One of the country’s most iconic buildings, the “Crown Prince” in Malmö, has gotten a new set of clothes! The new facade is nearly identical to the original, where 15,000 sq. m. has been covered with better insulation and new windows installed over the old ones. Approximately 2.5 million clinker tiles in five shades of blue have given Sweden’s fifth highest “skyscraper”, with its 82 meter height and 27 floors, a fresh new look!
The new facade hangs on the outside of the old one. Fittings were attached to the vertical frame walls so that we could attach vertical rails along the facade that safely and securely were used to raise each facade piece from the ground to its designated position on the building, thereby eliminating the need to lift them hanging from a crane. The wind element was thus eliminated, making the whole process much more safe.
“Our concept was specially designed and unique for this project. One of the first essential steps was to identify the right adhesive technique for the clinker tiles and make sure that they would not come loose. We consulted with adhesive expert, Thim Petersson and he was a great help. We also realized that getting all of the 1,600 facade pieces up was going to be a major challenge. Each one was around 10 sq. m. and weighed 500-700 kg. We needed to do this without requiring tenants to evacuate. The new facade elements were connected to the vertical frame because the joists weren’t strong enough,” explains Erik Stening, who worked together with Lars Bengtsson and Johan Kling at Fasadglas to develop the concept.