elding oscarson builds sweeping visualization dome as museum extension in stockholm

step inside widsome stockholm by elding oscarson

Architecture practice Elding Oscarson completes the extension of the National Swedish Museum of Technology, housing a visualization dome, a spherical space where visualization technology achieves an immersive audiovisual experience, along with a café and an exhibition hall. The Wisdome Stockholm splices together museum functions around an unused courtyard, and though the dome function is tall, the addition is sensitive to the vaulted hall and lower buildings defining the courtyard today. Conventionally, the program would generate a low volume with a protruding dome, but to create a strong interior space as well as a telling exterior form, the dome is given a focal position under a free form timber structure. The roof mediates between the tall arch and the low facades of the one-story building, spanning 26 x 48 meters across.

Wisdome Stockholm | all images © Mikael Olsson

a timber gridshell structure crowns the immersive interiors

The resulting design at the National Swedish Museum of Technology by Elding Oscarson generates an overwhelming interior space, while the oddly vaulted exterior communicates a unique function. The gridshell structure is constructed from flat standard Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) panels. ‘This has never been done before and has required great commitment from everyone involved. Architecturally and technologically material properties, and the potential of timber construction, is explored. Sustainable construction should include experimental projects, whose benefits are well into the future and are perhaps more geared towards innovation, than more acutely applicable timber solutions. In all technological leaps, research that pushes boundaries have been pivotal,’ share the architects. 

the project is part of an extension of the National Swedish Museum of Technology

Elding Oscarson collaboratorated with a dedicated team of engineers and contractors for the construction and extension process: Oljibe (main contractor), Blumer Lehmann (contractor timber structure), Florian Kosche / DIFK (structural engineer lead), SJB Kempter Fitze and Hermann Blumer / Creation Holz (structural engineer timber structure). Wisdome Stockholm opened to the public in December 2023.

splicing together museum functions around an unused courtyard

the gridshell structure is constructed from flat standard Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) panels.

Elding Oscarson generates an overwhelming interior space

the dome offers an immersive audiovisual experience

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project info:

name: Wisdome Stockholm

location: Museivägen 7, 115 27 Stockholm, Sweden 
architect: Elding Oscarson (here) | @eldingoscarson

client: Tekniska Museet | @tekniskamuseet

main contractor: Oljibe

contractor timber structure: Blumer Lehmann

structural engineer lead: Florian Kosche / DIFK

structural engineer timber structure: SJB Kempter Fitze and Hermann Blumer / Creation Holz 

photographer: Mikael Olsson | @mikaelolsson

building area: 1,325 sqm 

completion year: 2023 (inauguration December 5) 

visualization dome: outer diameter 22 m, height 12 m, number of seats 100

roof structure: gridshell 5×5 layers of 31 mm LVL

free span of roof: about 25 x 48 meter.

country of manufacture CLT and LVL: Sweden and Finland

material treatment and development: Sweden and Switzerland

transports: volume efficiency through flat packages to the construction site

construction of timber structure: 6 months, 3 – 5 people

stored CO2 in structure: totally 677 metric tonnes

regrowth time of used timber for structure: 0,02 hours

construction method: Free form, timber gridshell of LVL, massive columns of LVL with concealed steel tension bars, foundation of ‘green’ concrete. Dome and café volume of self supportive timber structures of CLT