In southern Stockholm, a unique art installation created with Ruukki’s sandwich facade panels entrances the viewer. Together with artist, Jesper Nyrén, Ruukki’s colourful facade on the new Sthlm 04 building gives a colourful backdrop to the public spaces that surround it. 

Sthlm New is a new suburb in the west side of Hammarby Sjöstad. With easy access to the city’s tramlines, subway, busses and ferry plus the Södra Länken ring road on its doorstep, the development has all the potential to be one of Stockholm’s key creative business hubs. As well as the hotels, offices, amenities and sky bar, the Gatun Arkitekter-designed Sthlm 04 sits as one of the area’s new architectural gems. 

As well as offices, a restaurant and spectacular rooftop terrace, Sthlm 04 has 12,000 m²  of space split across its eight floors with companies eagerly awaiting the final quarter of 2020 when they can move in to their new address. 

The development of the new suburb is happening in stages, and a new building will be adjoined to Sthlm 04 in due course. While its developers Skanska wait to break ground on the sister building, the decision was made to bring the side of Sthlm 04 to life. A way to lift the otherwise drab concrete facade and visually and creatively point to the area’s future. 

Entitled Point of View, the vast 18 x 33m piece covers the entire wall and uses the Ruukki Expression energy-saving facade panels from Ruukki. Artist Jesper Nyrén began work on the colourful facade in July, 2020 and it can now be enjoyed in its entirety. 

”The abstract image is based on a photograph of a glass prism taken against a landscape. The light reflects within the prism’s facets and disrupts the composition of colour and form. The piece’s title refers to the location of the work itself; an eye-catcher in the urban landscape but exploring how the art changes its point of context through shifts in light and season. It absorbs and draws in the viewer, and the prism almost becomes a substitution for our collective sight – the point where visual information from the outside world meets our consciousness,” says Nyrén. 

The artist is no stranger to the challenges of public space art, and its unique demands. Works of art that sit upon external facades need to be durable and resilient to the elements and seasons. And this makes material selection difficult to say the least. As well as being hard-wearing and robust, the material must give the artist the colour range and surface tactility required by the specific piece of art. Ruukki’s sandwich panels proved to be an excellent material to bring the piece to the public. At Ruukki’s factory in Finland, work began, producing the many panels needed in the different lengths and shapes. The pieces were then foiled with Nyrén’s image, which ensures a better quality and safer conditions for mounting the facade; reducing the risk of error during installation and time spent on site in adverse conditions. When the panels were completed, they took a short journey to Stockholm and were installed swiftly and easily. 

”The challenge is to bring together the different components in the right order during the installation, but we’ve done many similar projects. It’s a case of having the right preparation and being methodical and patient. We’ve a good routine these days,” says Martin Eriksson, business manager at Ruukki in Sweden. 

”Sometimes, when I’m involved in a project like this, there can be issues when it comes to the mounting and installation – getting the thing up there on the wall takes a huge amount of planning. The process with Ruukki was very smooth though, and I am delighted with the result,” notes Nyrén. 

Jesper Nyrén’s artwork Point of View, created using Ruukki’s sandwich boards can be experienced at Hammarbybacken 31 in Hammarby Sjöstad, Stockholm.