Cover Up

This project is a part of a bigger commission to improve several power plants for an energy company.

In this first stage we we’re appointed to create a storage facility for various industrial pipes but foremost for several heating containers that with a short notice should be able to be outsourced around the city as back-up power during blackouts. The containers are quite big and are lifted from the storage with a special crane truck, making a roof impossible. Additional future containers should also be considered in the scheme, which called for a shelter with the flexibility of an anaconda stomach.

The surrounding area is industrial and quite rough and the company has had some problems with break in and vandalizing which also had to be taken into account. But the major issue was the fact that the present depot looked miserable and they wanted a neat looking package to encapsulate their bits and pieces.
So we made a good looking, roofless, safe and flexible-as-an-anaconda building.

The part of the structure that faces the surrounding is slightly higher and rigid and is also functioning as a wall to the premise. The inner part is not so high because these wall systems should be able to be altered and movable.

We made three modes with different area sizes with the help of pre-made holes in the ground which the walls on the flexible part of the structure could switch between when necessary. Some wall segments are also gates.

Plans of the different modes

The whole façade is made out of perforated steel plates.

The inner part of the structure is perforated in a mathematical and repetitive fashion to minimize wind loads, permit views into the storage without experience the clutter.

On the rigid part that is facing the surroundings, we perforated a grand motive with a story that is weaving in the energy company, the city and different world natures into a surrealistic “total nature”. This nature is actually also a disguise.
Different building details and devices are hidden in the motive; the main door for example is disguised in a forest, with the keyhole in one eye of a bear. Various surveillance cameras are hidden behind different creatures; for example behind the watchful eyes of a tiger in a mountainous setting, in the deep gaze of the founder of the city, Karl IX, in the bewildered look of a picnic lady from the great Swedish painter Carl Larsson.

From the savanna motive, water taps are inserted in the end of elephant trunks, to clean the façade if necessary.
A rainwater collector from the inside of the storage leaps out through a pipe that makes the horse of King IX urinate. To gentle the smell of the containers somewhat, we put canisters of air fresheners amid some butterflies and flowers in the painting.

Detail drawings

The motive is quite vast but during daytime the façade will hardly be visible unless you stand close to it, making it neat, white and clean. As the sun sets however, the colored lights that lit up selected parts of the motive will transform the building into a huge glowing painting, giving the passing cars on the nearby highway some inspiration along the way and the pedestrians a wondrous object in the anonymous and harsh industrial surroundings.

The project is still under evaluation, we will let you know when we have more information.

Koh Chang

A couple of years ago the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustav received a gift from the King and Queen of Thailand. The gift, two female elephants, was given in gratitude for a Buddhist pavilion erected in the north of Sweden. The competition was to design the facilities for the two elephants in connection to an existing zoo in Gothenburg. We decided to relocate the elephant house to the Royal family's castle at an island outside Stockholm. Stockholm shares the same lack of elephant as Gothenburg and it seemed more logical to locate the two elephants in a more populated town and also more respectful to the King of Thailand to have his gift in a Royal environment.

In Thailand the elephants live outdoor with cattle-tenders. In Sweden they were to be put in a traditional elephant house. We found the Thailand way of treating the animals more decent so we suggested that the elephants should live as cattle at the royal island with a pavilion as a winter shelter. The royal castle has had no new building in two hundred years so it was about time. While roaming around on the island, the elephants can chose to sleep comfortable in one of the many rubber pits that is located on strategically places. Hopefully the king would become delighted by having his elephants nearby.




The winter palace:
The elephants have cozy rubber areas to sleep in, a mud hole to roll around in, a pool with a shower, a tactile rubber wall (which is a picture of the king) to scratch on, and many other facilities. The concrete is polished and not so insulated, so when it is cold, the tropical climate inside will cause a condensation and create a mirror effect inside, expanding the room visually.
A ramp takes the elephants down to their winter palace. The section also shows the possibility to walk up on the roof for the spectators to see these impressive animals.