Studioverket - Subterranean concrete orgy when shady porn-shop goes office hub/creative co-working space.

Two young designers in architecture and sound, Per & Toki, nourished a long held dream for an office/studio environment to call their own & recently it came true when Studioverket took over the leasing contract from infamous "Blue Star".

Concrete producer, Butong, was contracted to realize
Studioverket´s concept of "homogeneous diversity" using Sealed-Air bubble in a special casting process.

New elements were produced and old projects were re-designed & tweaked for their new purpose at this basement location in bustling Stureplan area.

Portico.
The sequencing of space & placement of elements was determined by the two freshly baked entrepreneurs - Butong was then to propose design solutions. Starting with the stairs, the space needed to make a distinct division between exterior & interior space.

Architecture student Noa Ericsson was asked to design for the subjects to forget that they have gone underground.

Vertical Garden.
Spatial formation and the relation to the cold light from the vertical garden aim at mirroring the cave typology. The entrance, with its dimmed light, is the darkest space and further in where people work regularly, a lighter environment is created.

Ambience.
The four nodes of the project are connected by intricate moiré lighting effects, caused by small & sharp light sources behind transparent parts of the material, which are turned on when suitable for the setting.

Portico 02.
While the wall quickly found its form & expression, the ceiling had to take a few turns before finding its finished state. Noa, first influenced by traditional "kurbits", gradually broke the elements down to hexagonal tiles. By manipulating the hexagons bend & axis parameters in production and by flipping & rotating the tiles while installing - freedom of organic design was achieved.

Portico 03.
On the vertical surfaces, the translucent layers of concrete are removed for an organic pattern of transparency, made possible by the moiré distribution of holes. The wall is also an acoustic barrier as acoustic foam behind the panels absorb street sound, preventing it from spilling down into the lounge.

Green Wall.
The graphic organic of the entrance space has its continuation in the truly organic green-wall. A mix of seeds & plant cuttings were used. The seedlings break their way through the ultra-thin layers of concrete in the hollows & are root spread in the underlying substrate, giving a dynamic vegetation.

Green Wall 02
Lots of herbs, chillies & other edible plants are grown to be used for drinks or as spice at company events. Tenants and visitors are also invited to plant seeds, available beside the wall. Hopefully this will give create a sort of connection between people and place.

Sound Wave.
Opposite from the vertical garden a sculptural element defines the space between the two pieces. As a reference to the adjacent music studio - the shape is an illustration of sound waves, placed frozen on the wall.

Girl in the Wall.
As this used to be a shady porn shop/erotic bar, the more expressive "Girl in the wall" has found its fitting home close by the emergency exit. This one of a kind piece was created by movie producer Erik Liss, by simply casting Butong on a manikin as he stumbled through the workshop in search for a new style in fashion.

Site:

Studioverket
Stockholm, Stureplan

Concept: Studioverket

Studioverket Team:
Toki Drobnjakovic, Per Sundberg

Design:
Noa Ericsson, Erik Liss
Details, Design: Butong

Butong Team
J-C Violleau, Andreas Berkebo, Lars Höglund

Photo: www.birnee.se
Per Lundström

Links:
www.studioverket.com
www.butong.eu
www.birnee.se

Butong process description

All panels at Studioverket were made by pressing concrete in-between two layers of Sealed-Air
bubble. After pressing, the panels can be shaped for approx one hour. High strength EXM concrete is used. The leaf-thin layers of concrete - where bubbles have connected, can either be removed for transparency or be kept for translucency. In case of vegetation, mineral substrate is held in place behind the panel and the created sandwich is watered by a dripping hose at the top.