The Stone Award of 2024

The Stone Award 2024 went to Utopia Architects for the Exclusive Caprea Residential Project in Stockholm. By starting from a zoning plan from the 1940s, the architects have created a building where classical materials such as natural stone both renew and preserve the history of Stockholm’s stone city.

On the site of a former gas station at the corner of Birger Jarlsgatan and Kungstensgatan, developer Balder has built one of Stockholm’s most exclusive residential properties in recent years. Interest in signing up for the apartments was enormous, despite record-high square-meter prices. Architecturally, Utopia based its design on the existing zoning plan from the 1940s, which allows the property to blend harmoniously into the surrounding stone city. This meant that existing façades set the framework for proportions such as façade divisions, base floors, bay windows, and shallow balconies. The palette of materials consistently consists of classical elements like granite, plaster, and wrought iron. These also serve as time markers that express both past and present. – In short, we wanted to recreate the missing piece of the puzzle in the block, summarizes Mattias Litström, one of Utopia’s founders and lead architect for the project.

The street façades facing Birger Jarlsgatan and Kungstensgatan rest on a high, roughly hewn granite base floor made of Skarstad Red Bohus. Swedish natural stone is also prominently featured in the interiors. Honed Tossene Grey Bohus and Skarstad Red Bohus appear in entrance floors and elevator surrounds, among other elements.

Kai Marklin, chairman of the jury and of the Swedish Stone Industry Association “Sveriges Stenindustriförbund”, explains: – For us on the jury, this project has been yet another brilliant example of how Swedish stone is a material that can both root a project in history and at the same time stand for renewal. Architecturally, it is an exceptionally well-executed project.

Historically grounded and a model for the future – Jury’s Motivation, Stone Award 2024: The exclusive Caprea project, guided by a zoning plan from the 1940s, blends seamlessly into the history of Stockholm’s stone city. The careful and tasteful use of classical materials of the highest quality has become a set of time markers that both preserve and renew. The role of natural stone is as self-evident as it is clear in the material palette, both in the details and in the fact that the building rests on the strength of the robust Bohus granite base, innovatively assembled. Caprea opens a new door to future solutions in the same spirit. A role model, quite simply.

Read more here (only available in Swedish)