KARIN MATZ ARKITEKT

Category: Architecture

HB6B – one home

HB6B – one home – Stockholm, Sweden 2013

When the apartment on Heleneborgsgatan in Stockholm, Sweden was for sale in 2012 it had been used as furniture storage for 30 years. The previous owner had begun a renovation in the 1980s but fell ill and the apartment was left untouched until his death. Time had been frozen; wallpaper was half removed, only a few tiles and a kitchen faucet were sticking out of a wall, there was no electricity and a bathroom only with signs of rats as inhabitants.

In a city like Stockholm with an enormous housing shortage and with every square meter increasing in price by the minute, this story was somehow impossible to understand and resist.

The finished apartment is a result of a fascination for this; a try to let the previous layers and stories of a space live on and at the same time fill the requirements for the new story that will take place.

The apartment is 36sqm and the goal was to fit everything desired by the occupant. In this case: generous spaces, airy sensation, walk in closet, all appliances for everyday life, a large luxury shower / bath, different possibilities of movement, a space which could be divided when wanted. Finally it had to be LIGHT and INEXPENSIVE!

The result is an apartment divided in two parts. One where everything is part of one structure, which is based on the Ikea kitchen units. Everything in this part is completely redone with electricity inside the walls and with all surfaces painted white in order to bring in and reflect light. Here all the functions are squeezed in on top of, in-between, under and inside each other. Bedroom, kitchen, wardrobe and storage are all one.

The second part is left with things free-standing with all surfaces more or less as they have been for the last 20 years. The holes in the the walls have been filled in, loose wallpaper and paint taken down and electrical cables and outlets have been added running on the outside of the walls.

The bathroom becomes the connection between the two parts

.

May 11, 2014
Föhr

Föhr, Nordfriesland, 2012 –with Francesco Di Gregorio

On a small island in the North Sea, in the former hay storage of a traditional farmhouse, we re-make the space with a wood structure covered by 3.200 tiles, each with a hand-made circular hole, 500 mt of polypropylene blue rope and treated pine wood.

Due to its geographical location, Föhr is very much in the hands of natural forces. The area has a big tide. When the water is low you walk over to other islands. It is a flat island and a large part of it is below sea level. To protect the island man made grass-walls surrounds half of the island. Still, every autumn when the big storm-floods arrive, the island goes on alert. 1634 an enormous flood erased most of the houses on the island and reshaped the map. It is a though climate for permanent inhabitants; at the same time the island changes completely in the summer months when the population raise from 8500 to 40 000 due to tourism. Föhr is an island belonging to Germany but first and foremost to Nordfriesland. The Friesians have their own language and culture. In the 17th century a school of navigation was founded on Föhr and many people became sea captains sailing on Asia and North America. Sailing on other countries brought back the tradition of ceramics and tiles from Asia. Being rich was to have as many painted Friesian tiles as possible on your dining room walls. Wood used inside was painted in Friesian colors, which are different nuances of blue-green. Beds were traditionally in bed-boxes. Houses were always in brick with thatched roofs. The rooms were small, dark and all the same size.

Our project starts with re-opening the space by taking down all dividing walls except for the ones surrounding the bathroom. A new volume is added which becomes the central wall going through and unifying the space. It is covered in ceramic tile with a simple pattern given by blue colored cement coming out through hand- drilled holes. The pattern is the result of a client having time but a limited budget. Tiles are white standard 10X10 and hand drilled by the client and us. Light is brought through the reflective ceramics and the translucent doors. Threads frame the staircase creating a transparent threshold. The bedrooms are dark bed-boxes, private like nests.

August 23, 2012
Tiles and Concrete

Tiles and Concrete, Lasagnana – Tizzano Val Parma – Italy, 2011 – with Francesco Di Gregorio

Located in Lasagnana, on a tiny street in the middle of Val Parma in Italy, the ground level of a former stable from 1897 has been converted into an apartment / studio for a young couple.

Dimensions and forms come from the positions of existing elements: windows, walls and columns. The strongest element of the stable was, for us, the “whole space” which we fell in love with. A bathroom is the only volume added, completely covered in white 10×10 cm tiles that bring light and uniformity. It is a freestanding structure where space has been turned inside out. Inside are the functions needed, outside the circulation. The bathroom stands on a new concrete floor, which is separated from the existing walls and columns by a gap framed by steel plates that define the floor’s limit and absorb its flows. The electrical connections hang on stainless steel wires which also support vertical elements dividing the space. The “whole space” is the bathroom, the bathroom is the “whole space”, all supported by a uniform slab.

Legolands by Francesco Di Gregorio Karin Matz from Karin Matz on Vimeo.

