Beautifully located next to Lake Munksjön the seven-story arts center now sits. The building is designed to be beautiful from all sides, and looks great thanks to a special transparency and shape. In October 2010 came the glittering facade of 6500 square metres of orange, white and yellow coloured glass. The glass artist Ingegerd Raman created the large glass lamp for the main foyer.
The building accommodates the Jönköping theatre, a restaurant and at the same time function as the headquarters for the regional Småland's Music & Theatre employees. The building's name, "Spira", which in English means "grow" or "aspire", reflects in the striking interior and exterior, but it should also reflect the culture's ability and power to get new ideas and experiences to emerge.
Behind the building were some of the nation's leading architects, Gert Wingårdh, Jonas Edbladand Ingrid Gunnarssonfrom Wingårdh Architects. All surfaces that are accessible to the public are characterized by space and light, decorated in natural Scandinavian materials such as pine and limestone.
Only environmentally approved construction materials were used and optimum energy efficiency has been the key word for the building. Both district heating and district cooling will be available and on the roof is 1500 square metres of solar cells to provide energy. The surplus will be distributed to buildings in the city via the local energy company Jönköping Energy’s electricity grid.
The developer, Landstingsfastigheter, has been very clear in their demands: Adjustable temperature indoors where possible and individually controlled air circulation, especially in the public areas of the building, are clearly specified. Cooperation with Sydtotal AB, which is the contractor on the air side, has been very success-fulas with the main contractor PEAB.
"This is Jönköping’s most spectacular building, and we are of course very proud to deliver our products and system solution. The most unique thing about this project for us is that we have almost our entire product range in one building", said Ulf Ekedahl.
