Arkemi co-authors CLT guide in collaboration with Svenskt Trä

How to CLT, our research project concerning the early design of buildings constructed with Cross Laminated Timber, has caught the interest of the Swedish forest industry. In collaboration with Tomas Alsmarker (Svenskt Trä) and with the support of CLT-producers Martinsons, Setra and Södra we have now co-authored a CLT guide for the early stages, to be distributed for free by Svenskt Trä.

The publication guides you through important considerations, in both words and images, for the early stages of designing and shaping a building using CLT. It gives insight into various building systems, their advantages and disadvantages, and when they are best suited. It provides general guidelines for dimensions and thicknesses, as well as the construction of walls, roofs, and floors. You will also find tips on key aspects to consider for plumbing installations for water, heating, and sanitation, stabilization against horizontal wind loads, and the design of the ground floor and foundation. Furthermore it presents examples of possibilities and limitations related to construction, architecture, and production.

Download or order the publication "Guide för KL-trä i tidiga skeden" through Svenskt Träs website. For more information regarding Arkemis CLT-research and to download the design tools we have developed, visit the How to CLT-webpage.

How to CLT 3.0 - Collaborating with CLT

Thanks to funding by ARQ and Stockholms Byggnadsförening, and with support from Svenskt Trä, we have once again made an update to our research project How to CLT! In a new chapter of our CLT handbook, we propose 6 principles for a closer collaboration between the consultants that we believe will foster innovation, architectural quality and efficiency when working with CLT. Furthermore, our Grasshopper definition has been updated with additional functionality and the possibility to work with more complex volumes.

Ndarugu CLT-prototype building raised in Kenya

All the way back in 2019 we were asked by Arvet Trä to explore how a modular CLT-system could be employed to imagine a densely built yet highly qualitative urban fabric for students in Kenya. The result was Ndarugu Student City, a scheme involving everything from the design of the individual module to the urban planning. We are now excited to announce that a prototype building made up of four of the modules has been raised on site in Kenya!

Arkemi co-authors CLT guide in collaboration with Svenskt Trä

Arkemi takes part in MANI-FEST

In september 2023 the office travelled to Malmö for the launch weekend of MANI-FEST, an exhibition and publication by SPARK, where 15 young Swedish architects were invited to craft their own manifestos. The weekend featured a series of roundtable discussions, including one themed "a rejection of the present age", in which Kayrokh participated.

Key Lessons of Reuse

If you haven’t heard yet, reuse is the new use. An increasing number of architects and contractors are opting to incorporate second-hand elements over newly produced alternatives. Reclaiming building materials was the norm for centuries because of how resource efficient the practice is. Somewhere along the way, however, this stopped being standard practice in modern societies.