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

Construction will start in 2012, completion is planned for 2015.

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.

Meeting room and student ateliers.

Exhibition space and Atelier at entrance level.

Based on the principle of a double helix spiral, the tower stands out with a direct and straight forward geometry, but also remains intriguing with the inherent complexity offerered by the two intertwined stairs.

Seen from a distance – the site being located in a field next to both the E18 highway and the commuting trains from central Stockholm – the tower is perceived as a graphic silhouette against the flat landscape and the sky. The two interlocking stairs are painted in two shades of red colour (Swedish faluröd). The structure is stabilized by a transparent outer skin made of steel wires. Light will complement the colourscheme at night.

On the site there will also be a landscaped out door Infocenter presenting the urban plan and ongoing development of Barkarbystaden. Groups will continue the visit up the to the observation deck where the geography is visualized and explained in real. The double stairs allow for different groups to move independently up and down the tower.

The tower is built through out in massive wood within the logic of a timber construction, thus making it possible to demount and reuse again after the twentyfive years planned for establishing the new Barkarbystaden. Then the landmark tower will have a second life as part of parks and playgrounds in the new urban area.

Building permission was granted in december 2010, completion is planned for late 2011.

Facades and roof are clad with titanium.

Inner courtyard, entrance.

On the border between a former urban/industrial development and a small forest where new housing is being developed, this nursery school mediates between different contexts and scales. A semi enclosed entrance courtyard constitutes a first exterior space for parents and children meeting and leaving.

The organic layout encourages movement as space becomes continuous and creates both exterior and interior rooms of challenging shapes. Windows are freely placed at different heights and allow for light and views to be adapted also to the scale of children, which further the relation between the interior and the exterior play ground and the wooded hill.

The facade panels, made of 50×50mm sawn wood, filter direct sunlight into the nursery school and create hidden windows that underscore the curved interior and exterior spaces. The building complies with the highest standards for environmentally friendly and long term sound construction.

Together with the client and the pedagogues’ inspiration from the Reggio Emilia school, a new way to organize the interior was developed. The result is a rather unorthodox plan, where instead of a complete ’flat’ for each group of children, there will be a large common interior plaza where the six groups can interact around different activities, playing and learning projects. This main space is complemented with separate atelier spaces for water projects and art, as well as small secluded group rooms for rest and quiet activities.

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

To prevent birds colliding with the reflective glass, a transparent ultraviolet colour is laminated into the glass panes which are visible for birds only.

Site plan

Section.

Plan and roof plan.

The construction also alludes to how man relates to nature, how we use high tech materials and products when exploring remote places in harsh climates (Gore-tex, Kevlar, composite materials, light weight tents etc).

The functions included provide for a living for two people; a double bed, a small bath room, a living room and a roof terrace. Access to the cabin is by a rope bridge connected to the next tree.

Client: Brittas Pensionat www.treehotel.se

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