A photosynth showing the Open Studio and the Beijing Field Office at NO+CH09 three days into production.

This summer a crew from Svensk Standard got invited to participate in the NOTCH09 festival in Beijing, China.

It is a two week long festival exhibiting  music, fashion, design and architecture from the Nordic countries as well as from China (NOrdic + CHina = NOTCH). We are participating in the part of the festival called Open Studio. It’s a space on the top floor of one of the buildings used by the festival and conceived as mixing chamber for artists/designers/architect exhibiting at NOTCH.

In this space we have created a small office for ourselves. We call it the Beijing Field Office. It will, for two weeks (we started last weekend and production ends at the 7th of november), conduct research on the city of Beijing, focused on the part of Chang’an Avenue leading west from Tiananmen Square to the 2nd Ring Road.

To help us in these studies we have invited six Chinese nationals, living in Beijing, of different professions, age, sex and backgrounds. They are our clients, our main resource of knowledge. With them we have discussed and created an architectural program, specific to each client. Their opinions, interests and desires. Our clients are subjective, we ask them for THEIR opinions, thus making them unquestionable experts.

As a consequence the research won’t give answers to general questions, concerning lots of people. Instead it provides specific answers to specific questions and people. Making the research narrow but precise.

The six different architectural programs will then be processed into architectural forms and spaces, eventually put together into a single potential building, in the end finding itself a site in proximity to the study site along the west part of Chang’an Avenue.

The project is produced along a ten meters long wall divided into the days of the festival, an architectural almanac. It tells the past of our process and hints at the future.

At this moment we are nearing the end of our research phase and have started to transcribe the interviews made with each client into concepts and sketches for program.

So if you happen to be in Beijing this week, pleas stop by and visit us at The Village North, in Sanlitun.

Sorry about the late notice.

At NOTCH09 Svensk Standard is:

Anders Berensson
Caroline Ektander
Daniel Johansson
Helen Runting
Rutger Sjögrim
Markus Wagner

Sunday afternoon sunshine, an old industrial area and some red plastic soda cases makes for relaxed conversations in anticipation of the final Architectural Battle showdown. May 2009, Lövholmen, Stockholm.

About a month ago, we were asked by the Cities the magazine people if we could design a small exhibition space for them. They were trying to get accepted into an event held by the European Year of Creativity and needed a proposal for an exhibition space that showed that they meant business.

They got accepted, but sadly there wasn’t any need (or money) for the proposed space.

Now, unbuilt architecture is always a very sad thing, so we thought that if we posted it here perhaps someone else might find some use for it. It’s very low budget, so if you don’t have a lot of money but need an exhibition space, this is what you do:

First, call a supplier of cargo pallets (usually there are some at the outskirts of every major European city). Cargo pallets are interesting because they exist in a constant flow. Either being trafficked around, to or from the recipients of various merchandise, or stacked in some warehouse. In order for the logistics industry to have quick access to pallets there is always a surplus of them and as they deteriorate they get downgraded through a system of different classes based on their quality, being constantly reused. So if you ask a supplier of pallets nicely, he or she might let you borrow some for free as long as you hand them back unspoiled.

Otherwise they can be bought and sold back at a difference of ca 3 euros / pallet and that still makes them pretty cheap.

We’re going to use the pallets as the basic building block for the space. They can be stacked in lots of different ways and what you’ll eventually end up with depends, of course, on what kind of space you need. We wanted large wall areas for projections and printed images, but also some kind of “lounge” feature as well as the flexibility of a simple table and perhaps some folding chairs.

Once you stacked the pallets into a topography that pleases you, strap them together using cargo straps. This fixes the pallets into position and makes the stacks very stable. Do it right and the straps will be almost invisible from the outside.

When the pallets are strapped, the inside needs to be clad with some boards. What kind of material you choose depends once again on the purpose of the topography. Usually some kind of plywood or particle boards will do just fine. Cheaper boards will wear more rapidly so the type you want will depend on how long the topography will be used. The boards are then screwed to the pallets.

You can now paint the space in the color of your choice (or just leave it if you like the look of it). We went with white since it’s neutral and good for projections. We also left the outside naked, with the pallets exposed.

Remember; don’t paint the pallets. This will make them worth less when you sell them back.

