法灵厄松别墅 艺术家之家丨瑞典丨Strombro Building Workshop

Architects:Strombro Building Workshop

Area:210m²

Year:2024

Photographs:Andrea Singer

Category:Houses

Lead Team:Daniel Fagerberg, Julia Rybakolnikova

Design Team:Strombro Building Workshop

Country:Sweden

Site - A gentle slope, of 1/10 towards west with oaks, fruit trees, and a vast landscape of pastures, and with a backdrop of forest, inevitably demanded an envelope consisting of individual bodies, carefully situated within existing plateaus, flower beds, and ground conditions. Anything else would have posed as a big wall with a subterranean level, with all the problems that come with it.

Building - Four bodies were decided upon with arching roofs, both as an homage to Erskine's villa some kilometers away and to keep the hilly landscape intact. The client, my mother, is a vivid botanist and artist who spent her life studying and drawing flowers, grass, and wildlife and its symbiosis with its caretakers, -insects, bumble bees, and whatever garden gnomes that made up the miracles of the flora. Originally planned as a stucco on woodfibre insulation building, the white facades would act as her panneau on which she would plant her living still life studies. At closer study, we changed it to a wood panel facade for more detail and texture as the size of the building grew to accommodate all wishes from the resident and its future inheritors.

Interior - The individual bodies could have been placed in line, but by invitation from the arching roofs and the demand from the trees and flowerbeds, a decision was taken to stagger them around a straight axis of stairs and an imagined corridor. The round arches transformed into pointed vaults, and the transversal walls made thresholds, hiding whatever room and function came next. In its longitudinal axis, the villa is a miniature pompous Gothic cathedral. In stark contrast to this, the longitudinal section is a dollhouse. From the south-facing wintergarden, the corridor gives a free 180-degree view of the functions. Starting with the kitchen on top, through the living room core module with its grand fireplace, to the airy ateljé in the end. The end of the extended stair stringer to the loft is a reminder of the arched roof.

Careful positioning of the modules/blocks/bodies allowed the corners to be glazed to frame specific views, specific trees, peepholes in line with a layered landscape, and also to hide others. A window is not only to the outside, but a window is a picture frame and a porthole through which the time can be told, both seasonal and daily. A window should define the interior during the year and never create stark contrasts, blinding light, or dark holes. Placed in the corners, they offer ambient light spreading and highlighting the different walls according to the sun's path around the building. This also becomes apparent as the round portholes in the top of the arch create a light cone that can be followed on the opposite wall, in a certain moment of the day, aligning like a sign revealing a hidden treasure in a mystery novel. The interior scale goes from the bombastic to the miniature with a turn of the head.

Material - Ecococon straw bale elements, on the outside classed with Tiber panel and inside with 3ply. Built on a cell glass foundation, with a slab of 60mm CLT between 100mm edge beams. Glulam arches between outer walls insulated with Steico floc, -woodfibre blow insulation, on the inside clad with a layer of jute fabric under 70x32 battens for acoustics. Alutrix vapour barrier covers the first layer of cell glass and is welded over Suterain walls to form a continuous watertight envelope. Suterain walls tripple drained with pipe in gravel, an isodrän drainage board, and an extra cavity. Bottom of interior transversal walls are easily dismantled for inspection of possible leakage.

Construction - Building is in all possible parts built out of custom CNC'd parts, prefabricated elements, biomass materials, and with detailing made out of readily available standard lumber. No customised fixings have been used.

Conclusion - With the help of an immensely detailed digital twin, the amount of waste has been kept to an absolute minimum. Through the BIM, every task has been carefully timed, allowing optimum construction efficiency as the teams move between building sites. Although drawings were made and available on site, the vast majority of instructions were communicated to the site directly in the model, which was also used in AR for quality surveillance. SketchUp was used throughout the whole design process, from early sketches to building documentation, take-offs, machine files, AR, and communication between the site and consultant. Structural analysis with Timbertech.

The combination of a stringent use of BIM, standard components, and prefabrication made it possible to construct a 100% bio based building in well planned time, without waste, allowing a playful, exploratory architecture realised well within a limited budget. As the architect often is heard saying: 'Don't design more costly than inevitable, but more beautiful than necessary'.

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