With its 150 meters, the lighthouse outside Alexandria's harbour was an impressive sight. A clear guide for sailors on their way to one of the most important cities of antiquity. Such a unique edifice that it was considered one of the seven wonders of antiquity. So why start a text about the construction of a process tower in Karlskrona by telling a story about the lighthouse outside Alexandria? Where is the connection?
When the king, Karl XI, founded Karlskrona in 1680, he put his most talented city planners and architects to work on planning and designing the new naval city. Erik Dahlbergh, one of the most well-known architects of the time, was commissioned to draw a landmark, a new belfry adjacent to the naval port. His inspiration and role model for the project became the lighthouse in Alexandria.
Today, Karlskrona is a World Heritage City. A stone's throw from the city centre, is the location of NKT's world-leading process for cable manufacturing. This process requires a new building with a unique structure and design. With a building height of 150 meters, it will be a prominent building close to the old naval city of Karlskrona.
The city's history of shipping provided early role models for the design. Lighthouses are iconic buildings with strong symbolic values. Signpost, bright and stable are words that define lighthouses. The words also describe NKT's participation in the future. A future that places high demands on high-tech and innovative solutions for rapid energy conversion.
NKT's new cable manufacturing tower is the lighthouse of the new era. A 150-meter-high concrete tower with an interior defined by structure and order for a high-tech manufacturing process.
Like all lighthouses, NKT's cable tower also has a glass prism at the top.
A prism that with its design challenges and move boundaries.
A prism that sends signals and guides.
The new tower is a high-tech lighthouse, a stable signpost to the future.
Thomas Lind, Senior Architect
AUR arkitekter AB