Here are the cost estimates for our space:
(in euros)

Euro-pallets x 128 = 400
Plywood/Particleboards = 200
Cargo straps x 10 = 150
Paint (4 cans) + Brushes = 150
Ikea table = 42
Pillows x 30 = 90

+ transports + extra

TOTAL = ca 1500

I was recently told by a friend that there existed a large telephone tower made of steel, (kind of like a square Eiffel tower) in Stockholm during the first half of the 20th century and after a short google run, this is what i found:

Apparently it was built in 1987, at a time when there were about 5500 telephones in Stockholm. Each of these telephones were connected to a wire that would leave the house or apartment suspended on small steel hooks and angles. It would make its way through the narrow streets of 19th century Stockholm eventually ending up in the tower. At the base of the tower, in the building it stood on, was a great hall where rows of telephone operators would connect the incoming signal to whatever outgoing cable the caller asked for. The signal would then leave the great tower, once again passing through the streets and leaping across the roofs, eventually reaching the house of the recipient.

The tower, acting like a full scale diagram, explains perfectly to anybody looking at it, the logic behind the telephone system. Imagine what the internet would look like, illustrated like this. Or how it would sound!

In a complaint sent in to one of the larger news papers at the time, a concerned resident of Stockholm complains about “obehaget af den olidliga musik, som telefontrådar kunna åstadkomma, och många hafva nog lidit af deras nervskakande disharmonier”. (I found this quote on a blog and haven’t been able to validate it, but it is so well put that I decided to post it) In short, it’s about the “nerve wrecking disharmonies” that the wind blowing through the web of cables produced.

By 1913, all the telephone wires in Stockholm had been put underground and the tower was left as a landmark and monument. In the 50’s, sadly, a fire in the building bellow forced it’s demolition and the towers sillhouette in the Stockholm cityscape was, in time, forgotten.

More images and information (in swedish) at the website of the telephone museum of Stockholm.

/Rutger

Proposal by Ludvig Netré and Markus Wagner.
 En 20 meter hög pyramidformad limträkonstruktion placeras på en 70×70 meter stort fundament. Programmets olika delar avgränsas genom att placeras i boxar eller genom en 1,2 meter höjdskillnad. Höjdskillnaden ger en topografi där simbassängerna är nedsänkta i förhållande till resten av markplan. 

Tre större boxar definierar interiören. En putsad box för omklädning, personal och café.  En andra box för vertikal kommunikation har en reflekterande yta av speglar. Den tredje är en högt svävande träbox som innehåller relaxavdelningen.

Takkonstruktionen är en 1,2 meter hög balkrost i limträ, limträ är ett starkt, tåligt och förnyelsebart naturmaterial. De uppemot 7 meter stora mellanrummen fylls med ETFE-kuddar som är fyllda med en konstant luftmängd. De är extremt lätta, starka, återvinningsbara och kan göras olika transparenta beroende på vädersträck.

De vinklade ytorna i taket samt ETFE-kuddarna och boxarna skapar ett rum där ljudet snabbt bryts i sin bana och goda aukustiska förhållanden kan uppnås. Luften förvärms vintertid i kulvertar längs bassängväggarna. Den stiger uppåt, sugs in vid nock och pressas nedåt genom ett schakt till källaren där det avfuktas och värmeväxlas med ny luft. Vid värmetoppar kan badhusets övre delar öppnas och badhuset kylas genom självdrag.

Det framtida hotellet placeras på tomtens norra del, den föreslagna parkeringsplatsen ersätts då av en parkering i hotellets källarplan. Badhusets placering respekterar det befintliga gatumönstret och söker förstärka Nybrovägens urbanitet. Söder om badhuset förslås en park med kullar av schaktmassor som underlag för generösa gräsytor. 

A new Centre for Architecture & Design in Stockholm

Small building = Less permanent exhibitions =
Less maintenance costs = More money to temporary exhibitions

In 2002, due to mold infestation, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Stockholm had to close down its recently completed building. This left the institution homeless and as a result one of the most successful and appreciated exhibition campaigns in Sweden was initiated; called “Moderna Museet c/o”. For more than a year the institution would “move in” with other institutions. Lending out its artworks or curating exhibitions in spaces belonging to others, all over Sweden.

An old postal terminal in the heart of Stockholm became the hub of these activities. Here, a smaller building and exhibition meant lower maintenance costs. Therefore they could use their resources to create an intense exhibition program called “Udda veckor”, with new exhibitions
starting every two weeks. Moderna museet was described by the people working there as “intense, lively and a lot of things going on” during this period.

This example will be used as a starting point for the new Centre for Architecture & Design.

