Here’s a look at some of the urban design marvels on show at H22 City Expo

Helsingborg shows the creative power of architecture

The start of the H22 City Expo is drawing near, and the host city of Helsingborg is already eager to show off some of its creative ideas in the field of urban design and architecture. The more-than-a-month long event features a rich programme of exhibitions, seminars, and guided tours, but the organizers are not relying only on words to impress the visitors.

We’ve decided to show you some of the architectural installations that have been taking shape in recent months and which give a tangible dimension to the world of ideas. There’s a bit of everything – from smart design to sustainable material choices.

Experience the construction technology of tomorrow

Oceanhamnen – A circular district in the making: The climate-smart infrastructure of the future is being created and tested on a large scale in Helsingborg. Circular thinking features strongly in Oceanhamnen with RecoLab, Helsingborg’s hypermodern “recovery lab”, which recycles resources from wastewater and food waste sorted at the source in Oceanhamnen’s properties. A guided tour takes you from the district’s residential properties straight into RecoLab’s unique circular development facility where the separated waste is processed and recycled.

RecoLab has been designed as the cornerstone of a circular district. Source: H22 City Expo

Helsingborg’s majestic water tower – A new architectural landmark in Sweden: One of Sweden’s most esteemed living architects, Gert Wingårdh, and his team have created Helsingborg’s new water tower. The water tower won the Kasper Salin Prize in 2022, Sweden’s most prestigious architectural.

Instead of a compact tower, Wingårdh’s team opens it up by having the outer structure create space on the inside, surrounded by a broad, elevated ring that is ninety metres in diameter. During H22 City Expo, twenty-four different sound channels will play the music of water from the spot-lit pillars, composed by Åke Parmerud and performed by the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra.

The water tower is taking shape. Source: H22 City Expo

Skogen – An architectural experiment in nature: Ikea has invited young, creative minds from across the globe to show how they experience and inhabit nature and how they have reconnected with nature in new ways.

Four major architecture and design universities from around the world, ECAL - Switzerland, MIT - Boston, the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen, and Ingvar Kamprad Design Centre, Lund University, explore these issues in an experimental space called ‘Skogen’ (Swedish for ‘forest’), in Oceanhamnen. The three finalists in a global design competition will also see their affordable and sustainable nature dwellings come to life in Skogen.

Skogen integrates wood into the urban design. Source: H22 City Expo

Everyone wants an equal city, yet we continue to build cities as we have always done. There is a gap between how we want to work with urban planning and how we actually work. In order to create a secure urban environment in which everyone feels seen, heard, and welcome, there is a need for active work with equality in the public space.

Helsingborg’s answer to this is the proposed People’s Walk – A laneway of equality, where visitors can join in designing a safe urban laneway in Ocenhamnen.  For instance, many people who live in that district are 67 or older. A lot of people of this age use the city less during the evening. Extra attention is therefore being paid to their views when developing this project. 

From 30 May to 3 July 2022, the City of Helsingborg invites the world to H22 City Expo – a 35-day international event to showcase, test, and co-create smart solutions that improve life in the city.