Hermansson Hiller Lundberg Arkitekter
Ekilla
Description
The site was typical for much of
the architecture created today: a mixture of scales and programmes, without a
clear grammar for the surroundings – a kind of non-context. The project presented
a curious mix of fixed and fluid conditions. While the building envelope was
set by the zoning plan and the construction method was specified as
prefabricated timber-frame construction modules with fibre-cement cladding, the
programme was in constant flux during the entire project. At various stages the
architects were designing a care home, private apartments to be offered for
sale, migrant worker rental units on the upper floors combined with, variously,
a school for disabled children, a kindergarten, or assisted-living units for
disabled people on the ground floor. All of these programmes had to
be reconciled with the construction criteria and meet the strictest possible
budget while using a material palette consisting of the cheapest possible,
low-maintenance façade you can build in Sweden. From these very circumscribed
conditions, the architects explored the expressive possibilities of the façades
and managed to convince the client to give up some precious square metres so they
could make some incisions to calibrate the building volume along the street. In
the resulting, striking composition, buildings elements and patterns sometimes
seem to crash into one another, while the whole is surprisingly balanced. This
treatment of the façade and the volumes ends up achieving an understated yet
intricate monumentality.