the trees removed and will store in the building, this is a relatively small fraction. The emissions avoided by using wood instead of non-renewable construction materials was 2046 tonnes CO₂e. Source: Stora Enso carbon calculator: try out our carbon calculator to see what the size of your carbon footprint would be for your project here.

The wood used in this project used the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) certified wood which ensures that the raw materials come from sustainably managed forests.

Awards

The project won Gävle's first architecture award in 2022 where the judges praised the project for its modern approach and the use of massive timber, which significantly reduced carbon emissions compared to traditional concrete construction. (Source).

Learn more

Watch a video of this project here. 

Would you like to know more about this approach to building, Sylva Talks is a valuable source of information with short explainer videos by industry experts (subtitles in SE, DE and FR).

The Sylva webpage offers in-depth information on Stora Enso's mass timber solutions, while the knowledge hub provides a wealth of resources for those seeking to deepen their understanding of sustainable construction practices. Additionally, the carbon calculator allows users to assess the environmental impact of their construction projects.