OMNIPLAN is an architect and project management company, with a particular focus on sustainability, construction teams, self-developed projects, and specialist projects, both within and outside Sweden. We find out more in the wake of the firm being recognised in the Design & Build Awards 2022.
A small but versatile company, OMNIPLAN focuses on ecological, economic, social, and spatial awareness and is a leader in the development of building communities in Sweden. It has been responsible for some of the country’s pioneering projects in innovative timber construction.
“We are often the client’s advisor and even develop our own projects,” further explains Owner, Staffan Schartner. “When we’re not running our own projects, we prefer to work with construction teams or developers who are interested in the building and not just the financial outcome.”
Ever since the company’s beginning, OMNIPLAN has often worked with special projects including a long line of Swedish embassies around the world, with large general consulting assignments but also with small projects such as the floating preschool. More recently, it has been responsible for carrying out the project of getting Sweden’s pavilion at the world exhibition in Dubai 2020 built.
With regards to residential buildings, OMNIPLAN believes that cooperative, non-commercial construction plays an important role in the economic and social sustainability of society. There are examples from many cities throughout central Europe, as well as its own projects, pointing towards a superior social life within and around co-housing projects.
“These buildings are inhabited by people showing responsibility in how they build and live, they contribute with small scale diversity, lower living cost, integration, and many other virtues,” Staffan elaborates. “We are focused on advising co-building groups in all aspects around their projects.”
Within the construction industry there have been numerous challenges of late, however perhaps the most important is its enormous carbon footprint. Worldwide around 40% of carbon dioxide emissions are related to construction and its products (buildings) with the two main culprits being steel and concrete.
For construction to be sustainable, it must create environments that people thrive in. In addition, it must be free of toxins, neither in its creation nor in its use must it increase the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and it must not cause waste that cannot be recycled.
OMNIPLAN has, in one of its most recent projects, shown how a large, multistorey structure can be erected completely without concrete and structural steel and this is now the face of the future, with OMNIPLAN pioneering the way.
“For the future, OMNIPLAN will increasingly develop projects showing the path to a more sustainable construction industry and more attractive cities,” Staffan states. “OMNIPLAN wants to push the boundaries of sustainable construction with each new project.”
Recently, OMNIPLAN gained recognition in the Design & Build Awards 2022 and was titled with the prestigious accolade of Most Sustainable Architecture and Project Management Practice 2022 – Stockholm, and it’s safe to say that the future of the company is looking very bright indeed, or should we say, very ‘green’!
For business enquiries, contact Staffan Schartner from OMNIPLAN on their website – www.omniplan.se
