In Tham & Videgård’s winning scheme, the two existing buildings are linked into one through the addition of a new steeply pitched roof that creates double height exhibition spaces as well as a new upper level for a library, video rooms, offices and the Fårö museum.
The resulting reduced and prismatic exterior volume establishes a direct relation to the local vernacular architecture of Fårö island. It is clad with industrial tar paper, which let the BCF stand out as a new and recognizable contemporary addition in relation to its environs, the open agricultural landscape.

Planned start of construction: 2011.

Moderna Museet Malmö is the first branch of the main museum in Stockholm. The former Electricity Station dating from 1900 and once the Rooseum gallery, has been refurbished to meet international museum standards. Seen from the exterior a new extension marks the arrival of the new museum. The extension provides a new entrance and reception space, as well as a cafeteria and a new upper gallery. Its perforated orange façade both connects to the existing brick architecture and introduces a contemporary element to the neighbourhood.

The perforated surface gives the façade a visual depth, and is animated through the dynamic shadow patterns which it creates. The ground floor is fully glazed so that sunlight is screened through the perforated façade.

Inside, the building has been spatially reconstructed. Two new staircases allow the visitor to move in a loop between the grand turbine hall and the upper exhibition rooms. The staircases are each enclosed between two walls, which functions to divide the program of the turbine hall into three separate spaces, housing in addition to exhibition spaces a children’s studio and a separate loading area that is also used for exhibitions.

Twelve international practices including T&V, Shigeru Ban, Rintala Eggertsson, Obra, Productora and Sou Fujimoto participated in this project which set out to develop new strategies to address the need of temporary structures following natural disasters.

T&V propose a view on Emergency Architecture that is inspired by the potential transformation of a temporary camp into a future urban environment. The idea is to integrate public spaces with an urban strategy so that the result is operative from day one and can also function as a guide, encouraging successive development over time.

Emergency Nodes: Urban Strategy.
Architecture: Structure and Generator.

This proposal addresses the catastrophic situations which follow natural disasters. It is based on some surprising observations that arose when the concept of Emergency Architecture was discussed with Swedish organisations for international support and development.

Urban strategy is needed during the first decisive moments of a rescue operation, too often the reconstruction of damaged towns and the development of future settlements is hindered by hasty, uninformed decisions taken in the midst of positioning and structuring temporary camps.

Time is a key consideration. Temporary camps often stand for years, even decades, resulting in many families bringing up children in tents or poor-quality shelter. For this reason it is particularly important to cater for semi-permanent common places and institutions for education, communal meetings, health and so on.

Aside from primary physical needs, there is also the question of psychological well-being. After the initial rescue operation, and aid workers leave, feelings of despondency, hopelessness and frustration can occur in response to the camps’ poor conditions that often pose a permanent solution. When there is nothing else, architecture should instead act as a tool to generate hope, and provide a structure and a framework in which to live.

T&V propose a view on Emergency Architecture that is inspired by the potential transformation of a temporary camp into a future urban environment. The idea is to integrate public spaces with an urban strategy, to generate a result which is operative from day one and can also function as a guide, encouraging successive development over time.

The sun and rain tent

An inverted pyramid. The light structures rise above the low repetitive mass of the camp, offering nodes of orientation which highlight the most important social and communal centres. In a warm climate the Pyramid Tent will provide a large outdoor space protected from the heat of the sun. In bad weather it will offer a dry meeting place. It will also symbolically collect a natural resource; rain water. Each Pyramid Tent will mark a specific place; a school, a market, a meeting place, a hospital.

Erected after the initial rush of housing units, the contruction of the Pyramid Tents will reassure the camp-residents of continued support. Within weeks the first flying pyramids will be visible and in use.

The textile roof appears to float thanks to its minimal structure. Four beams stem from one central joint and are secured to the ground with steel cables, whilst a structural fabric stabilizes the geometry. The use of different colored fabrics will assist direct recognition of different Pyramid Tents without the risk of language confusion.

In keeping with an urban planning perspective, we envisage that the places designated for Pyramid Tents will have the subsequent potential to become the forecourts of public buildings, open plazas, or green parks.

Urban scale

A comparison of scales between well known urban structures and the UNHCR standard rescue camps, clearly show that these operations are being carried out on an urban scale. This represents both a challenge and an opportunity. If initial decisions can include an informed long-term urban strategy, then those in need will benefit from a better environment from the outset right through to the development of a new permanent habitat.

Architectural and planning expertise, as a complement to military efficiency, will help to minimize future difficulties when reconstruction begins.

