Rinkeby Panorama Terrace is a viewing platform overlooking Järva Field, a large recreational area for a socioeconomically vulnerable population living in northern Stockholm. The architectural environment in Rinkeby is typical of the 1970s, the era in which the district was developed, marked by industrially produced housing and poor-quality public space. To the east a four-lane highway separates central Rinkeby from Järva Field. In 2007, a political vision led to efforts to improve the social and environmental quality of the municipality. These efforts included burying the highway in a tunnel and reestablishing a comfortable connection between the housing areas and the recreational field above the road.
The Panorama Terrace occupies a dramatic position on the site and is linked to the field by a sloping promenade, named The Pendente after the Italian term for a slope. The viewing platform on the crest of the terrace is designed to resemble a large wooden lamp. The eight-meter-high angled walls are constructed of planks with spaces between them that emit the light generated within. The promenade is planted with Russian olives (Elaeagnus angustifolia) and articulated by eight stone sculptures, carefully positioned in the landscape.
The project aimed to create a place of high experiential quality and to connect Rinkeby with the adjacent suburbs, a strategy intended to increase social integration. This is one of those instances when landscape architecture makes a political and social difference.
Rinkeby Panorama Terrace, Stockholm, Sweden
Landscape architect: Thorbjörn Andersson @ Sweco Architects
Design team: PeGe Hillinge, Anna Norén, Joel Lundqvist, Fredrik Toller, Catrin Jonsson, Staffan Sundström, Ronny Brox, Alexander Cederroth (lighting), Marco Cueva (sculpture)
Area: 4,000 square meters
Opened: 2017
SWECO Architects
P.O. Box 17920
SE- 118 95 Stockholm, Sweden
Telephone +46 8 522 952 00
For further information contact
Thorbjörn Andersson, Sweco Architects
