Folkets Hus - imagining a new façade

The elements of the façade - street level stage, vertical access block and main hall - are being tested and explored through tentative collages.

Understanding the rock

The rock has the potential to be landscaped and considered as a whole, but its character and zones need to be understood first. An open space and two clefts/lines can be identified, leading towards Badis. Could these lines inform public routes within the rock? Could the open spaces accommodate performance areas or benches to take in the view? Could the lines be continued into the water?

Bohus-granite: cutting, shaping, carving

'Kullgrens Enka' quarry on Bohus-Malmön island, photograph from 1929

Granite steps in Lysekil, photograph taken in the 1880s

Could this inform a landscape of rooms or shelters within the rock?

Brainstorming building uses - help!

Calling all residents, guests and friends of Fjällbacka!

What would you like to see in a new Folkets Hus? What events are the most significant of the year for you? What events/activities do you wish you could enjoy that are not currently existent in Fjällbacka? What spatial qualities are needed for those events? Which spaces should be linked? Which should be separate? Which should be light? Dark? How big should they be?

Help me brainstorm!

Imagining a new public space - testing ideas

This collage is a way of testing and expressing concepts and ideas for the recovery of this decaying public space - it is by no means a finished or deciding drawing. Comments welcome!

Kajen - a lost yet logical public space

Winter shadows engulf the small and cluttered Ingrid Bergmans Torg (square), while Kajen enjoys sunlight throughout the year and has a history of year-round social life.

Revealing resident quotes

The trip in November was invaluable in providing insight into the life of the year-round residents. Some of their most revealing quotes have been noted below:

“What Fjällbacka needs is something that generates life all year round”

“The lack of things for young people to do is what drives them away from the town”

“A new building could be what Gröna Lid was in the past - an all activity house”

“We don’t want to be a museum town with no development”

“We all agree that it was better in the past”

“Fjällbacka is at the heart of many families, it is a fixed meeting point no matter where people live the rest of the year”

“It would be a shame if one of those Danish designed buildings made its way into the town centre.”

“You can’t live in the past, even if everyone has fond memories of Badis”

“Badis is ugly and sad in its decayed state; any change will be welcomed”

“Young people have nothing to do; nowhere to be”

“A ‘folkets hus’ (a ‘people’s house’) would be ideal, but who would pay for it?”

“Fjällbacka has a soul, and it is kept alive by the all-year residents”

“Any big changes would destroy Fjällbacka’s soul”

“No young families can afford to move here”

“The local knowledge and culture isn’t inherited with the houses anymore, as they are mostly sold to non-residents. And so a new channel needs to be found to get this culture to the public”

Rooting architecture in the topography

Growing out of granite; a way to embed architecture in the natural cycles. Steps in Hellåga rest area, Norway, by Jensen & Skodvin.

Ways of interacting with the topography

A trip to Seoul, Korea; a new way of thinking, of meeting the landscape.

Ephemeral, fragile bath houses

Bath houses provide a delicate transition from water to granite, from nature to civilisation. Could their façades inform those of any waterfront proposals?

Revitalising a network of public pockets

Many of Fjällbacka's public spaces are underused and empty. A new Folkets Hus could manage a network of changing, temporary cultural events, held in these spaces.

Badis - a ghost of the past

Now abandoned to decay, Badis was once a hub of activity enjoyed by everyone from locals to film stars such as Ingrid Bergman. Built in 1937, the building features in Jan Jörnmark's book on abandoned places (http://www.jornmark.se/places.aspx) and in crime fiction writer Camilla Läckberg's latest book - Fyrvaktaren ('the lighthouse keeper'). In her book, Badis is restored to its old appearance to house a spa.

Badis' presence is prominent in Fjällbacka's townscape, particularly when seen from the sea.

Boathouses - a rhythm of framed views

Sjöbodar - boathouses - form a great part of Fjällbacka's character and architectural legacy. However, despite being inherent to Fjällbacka's identity, they are all private and inaccessible to most.

The rhythm of these boathouses, usually with space in between them, frames beautiful views of the sea and archipelago. This pattern, however, is broken at the huge, open 'Kajen', and many residents feel that this space is too large to be practical.

Perhaps a transition can be defined between the existing boathouses and a new public space proposed at 'Kajen' by continuing this pulse with new boathouses - for the public.

The notion of a public boathouse as part of a network of social spaces is being explored.

Mapping the winter hide-outs

"If we don't come to Lilla Berith for lunch, we might not see each other for days in the winter". As described by a young Fjällbacka resident in November

During the November trip, the town's winter hide-outs were sought. Bustling social hotspots were found under the apparently quiet surface, such as the local gym and the popular Lilla Berith restaurant.

However, there is no single, natural place for all to meet, socialise and hold parties, and big meetings are often held in the neighbouring Grebbestad or Hamburgsund. Many also complain that young people have nowhere to go, nothing to do.

The unchanging granite

The bold topography of Fjällbacka is a constant element within the deeply set contrasts of the town. Could rooting a building in this topography ground it in all contrasts?

A town of contrasts

Past, present. Winter, summer.

Disappearances: Folkets Hus

Located very near 'Badis', Fjällbacka’s ‘Folkets Hus’ (peoples’ house) was built in 1904 above ‘Kajen’ and demolished in the late 1960s. It had a prominent profile in Fjällbacka’s townscape (highlighted in the image above, from the early 1900s), and fulfilled the role of a communal, all-activity meeting place.

A new Folkets Hus could have an equally prominent role, both physically and socially.

More information on this disappeared building would be very appreciated!

Disappearances: Gröna Lid

Turned from a farmhouse into a dance hall and cinema in 1925, Gröna Lid over the following years accommodated Christmas functions, auctions, a social space for summer guests to play billiard and read newspapers, and even ignited a significant local amateur theatre movement in the 1930s. In the 1940s it adapted to the growing café culture and started serving food - summer guests were offered coupons for daily lunches, and it became their natural meeting place. Every summer evening, Gröna Lid held activities including film showings, comedy, jazz performances and dances, and was also available for weddings, parties, fitness and dance lessons, and games of chess and bridge all year round. For some time it even housed coffins before burials! In the last decade the building has housed a nightclub, but closed recently and is being turned into flats and shops.

The project will seek to recover the concept of an 'all-activity house', a 'Folkets Hus' to provide a meeting space for locals and bring tourists, summer guests, part-time residents and locals together for cultural and social events.

The Project. A short introduction

Every summer in the coastal town of Fjällbacka, in Sweden, my mother bathes in the sea early in the morning; a daily ritual of calm immersion with only water, wooden bath-huts and rounded granite boulders as a backdrop, a family tradition with roots in the town's history. But the seasons transform Fjällbacka from a thriving tourist resort in the summer to a deserted ghost town with just 1000 inhabitants in the winter - the perfect crime novel scenario for local best-seller Camilla Läckberg.

The project uses childhood summer memories of bathing on the Swedish coast as a starting point to explore what lies beneath the surface of this old fishing village that over the years became a tourist-dependent summer resort.

By delving into the memories of residents and returning summer guests alike, a mosaic of particular visions of the town of Fjällbacka is being captured, allowing its layers, character and legacy to be valued and ultimately preserved and enhanced through the project. The project investigates both the narrative and the bold topography of Fjällbacka to reach a proposal that mediates between the deeply set contrasts of the town – winter/summer; tourist/local; past/present.