Eduardo Souto de Moura - suggestive spaces in stone

Portuguese architects Eduardo Souto de Moura and Alvaro Siza are being studied for inspiration - they successfully combine the character and quality of traditional materials (and in particular of stone) with contemporary ideas and modern living.

Public waterfronts - possibilities

The proposal seeks to recover the lost edge between granite and water. The collage above suggests a new treatment of this boundary.


But there are plenty of possibilities for the waterfront:

The Bregenz Festival (above) is an annual event - a temporary floating stage is built on Lake Constance to showcase operas, plays and concerts during a month every summer, attracting thousands of spectators.


The Forum bathing area in Barcelona uses floating structures to enclose areas for swimming.

Embedding identity in a granite volume

Fjällbacka's memories and identity are embedded in granite - a large, flexible exhibition/celebration space is thus imagined as a monolithic granite volume. Its character changes as the seasonal light changes.

Timber inserts within this volume guarantee warm spaces in the cold, bitter winters.

Some areas are open to the views of the archipelago, others are enclosed to create dramatic contrasts. A new route draws the visitor towards the building through a sheltered, walled garden - this garden looks up to the towering mountain, encouraging the visitor to inhabit the rock and climb to the top.

A new network of lookouts

Childhood memories of exploring unfamiliar islands brought a realisation: don't we always want to climb to the highest point, get the best view, understand the character of the island we stand on and the landscape that surrounds us?

Several lookouts already exist in the archipelago, like those of Väderöarna and Dyngön - these are prominent physical references that attract plenty of visitors. Local artist Peter Engberg's 'Nödhamn' (above) is humorous, but serves to illustrate their powerful quality.

A renewed network of lookouts - utkikar - is thus proposed to frame the bold landscape and establish visual markers within the vast view of granite islands. The drawing above suggests two lookouts linking Kråkholmen island to the site.