Finntorp

Along Gamla Värmdövägen, new development is planned at Finntorp Centrum. The project is grounded in classic urban design principles, defining the street with a clearly articulated and active ground floor. The two building volumes, through their form and program, reinforce the spatial sequences that create entrances to Finntorp via their gable ends. These gables become the “faces” encountered when arriving from both the city and Nacka C, following the visual breaks created by the cemetery and the park around the Setterwall Villa.

The two brick volumes are slightly angled, following the landscape’s contour lines and the established facades of the surrounding buildings. These angles, along with the buildings’ ends, respond to the movement patterns between Finntorp C and the traffic interchange, upper Finntorp north of the cemetery, and the connections to buses and the Saltsjöbanan railway along Värmdövägen.

The placement and design of the buildings create three smaller public spaces around their gables—spaces that, thanks to their intimate scale and careful adaptation to their specific conditions, do not compete with the main square at Finntorp C. At the pedestrian bridge, the western building bends back, and a new staircase links Finntorp C with a smaller square in front of the building toward Värmdövägen.

West of the bridge, the staircase transitions into stepped terraces built in brick, natural stone, and vegetation. This becomes a new seating and meeting area in the park, sheltered behind the existing balustrade (wall), with views southward toward the lake and toward the Setterwall Villa across the park. A restaurant on the western building’s ground floor, and on the level above, helps activate the staircase, the stepped terraces, and the square facing Värmdövägen.

A new large tree adds greenery to the space in front of the building by the restaurant, where the staircase lands. The relationship to the cemetery is shaped by a space beneath an existing oak tree, where a circular paved area defines a slightly elevated spot along the path leading up to the church. A small venue—such as a café—could become a place to conclude a visit to the church or wait for a friend or a bus. Between the gables leading up to Finntorp C new trees are planted.