Key benefits of using timber in Sara Culture Centre are:
• Reduced emissions from material production and transports as compared to a traditional steel and concrete solution.
• Carbon storage during the life cycle of the building.
• The structure is visible from within the building (not covered in gypsum) ensuring a high-quality indoor climate and giving warmth to the spaces.
• Timber construction allows for a high rate of prefabrication.
• The columns, beams, slabs, and walls of the culture center are prefabricated in a local factory and quickly assembled on site.
• Hotel rooms are prefabricated as 3D-modules complete with bathrooms, installations, and finishes.
• Factory prefabrication in a controlled indoor environment allows for higher accuracy and better working conditions.
• Prefabricated elements are transported on site in a "just-intime"- manner and assembled, minimizing noise and disturbance.
• Construction time on site is reduced, minimizing the impact on neighbors, commerce and passers-by.
• Reduced construction time results in lower costs, compensating for the high level of innovation.
Sara is composed of timber volumes of varying scale and transparency combined to give a human scale at street level with lower volumes towards narrow streets, staggering up to the landmark hotel facing the main square. Public areas are accessible from the attractive pedestrian areas, and backstage workshops are also made visible to celebrate the craft behind the creative process, thus vitalizing all surrounding streets.
Facades at street level feature natural wood that will age over time, the timber structure of the high-rise is visible through a double-skin facade. The sustainability concept aims to highlight timber as a sustainable material. Hybrid ventilation, mobile sunshades and high efficiency envelopes allow for great transparency, showing the timber structure from close and afar.