/ Research_Stockholm Post-war Suburbs
A starting point for the project was to look at a selection of post-war satellite city communities, with housing typologies by architects such as Ralph Erskine.
Myrstuguberget, Ralph Erskine 1986 - Interaction with sloping landscape
The 1977 manifesto 'Berlin· a green archipelago' by O.M. Ungers proposed 'Cities within The City' of coherent but isolated fragments within a metropolis partly reclaimed by nature, A landscape urbanism of dense dwelling apartments with the advantages of the detached house,
Certain post-war suburbs around Stockholm already embody these qualities, with their own unique atmosphere, sense of place and subtle relationships to landscape.
Myrstuguberget - study model
Myrstuguberget - Floor plan
/ Research_New Ways of Living
Subsequently, starting with an individual living space, a free form architectural investigation into new ways of living was conducted, looking at how individual private life can exist with ideas of collectivity, interior and exterior.
The investigation resulted in a collective housing typology that counters the housing shortage in Stockholm and the high incidence of solo-living; it is a city with the unique condition of densifying at a high rate, but with a landscape of forests and lakes interwoven in its fabric.
External View - Collective housing typology based on freeform architectural investigation into new ways of living in the landscape
Block Plan - The form follows the contours of a ridge on a steeply sloping wooded site
This stage of the process implicitly focused on architectural conceptions of form, space and material.
The communal - Proposed ground floor interior model of a collective housing typology based on atmospheric experiments into new ways of living
/ Proposal_Site Strategy
Research into post-war territorial typologies was applied to a site in Bromma, in the Stockholm suburbs. The final scheme articulates spaces between its own building volumes as well as the landscape and surrounding built context.
External view - The colours and materiality relate to the palette of colours on the wooded site
A key design decision was to enclose an island of retained forest at the heart of the development, in order to maintain the character of the site as a unique island in an area densely populated with 'narrow house' apartment blocks. An urban border is created against the edge of the road to the southern edge of the plot and the thin volumes work with the topography to climb the periphery and enclose the site.
Informed by research into more recent housing that responds to the current crisis of affordability and scarcity, various precedents were studied and applied to the site, leading to various massing iterations and site strategies.
Site Plan
/ Proposal_Facade
Open communal areas around the cores and continuous balconies with projecting bays help to articulate the facade. A robust concrete base meets the topography and supports a timber framed construction above.
1:50 Model
Front Elevation
Rear Elevation
The bay structure is expressed externally to give the facade a rhythm and depth, with vertical layers running in front of horizontal.
1:20 Elevation
1:20 Model
/ Proposal_Interior
The design draws on the 'narrow house' apartment block typology, pervasive in the area, which gives units a double aspect to create better and brighter spaces even in the Swedish winter.
Internal View - Living area
45 degree turns in each block help to provide as much south facing sun for each unit as possible as well as to navigate the contours of the site. A communal area next to each circulation core encourages neighbour interactions. The bay structure gives flexibility in terms of function - layouts can range from 1 bedroom apartments to 5 bedroom collective living units.
Layout plan - bay structure gives flexibility in terms of function - layouts can range from 1 bedroom apartments to 5 bedroom collective living units.
The timber external structure is reflected internally, adding warmth to the interior.
Internal View - Dining and kitchen