diploma thesis, kth

An era is soon to be over and the island seems to slumber, surface dilapidated, ominous structures  dominating the landscape. 

With the strategic position at the inlet of Stockholm, in between the city and the archipelago, the island has gone through different phases, changing  the intensity of self-sufficiency and productivity,

First record found 1699 in the archives.

Together with photos, drawings, dairies, school records I have been tracing the landscape.

In the 17´hundreds the iland served as a summer activity hub for the rich and famous. with a tennis court, bathing house, and a taven, one of stockholms best at the time.

On the northern part of Stora Höggarn the oil activity  began in 1903, as Stockholm's first oil harbor.

The next oil phase began 1943  with 8 more cisterns and 3 underground spaces for storing oil, a receiving dock for tankers, as well as workshops and housing. at the peak of inhabitation there lived about 60 people on the island.

The old tavern was used as a school.

The last oil phase were added in the 1970th. All of them disused about three decades  ago.

This thesis is a speculative investigation on how to develop a resilient strategy, it´s about ecological recovery, how to reinhabit and activate the iland in phases by making incisions.

Efficiently use the resource found on the iland, timber, scarp material and saved building parts and reusing the structures left behind. Granit, the byproduct of the industries.

CONTEXT INVENTORY

This thesis is about the uncertainty of the future,  its about slow changes over time.

A frustrated worker wrote a letter to his friend ” on the outside the war is over and life is back on”. But i am still here coping through  the mountain.”

He was then one of the workers constructing three chambers inside the mountain covered in steel for the shooting oil demand.

The oil era is soon over and the island seems to slumber with activity on the dilapidated surface.

But in the mountain they are pumping with activity. 

Today Stora höggarn is privately owned and there is no detailed development plans active. 

The owners has no interest or need for any exploitation in any major extent. 

The son and the co-owner of Stora Höggarn, an energy system engineer, from Uppsala university, self-learned rock blaster and the caretaker of the island. With a stubbornness driving his mentality to the extent of "we are trying to do everything ourselves, not bringing in unnecessary services. So i learned how to blaster thru the mountain myself.

Today he is the driving force in a research center for thermal heating and development using the chambers.

They are testing out a new drilling  technique to research for the crust of the earth for in principal an eternal energy source.  

The crust usually lays between 2-7km. It could be reached within a decade or several. 

When reached that means that the iland will be self-sufficient in energy in surplus, producing a huge amount of Stockholms demand. If not all. 

The drill inside the camber is installed,

They are blaster thu the mountain on the East side to manage the rest-product of the process. A rearrangement of material.

System Proposal

Sedimenttests done by Sveriges Geologiska undersökning (SGU) reviles that Östersjön has alarming levers of heavy metalls and pestesited  in the sediments and water. All around the archepeligo. 

Im proposing A research facility, cleaning fragments of östersjön by a natural cleaning process as the first incision on the iland.

In discussion with Arifin Sandhi at the Dept. of Ecology, Environment and Plant Sciences (DEEP), Stockholms Universitiet, Im proposing a site specific water cleaning system reusing the three cistern still in working condition from the 70´s on the hillside. 

Cleaning the water with kråkmossa as a PhytoFilter, a natural process cleaning the water and sediment from heavy metals. 

Kråkmossa is a moss from the mining areas up in the northern sweden. Especially good to extract heavy metals from water end sediment. 

When the crust is reached the water will be tempered for longer growing seasons.

The process involves cleaning of the water, harvesting the organic matter, drying it and then burning it. The last step is to consecrate the ashes into bricks and store it in the mountain for future mining. 

The energy demand will be served by vacuum solars placed on one of the first incisions on the skyline. The chimney to the burner.  And the connection corridors. 

The first preparation done on the iland are proper road surfaces for the developing industries  and elevated walkways using the rest-product  of the drilling as the main material. Granit as blocks and gravel.

Estimate amount of local trees needed for the first incision of Collective (re)inhabitation is 90-150 trees, they  are carefully chosen according a forestry plan and dried in the old sawmill for further processing.

Design Strategy intentions 

Down at the promontory the researchers has a choose to live in a collective housing in a few converted cisterns. 

When they reach the crust of the earth the iland will be self sufficient in energy and there will be new potentials  of inhabitaions of the cisterns but as today the added volumes needs to be sufficient in energy and space. 

An analysis of drawings and photos  from archive of the yellow villa from the 17´hundreds,  a burnt down memory in history,  has informed sequences between shared and privat spaces between inside and outside.

Separating the circulation from the added volume, level both inside, outside and in-between.

a fragmented trace, has informed the intentions of the incisions. 

Creating new relations and sequences 

The structure

By mimicking the forces what the structure of the cisterns are built for, to hold fluid,  the added volume support themselves on cross laminated timber legs with three main support points,( a center a in-between/floor and wall, and a wall point) 

with an extra circular beam around the wall of the cistern to distribute the forces as even as possible.

This makes it possible to have an open entrance plan, to experience the in-between. 

At the entrance level you can experience the research exhibition as you move.

The shell of the cistern: The climate barrier, 

the in-between space, that separates the outside and the inside with a in-between, the only insertion made are for daylight, entering, reflecting and  for connecting.

Natural Light 

Without puncturing the structure with panoramas the small cutouts for the daylight gain is gently positioned without undermining the structure, so it still  structurally support itself without any massive reinforcement. (The cutouts are placed without interfering with the riveted and welded grid, the biggest ones are for connections on the two main levels.)

The sequence throughout  the space are guided by daylight cutouts. 

The main light source is by skylights in various sizes and positioned in strategic places. 

The inside of the cistern will be polished from dark material according to the path of the sun to reflect as much light as possible to the ground floor.

Some of the small circular cutouts will be working as natural ventilation when needed. Sealed by flexibel sheets of transparent material that could be hoist automatically or manually. The other cutouts are covered by sheets of  transparent material both inside and outside 

riveted on with a sealing material in-between.

The circulation, 

Ramps are guiding you in the in-between space to the  main shaded spaces, reaching the top level were it is connecting to the cistern near by used for private spaces.

The Gabion House

When the activity at the research stations on the hill gets more and more labour intensive, As they get further and further down in the mountain the thermal mass of the next phase grows. The cisterns wall gets covered with gabion boxes both inside and outside. 

The beams for the floors are inserted in the wall for the main support. The window shields are tilted to maximize the daylight intake in different directions. 

There will be rooms for visiting colleges and LAB facilities, they will share the outhouse and the main shared cistern with kitchen and activity space.

Landscape  strategy

The raised garden beds  echoes  thru the landscape.

Initiated by the center point of the cisterns and inspiration of the historical sequences from the constructed landscapes of gula villan. 

By elevated garden beds and paths you will get guides thought the lanscape. The constructed landscape is a rest product from the thermal heating project. Granit as block and gravel.

CONCLUTION-sumup

This thesis is a speculative investigation on how to develop a resilient strategy, 

Creating new narratives by contextual awareness.

It about ecological recovery, cleaning fragments of Östersjön by a slow natural process.

It about re-inhabit and activate the iland in phases by gently making incisions that could evolve over time.

Using site specific structural strategies, Reusing the structures left behind.

It´s a transition coexisting with the uncertainly of the future.