Sara Kulturhus Centre

Sara Kulturhus is a 20-story cultural center in the heart of the city, combining a theatre, museum, art gallery, public library, conference center, and hotel, and standing as one of the world's tallest timber high-rise structures.

 

 

 Figure 1. Sara Kulturhus Centre

 

The timber high-rise building consists of two main sections: the cultural center, which includes performing arts stages, a public library, an art gallery, a museum, and offices (Figure 2); and the hotel section, featuring elevator cores, 205 hotel rooms, a conference center, a gym, and a rooftop spa (Figure 3).

 

 Figure 2. Cultural centre section

 

 Figure 3. Hotel section

 

The cultural center features long spans due to the building program, achieved using a timber-steel composite Pratt truss. In this design, the verticals and top chord are under compression, while the diagonals and lower chord are under tension. Using timber for the tension members would have required excessive thickness, raising concerns about strength. The chosen solution effectively addressed this challenge (Figure 4).

 

 

Figure 4. Timber-steel composite Pratt truss

 

Above the cultural staircase, there are 14m long composite Pratt trusses with 1.7m deep (Figure 5).

 

Figure 5.  Cultural staircase

All linear members, including posts and beams, are made of glulam (glue-laminated timber), while surface members, such as walls and floors, are constructed from cross-laminated timber (CLT).

 

Figure 6. CLT members 

Figure 7. Glulam members 

The hotel section consists of modular hotel rooms, each measuring 3.6 meters in width and 7.2 meters in length, with CLT cores positioned at the endpoints of the section.

 

 

Figure 8. Hotel room modules and CLT cores 

The hotel rooms are supported by a 4.7-meter-high, 32-meter-long steel space truss.

 

Figure 9. Steel space truss

 

The remaining structural members for each section of the building are presented in the following figures.

 

 

Figure 10.  Hotel modules and elevator core

 

 

Figure 11. Truss details

 

 

Figure 12. Column details

 

 Prepared by Omer Karadag. 

References

• https://archello.com/news/detail-clt-structure-of-the-sara-cultural-centre-skelleftea
• "Sara Cultural Centre, Skelleftea, Sweden - Steel Box Trusses and Tension Rods Allow Long Spans and a Timber Core". Schmitz, R. (2022). Council of Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat 2022 Steel-Timber Conference Presentation