Skrea Pavilion
Situated in the West Coast of Sweden and surrounded by a landscape formed by farmland, forest and the presence of the ocean, the Skrea Pavilion is an addition to the Ählström family's summer house complex.
Initially commissioned as a building to storage summer furniture and leisure equipment during the winter, the pavilion’s design proposal suggested two additional functions to take place during the summer season: a guest room and a contemplating space - a concept that flourished naturally due to the imposing presence of the landscape and the desire to utilise the building’s potentials in all 4 seasons.
Due to the restricted budget, the construction was commissioned to a single carpenter, who had the task to build the entire structure without the use of any heavy machinery and cranes. In order to meet the challenge, the design structural concept was based on two architectural basic premises: The first one consists of elements that would not exceed in weight and height a single human capacity of assembly. The second, a building that would be lifted from the ground and perceived as a platform floating over the landscape, in order to minimize the impact in the terrain. Inspired by the local Swedish farm typology, a set of sliding doors were placed in both sides of the structure in order to define the level of transparency and privacy between the summer complex and its surrounding. The sliding doors, combined with the pavilion configuration, work as adjustable view frames, creating a mutant dialog between the complex’s courtyard and the open landscape.
An atrium with an open skylight was introduce in the guest room in order to allow the visitors to fall asleep while observing the leaves of the Birch trees moving with the ocean winds of the region, documented by light and shadow ,through the vertical glass wall, on the room´s wooden wall surface.
