Are Skyscrapers Too Tall? : The Case of Southern Stockholm

Abstract: The number of skyscrapers are increasing rapidly across the world. Interest is growing considerably in places such as Asia and Europe. Because of their height skyscrapers have a strong symbolic value and can help a city attract interest. In Sweden the number of skyscraper projects have also seen a significant increase, though relatively few of them have eventually been built. One of the most spectacular examples were the two Tellus Towers that were planned in southern Stockholm. The highest tower would have been the highest residential building in all of Scandinavia. The project was canceled by the municipality because of its visual impact over areas considered to be of national interest as well as concern over shadows. Instead a new project was suggested consisting of seven smaller high rise buildings. The aim of this thesis is to examine whether groups of smaller high rise buildings have benefits over major skyscrapers regarding visual impact and shadows, by comparing the Tellus Towers to the new project. The program ArcGIS Pro has been used to create 3D models of both projects, whereby analysis tools have been used to analyze their effects on the surrounding built area which was downloaded as 3D models from Stockholm municipality's data portal as well as OpenStreetMap based 3D models from Esri. The results reveal that the new project will cast significantly more shadows than its predecessor would have done, while having a smaller visual impact.