A lakeside square with feel-good factor


The small uni­ver­sity town in the south of Sweden is embed­ded between a mul­ti­tude of waters includ­ing Lake Växjö. The Vat­ten­tor­get is a pop­u­lar meet­ing point directly along­side the lake. The Syd­väst bureau was comis­sioned with the redesign of the Vat­ten­tor­get, making use of the oppor­tu­nity to opti­mise the link between park and Lake Växjö at the same time.

The redesigned Vat­ten­tor­get is espe­cially intended to improve usage of this splen­did water­side loca­tion while at the same time form­ing a closed-off area con­nect­ing the water­front prom­e­nades around the lake. The goal was there­fore to develop the visual axis from the park to lake, making sure the open, paved area towards the town remained avail­able for ver­sa­tile use. To enable the char­ac­ter of this water­side loca­tion to remain clearly vis­i­ble at night time, the Syd­väst plan­ners also spec­i­fied reserved, zero glare light­ing that doesn’t impair the view.

As a tech­ni­cal basis for light­ing, the plan­ners opted for the Olivio because of its bal­anced shape and friendly, organic design – espe­cially impor­tant since the light pole occu­pies a soli­tary posi­tion. With its pro­jected pat­terns the light­ing is rem­i­nis­cent of sun­light cast through foliage. It also cre­ates a space with sojourn qual­ity during dark­ness that sets itself apart from the sur­round­ings and from the lake‘s sur­face.


Project: Vattentorget
Landscape architect: Sydväst arkitektur och landskap, Malmo
Lighting designer: ÅF Lighting
Design: West 8 design and landscape architecture
Photographer: Werner Nystrand
Representation: Selux Sverige