Sydstaden Strand

4 min readNov 22, 2019

Concepts for Södertälje Syd

The area around Södertälje Syd station is an underutilised prime location with some of the best communication opportunities in the whole Stockholm region.

The proposal is for a small, but tall and very dense business complex that will be the hub along the axis Uppsala-Arlanda-Stockholm-Södertälje Syd-Skavsta-Norrköping-Linköping. It will have a direct connection to the railway station and the suggested Sydporten BRT station, underground parking and easy access to Södertälje Syd trafikplats/E4.

The nearby waterfront area should be developed as well, to form a recreational complement to the station city, and to connect the nearby areas into a whole.

The existing light warehouse/wharf/industrial construction would have to be shifted inland. A suggestion is to construct a canal zone partly to increase the value of the land and partly to support the light industry. The goal is to combine the light industrial zone and the infrastructure zone into one, within the safety zones.

Transit City

There is a significant height differential of around 40 meters near the station building, dividing the area into an upper and lower section.

This concept proposes two (plus/minus one) high rises in the lower section, as the core of a transport-oriented business area linked to the station, and with a public accessible elevator between the two sections.

The upper parts of the buildings, particularly the floors above the station, would have people-oriented services, hotel, serviced apartments, conference services, restaurants. The lower parts of the building would be geared towards functions, with offices in the middle (and closest to the station). These buildings would in practice have two ground levels, and connect the upper and lower sections into a whole.

The station area (transport oriented)
The high rises (commercial/mixed)
The upper section (mixed)
The lower section (commercial/mixed)
The waterfront (recreational/mixed)
Boat storage, wharf (light industrial)

Kanalbyn

One option is to create a few fairly short artificial canals during reconstruction. In part to increase the total recreational and real estate value of the area, in part to move the light industry and warehouses back from the waterfront to the rail bridge area.

A few examples from outside Södertälje:

Trosa

The nearby tourist resort has “canalized” their stream.

Shanghai

This is one project in the outskirts of Shanghai, one that could be characterised as “the Chinese idea of the American idea of Venice”

For other examples of Venice-like canals try Venice, California and Venice, Italy. Or Stockholm. Or Karlstad.

Or Copenhagen

Wharves

Infrastructure

A site with one canal, two motorways, two ports, and several railway lines is as connected as can be, but all this infrastructure comes at a cost. The areas dedicated to infrastructure, and the noise and risk they inflict on the environment makes this prime location a complicated site.

Safety zones

The map adds 50m safety zones around the infrastructure. Safety applies both ways, both the risk of an accident from vehicles on road or rail or canal on the environment and the risk built-up areas and activity can pose to the critical infrastructure must be considered.

Today most of the area in the safety zone is unused or parking lots, which makes sense when the land has low value. This proposal assumes that these dual concerns can be handled, otherwise the available area will be sharply reduced.