The Cedar Houses / Cederhusen

Folkhem, a Swedish residential development company focused on climate-smart, architecturally refined wooden buildings in urban context. Folkhem is a recognised player in sustainable housing construction with 11 timber projects including 1600 apartment units, in the portfolio.

Wood as a Building Material; Folkhem exclusively builds with timber as the only renewable and climate-friendly building material. This reduces the construction industry's climate impact while offering healthy and warm living environments.

Architecture, Craftsmanship, Innovation; Folkhem works with leading architects to create timeless, beautifully crafted homes in multi-family houses. Traditional craftsmanship meets modern construction technologies. The company works with research institutions and cooperations to advance timber construction methods. Every project is given a task to drive innovation of big scale timber construction as the key for the green shift of the building sector.

The Cedar Houses is one of the world’s largest inner-city timber construction projects. Located in Stockholm, with 234 apartments, situated on an over decking of a train and highway tunnels. Constructed using cross-laminated timber (CLT) for its 10-14-story buildings, the project has won several awards.

Folkhem builds the homes of the future: sustainably, beautifully, and responsibly in wood. With landmark-projects like the Cedar Houses, Folkhem is a leading force in sustainable urban development in Sweden and beyond.

Potential future developments

Two major global challenges are the climate transition and the growing need for housing, driven by demographic shifts, population growth, and climate migration. Europe holds a unique opportunity to scale up the use and value of bio-based raw materials as fossil alternatives, thanks to its extensive forest resources and mature industrial base. This creates potential for strategic market positioning and global relevance in addressing shared challenges.

Demonstration projects such as Cederhusen are vital to proving feasibility, building credibility, and enabling scalability and leverage within the sector.

There is significant potential to advance carbon credit markets and concretise the value of the bioeconomy through real-world projects. At the same time, this fosters innovation in forest resource use and creates incentives for broader transformation.

Developing a climate-adapted, high-quality industry around forest-based materials can generate rural employment, strengthen local supply chains, and enhance resilience.

Harnessing the sector’s innovative capacity and the properties of wood in construction enables more efficient use of existing infrastructure, optimises land and investment, increases flexibility in the built environment, and improves construction efficiency—ultimately reducing emissions and material waste.

Current contribution

Increasing the value of forest-based raw materials through use in construction and long-lived applications can significantly reduce emissions from the building sector, while enabling substantial carbon storage in the built environment. This is achievable today, relying solely on existing industries and proven technical solutions.

Transforming a traditionally conservative construction sector requires pioneering projects such as Cederhusen, which serve as demonstrative examples, break new ground, and provide scalable solutions. Projects of this kind are instrumental in building expertise, disseminating knowledge, fostering new collaborations, and strengthening confidence in risk assessment and management—key factors in enabling a large-scale transition within the sector aligned with climate objectives.

Securing economic viability through demonstrated interest in investment, financing, as well as achieving strong performance in the commercial housing market, is critical to drive a systemic shift and redefining norms.

By using wood as a light and dry material in the construction of Cederhusen, it was possible to fully utilise sites potential due to its limitations on load-bearing capacity. It also enabled a reduction in construction time compared to concrete, resulting in less disturbances from the construction site and economic efficiency in terms of financing costs.

This lowers emissions and logistical challenges. These are particularly critical when building in urban environments.

Video