Stockholm is now the fastest-growing city in Europe. The densely populated Swedish capital lies on a 14-island archipelago that, with very few high-rise buildings, limited land, and a public determined to maintain the city’s old-world charm, has limited options to accommodate a growing populace. During this half decade, 2015 to 2020, the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce expects the population to increase by 11 percent, topping one million for the first time in the city’s long history. Thus Sweden’s Centre Party has commissioned local architect Anders Berensson to design a solution to the need for more real estate. Klarastaden, or “clear city,” is his newly released proposal. The mixed-use development would be built atop a strip of land near Stockholm Central Station that is currently occupied by train tracks and an expressway. Unsightly and undeveloped, the plot could be more efficiently used. Instead of building outward, the plan would densify the inner-city, reducing environmental impact and reinvigorating neighborhoods.

The mini-city would be connected by skywalks.

The tracks would be covered with a tunnel-like structure, on top of which Berensson imagines a few hundred high-rises. He estimates that 5,800 new apartments will be created, along with more than 1.5 million square meters of office space and 270 new shops. Berensson designed his buildings at different heights, maximizing sunlight, a necessity at Stockholm’s latitude. The structures feature verdant rooftops linked by sloped skyways, creating a web of public green space.

Rooftops would provide public green space.

Berensson's proposal adds density to a city in desperate need of square footage, but it does so within an acceptably classic framework. Should Klarastaden be approved, construction may start as early as 2018.

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