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TEA has been hired by Vectura Fastigheter (real estate) to design a residential care home in Sundbyberg outside Stockholm. While care provision is the main purpose of the property, the choice of materials and colouring nonetheless emphasise that this is primarily a pleasant place to live.

Tule Plaza is located on Tulegatan, a street that is undergoing extensive changes – lower speed limits, better cycle paths and more densely built areas – to bring about a more urban atmosphere. The assignment’s challenge lay in fitting the building with all its necessary functionality on to a hilly and narrow plot, as well as creating a clear link between the property and the city.

TEA designed a social room, a plaza, for joint activities, and divided the entrances across the first floors so as to move the residences higher up in the building and thereby gain space on the land. Each floor contains two units of nine apartments and accompanying common areas.

As the units have been organised into separate wings the home feels like several smaller buildings. Tule Plaza was ready for its first residents in 2017.