The winner or the 2022 International Award for Wood Architecture is Sara Cultural Centre in Skellefteå, Sweden.

Rising to 80 metres, Sara Cultural Centre is one of the tallest wooden buildings in the world. It includes, for instance, a theatre, art gallery, museum, library, concert halls, restaurants and a hotel.

− The award is proof that here in Sweden we are capable of producing large and sustainable buildings in wood with architecture of outstanding international quality, says Alexander Nyberg, who is the editor-in-chief for the Swedish architecture magazine Trä! and a jury member for the International Award for Wood Architecture.

The building is designed by the architectural firm White Arkitekter.

− With Sara Cultural Centre, we have shown that even on a large scale, you can build in a climate-smart way, and there’s no reason to avoid sustainable solutions, says Oskar Norelius, who is a joint chief architect along with his colleague Robert Schmitz.

The aim of the International Award for Wood Architecture is to present and reward excellence in the field of wood architecture. The annual award seeks to stimulate the development of innovative architectural thinking using wood, and to establish links between countries where wood construction plays an increasingly important role.

Five European magazines specialising in wood architecture each nominated three projects from their respective countries for the competition. From Finland, the Supercell office building designed by AOR Architects made it to the final five finalists. The winner of the award was revealed at the International Wood Construction Forum in Nancy, France on 7 April 2022.

Read the article in Finnish: Kansainvälinen lehdistön puuarkkitehtuuripalkinto Ruotsiin