The Lilla Bommen, commonly referred to as Läppstiftet (lit. 'The lipstick'), is an 86 m (282 ft), 22-floor building housing office, networking and restaurant spaces in Gothenburg, Sweden, named after the surrounding location of Lilla Bommen. The building's distinct post-modern architectural style, popularly referred to as "The Lipstick" due to its distinctive red-and-white colour schematic, was erected on the banks of Göta älv in 1989 by Skanska Property West AB. The 32000 sqm office space which houses over 900 office workers, is a popular tourist destination for its top-floor lookout, Götheborgs Utkiken and restaurants such as the Restuarang Läppstiftet, has contributed to the landmark status of the building in the Central Gothenburg skyline. The waterways of the area which link to the Kattegat Strait, the North Sea and the Atlantic, historically formed Gothenburg into a significant shipping centre as Sweden's principal seaport. The historical boom-arms dating from the 1600s which protected the important trading routes of the area are reflected in the name Lilla Bommen (Little Boom in English). These aspects tied into Swedish-British designer Ralph Erskine's desire to embody the history and "improve human relations" to the area through his design of the Läppstiftet. The design of the Lilla Bommen faced early negative response by the Swedish public, contributed in large part by traditional European architectural styles that generally disincentivised multi-storey office building designs and tall skyscrapers in European cityscapes. Furthermore, additional difficulties arose in the design and construction process due to the unstable foundation and location of the structure placed alongside waterways. The use of piling construction was a prominent feature of the new project that was used to support the heavy loads to overcome the issues regarding inundation and ground settlement of the waterfront location.
Site/location – prior existing construction
The Lilla Bommen building is located in central Gothenburg and overlooks the Göta älv directly at the waterfront. The immediate area around the Lilla Bommen building site historically formed a key central district of Gothenburg with a major infrastructural focal point upon an enclosed ring road around the city square. At the centre point of this city square was the Statue Poseidon by Carl Milles, which was surrounded by major residential and commercial areas including museums, theatres and the Nord Stad Parking structure. The Nord Stad parking garage continued to link with multiple buildings containing further housing, retail, hotel, and arcade areas that further contribute to the infrastructure within the Lilla Bommen area.
Further discussed within Robert Trancik's case study in his text "Finding Lost Space", is the infill construction that restored the large area of which the Lillla Bommen building presides today. The prior highway interchange that predominated the large area that new infrastructure at the waterfront of the Göta Canal was remodelled to accommodate the reclamation of unused "Lost space" as referred to by Transik. The area named the Järntorget (The Iron Square), composed largely of roadwork was the result of infill and highway restructuring in the area, aimed at improving the waterfront aspect of the Lilla Bommen region. The historical redevelopment of the Järntorget region acted as the foundation for which the Lilla Bommen building was constructed allowing for the reinstatement of the inner-city to waterfront region as its prominent modern day commercial and residential district.
Design history The Lilla Bommen building was a part of a city initiative in the 1980s aimed at restoring the connection to the city's central waterfront, the Göta Canal. The proposals sought to create a balanced central square that provided both functional areas for shops and offices, and open public places that created cohesion to the waterfronts of the city that had been lost by prior existing infrastructure. The Lilla Bommen building stands distinctive from Sweden's "groundscraper" traditional office buildings, which became popularised in urban and suburban areas of Sweden's cities owing to the lack of space constraints of the areas.
The project was a joint initiative between the Skanska Group and principal architect Ralph Erskine. The Skanska Group which assumed responsibility over the construction of the project, that began construction processes in 1986, also took management responsibility in renovating pre-existing infrastructure in the area, as well as financing the purchase of the land on which the new structure could be built. Ralph Erskine, a Swedish-British architect, assumed the role of principal architect and was responsible for the distinctive design of the Läppstiftet. Erskine became recognised for his core focuses upon "user participation" and "environmental compatibility" with design principles based upon contrasts between different materials in the construction which are all prominent aspects in the distinctive design of the Lilla Bommen building.
The traditional designs of Swedish office spaces are characterised by their narrow floor plans. This design is usually composed of single-corridor plans attached to workspaces that outlook the facades of each side of the construction. As discussed within Juriaan van Meel's The European Office, the limitations of Sweden's characteristic linear office spaces is within the inefficient ratio between building façade sizes compared to the functional office space inside the building. Erskine overcame cost limitations that pervaded the linear-office design, through a high functionality, flexible, low-maintenance design that enabled an increased floor space by over 20%. Another aspect of the Lilla Bommen's distinct design was its asymmetrical structure that was implemented to achieve height pre-requisites of the construction; the building's height was intended to improve harmonization with both the waterfront nature of the property, as well as existing skyscrapers in the area, including but not limited to the Gasklockan, and Hotell Gothia.
Initial response
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