August 23, 2012
66 m Lima

66 m Lima, Peru, Competition, 2012 – with Di Gregorio Associati

Extra everything

The project is built up of units. Each unit is a free space where rooms and gardens can be assembled in various ways. The circulation is kept on the side of the units in order to keep the space inside flexible and free in plan. It is a double height garden unit. It is closed to the neighboring sites providing privacy but open to the park and the sea for light and views. To achieve open-air gardens, the units are shifted back and forth so that each unit has one part where it is open to the air for a minimum of 12 m. The terraces face south and north in order to take advantage of the particular location of Lima where the sun arcs across both the northern and southern sky depending on the time of the year. The actual house sits comfortably behind a layer of private gardens.

Each unit has a flexibility-floor through which all pipes and services run. From the floor the pipes are connected to a shaft in the circulation zone. The floor also holds the gardens and the pool. It is possible to have the gardens, the pool or other recessed objects wherever desired, within the structure of the floor. The floor and walls are naturally ventilated due to their double structure. The only object that interrupts the units is a solarpipe that goes through the entire building with high reflective mirrors and a translucent glass in order to bring light into the deeper parts of the building. The entrance floor holds a cafe and the rooftop holds a communal pool and garden area.

The project creates 10 private garden houses in the sky with direct connection to both the pacific Ocean and the Golf Park / city of Lima all the way to the Andes.

August 23, 2012
Moving “the same”

Moving “the same”, Nacka, Sweden, 2010 – with Francesco Di Gregorio

Rebuilding a burned down atrium/semi-detached house.

The municipality made it clear that the new building should keep the same shape, materials and colors as the burned-down house. So that is what we did…..almost.

The new building looks almost the same from the street. The exterior walls facing the private courtyard are almost the same, except for the window setting which is redone….but redone in a way that makes it is even more the same than the original. The only thing done to the facades that is not the same is that one part is movable. But movable in the spirit of the same, since it is hidden when closed. If you want, you have the possibility to push a part the same into your living-room and to make it something very different. Apart from the same, we have worked with light and sight lines since this is one of few “edge-houses” in the area, which means that is has a connection with nature on two sides. On one side is the very organized atrium garden and on the other side the wild nature. Windows are only 40 cm from the ground, making it possible to walk/climb through them if desired.

August 21, 2012
Åke – the lawn mover

Åke – the lawn mover, Stockholm, Sweden, 2010 – with Svensk Standard

In the summer, it’s always nice to go somewhere. In Stockholm, many of the people leaving the city go out to the archipelago at the edge of the Baltic Sea. It is nice there. Some people go boating (or sailing) and many just stay at their summer houses doing (usually not a lot of) things like reading and having barbecues at a lawn close to the house. If they are lucky the lawn is also close to the water. This is very popular. So popular that the prices of these summer houses limit most people from actually experience this local eden. Thus many Swedes of middle to lower income travel to places like Thailand with cheap charter flights and cheap hotels.

We wanted to hang out on a lawn, reading and having barbecues. But we also wanted to hang out in the city, and we thought that it would be a little boring to be in the same place the entire summer. Lucky for us there is a lot of water in Stockholm. It is, after all, often referred to as “Venice of the North”. So we decided to build a floating lawn with a small engine to move it around.

August 21, 2012
Plug-in

Plug-in, Nynäshamn, Sweden, 2011, Europan Competition – with Francesco Di Gregorio

The area in 200 years…

August 21, 2012
Blocket Mini

Blocket Mini – Reuse and leftovers, Saltsjöbaden, Sweden, 2009

In Sweden 80 % of the population has used the homepage blocket.se, which is similar to e-bay. In 2007 the total value of ads on the homepage was equal to 5,5% of the countries GDP. You could say that it is the largest shop in the country. In architecture this shop is not very present. The Blocket project looks into what architecture could look like if Blocket was the only catalogue of material available. The result is a building which consist of a mix of reused old materials and new materials left over from renovations or just wrong purchases. Windows are the main building element of the building since they are the most common and cheap material available on the site.

The Blocket Mini project is a built experiment based on a research project where blocket.se and the reuse of material in general were discussed, and an in-fill housing building (in Stockholm) was designed using the reached conclusions.

The Blocket Mini project consists of two rooms in a garden. One of the rooms is a boathouse (storage) and the other is a dining room/ bedroom. The house is 15 sqm which is the Swedish limit for building without a building permission.

August 21, 2012
Möja

Löka, Möja, Sweden, 2010

Interior renovation of a summer house from 1978. The house was considered claustrophobic, dark and with a clumsy fireplace blocking the space.

