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The small city of Vaxjo, with a population of 94,000, is located in the middle of the forested areas of Smaland Province in southern Sweden. Among municipalities in Sweden, many consider Vaxjo a leader in timber construction, as timber buildings have been at the center of the city’s strategy since the 1990s. The city government achieved its goal of having at least 50 percent of all new buildings timber-framed as of last year, and the municipality says it is now working on new and more ambitious plans to build with wood.
When I visited Vaxjo last summer, Catharina Winberg offered to show me around the city. At the time, Ms. Winberg was a local politician and head of the Vaxjo Kommun Foretag, which oversees much of the building as well as the city’s energy production. (He left his post earlier this year to return to the private sector.)
What I saw was impressive. All parts of the land outside the city center are designated as timber-only development areas. There were dozens of construction sites around the town for wooden apartments, schools, and more, many of them using energy-saving measures in different states of completion.
“We really believe in wood as a material – circular, renewable and healthy,” said Ms. Winberg. “And we have resources nearby, so we can take advantage of that.”
“We started working with this very early on and it sparked a lot of interest. People want to learn about our strategy and see what we’re doing. So we think it’s very important how we keep that going because there are so many people looking at us right now.”
The latest flagship project in Vaxjo, currently in the final stages of completion, is a glass-panelled wooden structure in the city center that houses the new main train station, City Hall and a small shopping mall with a hotel planned to be built. .
“I think people today yearn for things that are real,” said Ms. Winberg. “And this is a very real place to live with real buildings. They are made from the forest around us.
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