The idea is to create a small permanent building accompanied by a large public exhibition/workshop space with low maintenance costs. Thus creating the best possible platform for a centre that often wants to change their content and keep up to date with contemporary issues in architecture and design.

In order to achieve this, the space for temporary exhibitions will be separated from the archives.  The archives will remain at Skeppsholmen along with a new design archive (that could be housed in the old space for temporary exhibitions in the architecture museum).

The space for temporary exhibitions, however, will be moved next to the School of Architecture in a different part of the city. This will create a program mix that could nurture both the Centre and the School and expose the school to a wider audience.  There would also be a natural presence of students and staff related to the faculty benefiting the Center.

The experience:

The physical environment of the modern swedish city is controlled by restrictions that we didn’t have a hundred years ago. A vast number of regulations create a framework for the city, which in the end makes it look and function in a homogenous way. This project has the ambition to break some of the “rules” by ignoring some otherwise very dominating building regulations. Thus affecting the visitors and passers by with it’s unusual relation to it’s surroundings rather than with it’s visual qualities as an architectural object.

Could a greater awareness of the impact of design solutions on everyday life be achieved
by deliberately using inconvenient and “bad” solutions for the project?

A common way to get people to react to architecture, is to design a building that impresses with it’s visual qualities. What if the building could be as dramatic in it’s relation to the function of the surroundings? The ambition has been to make a programatic and emotional impact on the passers by, whether they want it or not. The project forces itself on the surroundings, making it hard not to react to, even if you’re not a visitor: A pavement that narrows down to nothing, forcing the passers by to walk around the the building, a narrow alley on the backside, an outside exhibition that appropriates the public and private space in front of the centre.

Introducing inconvenience and estrangement in the urban environment, in front of the building, could be a tool for creating awareness of the built environment around us. Especially in an urban landscape that otherwise is dominated by strict regulations on how the city should be developed, functionally and aesthetically.

Permanent & temporary structures:

The interior consists of a permanent structure which houses the most basic functions, such as storage, WC and services. In the central room other functions such as exhibition, workshop and offices can grow or contract. The space can be re-organized with a temporary structure, scaffolding, which can be mounted to allow extra space when required.

“The urban stage”, a public space administrated by the centre, is a tree dimensional steel framework. An extension of the permanent building where temporary structures, installations, artworks, objects, equipment could be attached.

Plan showing entrance level

Plan showing upper level

Project by Ola Keijer, fall 2008.

The TV! team travels to Hannover and Europes largest fair grounds, to document the exhibition space produced for Telenor.

The CeBit fair in Hannover, is Europe’s largest electronics fair and a strange and chaotic place. At a total of 496 000 square meters of indoor space (roughly the size of 70 full sized soccer fields) it is vast and the 4300 exhibitors form a baffling mass of structures, signs, sounds, displays, suits, ties, businessmen during the week, geeks during the weekend (most people at this place are men) and all kinds of different gizmos and gadgets.

It is a sea of flotsam and jetsam constructed of aluminum frames, printed banners and lcd-screens. A place where everything blends together and nothing really sticks out.

So when asked to design a new exhibition space for Telenor at this years CeBit, we decided to do a solid. A simple black volume, as large as possible, as tall as possible.

It would contrast it’s surroundings by being introvert and mysterious. Glowing blue cracks would slice the volume and visitors would be lured inside simply through the promise of discovery.

Once inside the main interior space of the solid, animations back-projected onto the surfaces inform, friendly exhibition-hosts greets and giant block of LED-lit ice provides spectacle. The volumes separating the interior space of the solid from the outside, contains the auxiliary functions like meeting, lounge and storage rooms.

Designed by Markus Wagner and Rutger Sjögrim, produced by FIELDWORK, animated by COMMERCIAL ART and built by Advers Events.

New magazine “Cities the magazine” kicked of the production of their first issue with a workshop held this monday at gallery Detroit (Roslagsgatan 21, Stockholm).

The magazine will focus on different urban conditions and peculiarities around the world and the staff are constantly looking for new contributors. From the website:

“We don’t want to hand you a tourist guide.

We don’t want to show you the last renderings of the best architects.

We don’t want to provide the latest trends and design concepts.

We don’t want to update you on the current fashion weeks and art openings.

We want to speak about cities.”

So, if you are interested in breaking up the printed intellectual monoculture of Sweden, write a great piece about cities and send it to them or simply visit their website at www.citiesthemagazine.com and get the first issue when it gets released.