Instead of seeing the fireplace as a problem, it becomes the central core of the house. All walls surrounding the fireplace in the main room are taken down and the space is painted white to increase the sensation of volume. Since you now come out directly from the bedrooms into the main space, a storage wall was placed in-between in order to create a threshold and a sense of privacy. Massive doors are changed into window-doors and a new connection is made to the back with a new door. The house’s relationship with its surroundings changes due to this new connection. Previosly, the house was only turned towards one side; now it is a house that you pass through, going from one part of your garden to the other.

August 21, 2012
Blocket House

Blocket House, Research and design project, Stockholm, Sweden, 2008 – diploma project

Blocket.se is similar to ebay and is Sweden’s number one second-hand market for everything from cars to textiles. In 2007 the total value of ads on the site was equal to 5,5% of the Swedish GDP. The project begun with the question; since Blocket is such a large part of the Swedish economy, why not use it as a material bank/catalogue for architecture in the same way that new materials are? And what would this mean for the architecture produced?

The project was divided in two parts:

1. Researching and cataloguing – A handbook was produced containing research of architecture using second-hand materials. What materials can be found, and what are the problems and possibilities with them? What projects have been done with reused and left-over materials?

A material catalogue was aslo produced with materials from blocket.se during one month, divided into categories.

2. Design of a small infill apartment building in central Stockholm using the catalogue and conclusions from phase 1. The proposal is a solid structure where the apartment layouts can differ depending on what materials are found on Blocket at the particular moment. The dividing wall are proposed to be mainly made out of windows, which is the most common building component in the Blocket catalogue since many people today change their old low-insulted windows into new and better ones. Since most of the old windows and walls found on Blocket usually have high U-value the house has an extra green house layer which helps create an in-between space, contributing to heating up the apartment and at the same time becoming an extra area 8-10 months a year.

The issue with the windows being poorly insulated creates an architecture where “the problem” becomes the main characteristics of the building enabling flexibility and an additional new space “in-between”.

Project Proposal

August 21, 2012
Mixed Projects

Random Mixed Projects

FOLLY Competition Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, USA, 2012 – with Francesco Di Gregorio

Balangero, Italy, Competition, 2011 – with Gianni Di Gregorio, Francesco Di Gregorio, Vanni Meozzi, Christian D’Elia, Giacomo Mion, Francesco Musetti

A competition where the municipality of Balangero wanted to regenerate an old asbestos mine with a tourism and research center

1975 + 2010, Apartment Stockholm, 2010

The building was from 1975 and by 2010 nothing had been changed. We decided to do a renovation where we were careful to keep the 1975-athmosphere while at the same time letting it collide with 2010. The apartment was in big need of storage and desk spaces.

Connection – Extention, Sweden, 2010

Proposed extention for turning an old Summerhouse into a Permanent Villa

Järva Cemetary, Sweden, 2010, with Kristin Gausdal – Competition

Open – Closed , Malmö, Sweden 2011 – under construction

A tiny house in a small villa garden with two functions that need to be able to be used with flexibility; complete separate, as one unit, as two different functions sharing the same bathroom. etc. In order to not have to use fire-glass in the green house part, the bathroom, functions as a fire-gate in-between the two units.

Remake Parma Central, with Francesco Di Gregorio, 2011

Interior refurbishment apartment, Parma, Italy

One in One – Sweden, 2009

Proposal for a mini-living-unit and a green house. The mini-unit is put inside the greenhouse in order to take advantage of the heat produced and the in-between zone which can be used a minimum of 8 months a year.

The Journey, with Kristin Gausdal 2010, competition entry – architecture festival montpellier

2500, km – 25, 60X60 boxes, one being filled each 100 km of the trip from Stockholm, Sweden to Montpellier, France creating a garden out of a journey; a european story.

DIF arena, Frihamnen, Stockholm , 2007- with Francesco Di Gregorio

Old-New, Nacka, Sweden, 2010

A kitchen for a house from 1936, mixing the style of 1936 with modern style and technology.

Europan, The Flexible Grid, Dunquerque, 2009, with Kristin Gausdal

Module Royal, competition proposal for a new housing area in Nässjö, Sweden, 2007, with Anders Berensson & Ulf Mejergren

PIR, a baltic research station and lighthouse, 2007, with Anders Berensson

Kvist, 2007, with Anders Berensson – A flexible wall unit with integrated light.

Plastpantaren, 2007, with Anders Berensson – A machine turning grocerybags into handbags

10 Pounds, Chair, Edinburgh, 2004

Chair made with a material budget of 10 Pounds, Edinburgh

Can you sea me? a temporary space for the mondern dance theatre, 2007

August 21, 2012