At the far end of a headland in Örstigsnäs nature reserve, outside Nyköping, a striking timber structure rises up. This is the lean-to shelter Gästabudet, created by a team of architecture students as part of the Arknat project, where architecture and engineering students design and build innovative timber shelters in nature. Gästabudet consists of two long tables that extend to form the shelter’s roof. But it is also a sculptural structure to gather around – or climb on.
From concept to construction
“We wanted a floating sensation, almost as if it’s caught by the wind out there on the headland. It was an incredibly exciting opportunity to design and build something for real, to test materials and see what possibilities exist,” says Olle Falk, architecture student at Lund University.
He is part of the group that developed Gästabudet. The idea itself came from another participant, Klara Huzell, who studies architecture in Umeå.
In an intensive sketching phase, the students initially worked individually, then presented their proposals and voted on the direction for the group.
“The winning proposal was Gästabudet. It was a fundamental form and design that we as a group then continued to develop and build upon,” says Olle Falk.
The work largely involved translating an expression into a buildable structure. Such as fixings, load-bearing capacity, curved glulam beams and how variable loads affect the whole. Not least because the roof can be climbed on – and therefore must bear everything from children’s play to adults helping children down.
Here the team received substantial help from more experienced mentors.
“It was a huge challenge. We’re architecture students, and perhaps we dream away a bit in the design. But none of us are carpenters. So we had tremendous help from Ivar Håkenstad, who is a joiner and works extensively with timber constructions and restoration. At a later stage of the on-site construction we also received help from architect Lisa Yngwe at Sweco,” says Olle Falk.
History, meaning and use
The name Gästabudet is naturally inspired by Nyköping’s Gästabud, where King Birger Magnusson in 1317 starved his two brothers to death in the prison tower at Nyköpingshus. The students chose, however, not to illustrate the violence, but to transform the story into a social typology: the table, the meeting, the body in space.
The site is today used for swimming, camping and as a walking destination, and the project becomes a marker – a point that draws people to itself whilst reminding us that the landscape has several layers.
“Form follows function on the broader scale. One of the tables functions as a ramp that makes it possible to climb onto the roof. Children can run and play there, and adults can lie on the curved form to look up at the tree canopies or starry sky. It becomes a social place,” says Olle Falk.
And then the question that always comes when architecture becomes something else. When form must follow actual function. Is Gästabudet a good shelter?
“If you really think ‘form follows function’ then perhaps you should just make a timber box. But Gästabudet works as a shelter. The opening is angled away from the wind, it doesn’t leak in, you can sleep there. Two people from the group have returned and stayed overnight, and they said it was comfortable.
But perhaps they’re a bit biased too,” says Olle Falk, laughing.
Text: Mattias Boström Photo: Björn Dahlgren
