A brutalist water tower was built in the town of Varberg, Sweden. The new structure was created due to the inefficiency of the old tower from the 1960s. Instead of building a traditional soaring tower, the Swedes decided to play with its form. They invited the experienced architectural firm White Arkitekter to design the structure.
The old water infrastructure was already inefficient. The town of Varberg has been growing intensively in recent years and its population has tripled to 35,000 in the last 60 years. The coastal town, looking for a solution to the problem, decided to build a new water tower.
Våga, a wave-shaped water tower, was cast in rough concrete and placed on a small hill. The structure has the unusual form of a long and narrow rectangle supported by nine slender pillars. Its distinctive features are the grooves, subtle curves intended to resemble sea waves. The Swedish water tower differs significantly from traditional cylindrical towers.
The construction of the tower was already decided upon in 2017, when the city’s water utility Vivab, in cooperation with the municipality, invited three architectural firms to submit proposals for a new water tower with increased capacity. The new tower was not only to replace the old one, but also to become a landmark symbolising the importance of water to the city. The task was entrusted to the White Arkitekter studio.
Våga makes a powerful impression from afar, but it can also be admired up close. ‘Our ambition was to design a building that would last for hundreds of years without ever losing its beauty,’ says Agnes Orstadius, architect at White Arkitekter.
Våga Tower, located on Bastekullen Hill in Träslöv, has already been commissioned. Våga is 187 metres long and only nine metres wide. The water reservoir rests on nine pillars. A lift and stairs have been built in this central one.
All of these elements – the slender shape, the wave motif, the concave façade and the play of light and shadow – mean that the tower is perceived differently depending on the observation point and the time of day. This creates a dynamic quality that ensures that the tower never ceases to surprise,” says Per Hultcrantz, chief architect at White Arkitekter.
The westernmost part of the tower provides a natural vantage point from which visitors can see the seashore. After consultation with the city’s environmentalist Varberg, the landscape around the tower was shaped to look as natural as possible. Field flowers have been planted under the tower.
photos: Anna Kristinsdóttir, Joacim Winqvist
design: White Arkitekter
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