As the illustrations show, this proposal has a general approach to the specific challenges of Emergency Architecture and is not fixed to one cultural or climatic context.

Installation at NAMOC, Beijing, May 2009.

The Laponian World Heritage area 1996, Unesco:
“The Committee decided to inscribe the nominated property on the basis of natural and cultural criteria. The Committee considered that the site is of outstanding universal value as it contains examples of ongoing geological, biological and ecological processes, a great variety of natural phenomena of exceptional beauty and significant biological diversity including a population of brown bear and alpine flora. It was noted that the site meets all conditions of integrity. The site has been occupied continuously by the Saami people since prehistoric times, is one of the last and unquestionably largest and best preserved examples of an area of transhumance, involving summer grazing by large reindeer herds, a practice that was widespread at one time and which dates back to an early stage in human economic and social development”.

A Naturum is a visitor centre with activities and exhibitions, located in connection with several of Sweden’s national parks and nature reserves.
Client: Naturvårdsverket and Länsstyrelsen i Norrbottens län
Location: Stour Muorkke / Stora sjöfallet, Lapland, Sweden. Project 2009

The concept is to create a shelter up in the trees, a light-weight aluminium structure hung around a tree trunk, a 4×4x4m box clad in mirrored glass. The exterior reflects the surroundings and the sky, creating a camouflaged refuge. The interior is all made of plywood and the windows give a 360 degree view.

A treehouse for two people; a large bed, a small kitchenette and bath, a living room and roof terrace. The access to the cabin is by rope ladder or rope bridge.

Kalmar Museum of Art was opened to the public on May 10th 2008 and has been shortlisted for the Best new Cultural building at the World Architectural Festival in Barcelona 2008, the Mies van der Rohe Award 2009, the Helgo Prize 2008, and was finalist for the Forum AID Award for the best architecture in the nordic countries 2008.

Kalmar has an interesting and quite radical history of building. The city boasts a renaissance castle, the Storkyrkan church by Tessin (architect of the royal castle in Stockholm), and examples of 18th, 19th and 20th century architecture. In the 18th century the whole city was moved from the castle environs to the island where the city lies today. In light of this, the old cathedral was destroyed so as not to constitute protection for enemy forces.

Situated in the City Park of the renaissance town of Kalmar, the Kalmar Museum of Art stands next to an existing restaurant pavilion dating from the 1930s, by Swedish modernist architect Sven-Ivar Lind.

The competition motto was Platform, and the conceptual idea was to create a series of open platforms for art-related activities. It also forms a structural intention for the museum, with large spans for maximum flexibility on each level, so that light and space can be transformed and adjusted in order to meet the specific needs of each exhibition.

The top floor gallery is lit by shed head light shafts, doubling its ceiling height.

The white box can open up completely on one side to bring the park inside the building.

The open stair spirals the full height of the building and starts in the new entrance lobby that connects the lake and the park. It is a top lit space with all surfaces in exposed in-situ cast concrete.

Construction is in-situ cast concrete, and large spans are achieved with post-tension slabs. Interior finishes are exposed concrete, black stained plywood doors and panels, white painted walls and ceilings, and natural ash.

The site is on the border between a former urban/industrial development and a small forest.
The project mediates between these different contexts and scales. A semi-enclosed entrance courtyard constitutes a first exterior space, where parents and children gather before entering the premises. The facade panel, 50×50mm sawn wood, filters direct sunlight into the school and creates hidden windows that underscore the building’s curved interior and exterior spaces.

Entrance level:  On each floor, three groups find their own secluded class rooms as well as common spaces for playing and learning.

Main entrance on Osquars Backe leading to ateliers, workshops and exhibition area. Teaching rooms and offices are on the three upper floors.

The new School of Architecture in its context. Facades are glass and deep red corten steel connecting to the existing buildings of dark red brick at the KTH Campus. Construction is in-situ cast concrete with load bearing parts visible as freely placed fields in the facade.

Working model 1 – Double height main spaces on the ground floor shape the mezzanine, where 3rd year students will be working at upper-courtyard level.

Working model 2 – Each of the upper floors have flexible open atelier spaces along the perimeter of the building, while a core contains communal areas and meeting  rooms.

Conceptual model.

The new church center stands boldly on a steep hillside above the Östensjövattnet.
The church hall rests on a plinth of stone which contains a smaller chapel, plenary hall, restaurant and administrative spaces. The plinth screens against traffic in the East and opens towards the church center and panoramic views over Oslo in the West.

Model view from the West.

Perspective view of the courtyard and entrance square.