Category: Okategoriserade

Oändlig slinga av Dödviken

After a brief look at the site and requirements of the brief, I set out 3 key criteria for selecting a location for the campsite:

  • Away from existing buildings
  • Interesting variations in topography
  • Close to water

By using the height map from Lantmäteriet to analyse steepness, and a plan of the island from Openstreetmaps, I was able to overlay this information and select a suitable site.

Height Map | Steepness Map | Buildings Map | Overlayed

The region that best fits my criteria is the land surrounding Dödviken, or the “Bay of Death”, on the North West corner of the island. A closer look at the geometry of this area shows that it is a cluster of islands that enclose an inlet of water- which could create a boundary and give the water a feeling of enclosure and privacy.

Site Selection

For this reason, I would like the core circulation of the camp to take the form of a loop- picking up on existing ridges in the landscape and crossing the water in the most feasible locations to create a continuous path around the water.

Creating a loop

By projecting this loop onto the site, and unfolding it into a straight section, I can start to analyse and populate the camp along this linear (but looping) path.

Unfolding the loop

The terrain varies quite dramatically across this route, both in altitude and type, crossing highs and lows, rock, trees and water. The idea is that this path be constant throughout the campsite, and provide access to the spaces and places along it which accordingly respond to the landscape. By taking the average altitude along the section for the path to sit along, it either takes the form of a bridge, tunnel, or just a path, depending on its context.

1. precedents for building in a strong terrain context


I was looking at spacial configurations of some buildings in a complex ground conditions.
First row: spacial distribution of separated units.
Second row: Different approaches to work with the terrain in section.
These references are showing a different approach with the program being built on a small area as a closed cluster or a multistorey closed building.

Clustering architecture

The roman town Silchester is an interesting case if we analyze it at three
scales. It can be seen through its irregular border containing strictly divided cells with ‘random’ clustered buildings in each. What fascinates me is the ‘logic randomness’ that is completely unexpected if we compare it to the rigorous meticulousness of roman military camps. Nevertheless, with some effort one can start to detect logical patterns and that is the first approach that I would consider in this project.

Another way of thinking about a camp is to have a predefined building element that will be repeated according to a certain parameter. Or we could take a predefined shape and fit the element in it. I have previously considered this approach in a similar studio program, and this is why other ideas are more compelling for me.

The approach I find the most fascinating is to observe clustering in every layer of ‘making’ architecture. What if we could define a path around which we would cluster buildings, object, elements and atoms? Or what if we could use clustering in a broader sense and try to cluster these predefined paths too? I would like to test the k-means clustering method on the given terrain to find areas satisfying certain parameters. Than it would be exiting to observe clustering in different directions and rates depending on the program and the needs. Although this might not lead to a successful solution, I am interested in exploring such potential.