White Arkitekter completes sculptural water tower "that will stand for centuries"

A wave-like reservoir made of concrete and elevated on nine columns forms Våga Water Tower, which Swedish studio White Arkitekter has created in Varberg, Sweden.

Situated on a hill in the village of Träslöv, Våga Water Tower has been built to meet the increasing water demand of the municipality, which has experienced rapid population growth since the year 2000.

White Arkitekter's primary goal for the tower was to create a functional yet sculptural landmark for the area, given the visibility of its elevated site from the E6 motorway and nearby houses.

The studio said it hopes this will showcase "a new way to design water towers", which are typically cylindrical in shape, and demonstrate that infrastructure can also have aesthetic value.

"Våga holds a prominent place in the landscape, but the tower is also designed to be appreciated up close," said studio architect Agnes Orstadius.

"Our ambition was to create a structure that will stand for centuries and always remain beautiful."

White Arkitekter first revealed its design for Våga Water Tower in 2018 after winning an invited competition held by the municipal water company Vivab.

The competition called for a landmark structure that could be built entirely of concrete and hold 10,000 cubic metres of water – five times the capacity of the original tower.

White Arkitekter's design was selected for its long undulating form, which measures 187 metres in length and nine in width, and pays homage to the coastal setting of Varberg.

The studio appropriately named it Våga after the Swedish word for wave, which can also mean dare.

"The sleek, elongated form represents innovative thinking about what a water tower can be while maintaining functionality and ease of maintenance," said Vivab representative Margareta Björksund-Tuominen.

Våga Water Tower's undulating, concrete reservoir is supported by nine slender columns, with the central one slightly widened to house an elevator and staircase.

The reservoir itself is divided into eight segments each with a concave facade, designed to create decorative play of light and shadow over the day.

"All these elements – the slender shape, wave motif, concave facade and interplay of shadows – make the tower appear entirely different depending on the time of day and viewing angle," said lead architect Per Hultcrantz. "This dynamic ensures the tower never ceases to surprise."

The concrete structure was cast against form-plywood sheets to achieve a smooth finish, with all the joints deliberately and carefully aligned "for a harmonious overall impression".

This clean-cut aesthetic is furthered by plugs in the holes left from the formwork ties, which the studio said helps with "eliminating unwanted shadow effects".

Våga Water Tower sits beside an existing land plateau, which has been retained to create an accessible viewpoint of the structure, where visitors can also enjoy distant views out to sea.

Completing the project is a landscape of wildflowers, sown beneath the tower with Varberg's municipal ecologist, while the service road takes the form of a deliberately simple gravel path.

White Arkitekter was founded in 1951 in Gothenburg by Sidney White. Today it is headed up by Alexandra Hagen, who has overseen recent projects by the studio including a hyperboloid observation tower in Sweden and the regeneration of a London housing estate.

Other water towers featured on Dezeen include a mesh-covered structure supported on angular legs by V+ and Mathias Klotz's funnel-shaped reservoir in Chile.

The photography is by Anna Kristinsdóttir and the drone photography is by Joacim Winqvist.

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