Robus: as strong as oak

Abstract

In Sweden buildings stands for more than 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions from a life cycle perspective. At the same time 40% of all the energy usage in Sweden comes from electricity and heating the buildings we live in.1 How we produce, use and maintain them have to change. An extract, make, use and waste methodology is out of date. Raw materials have to be treated as carefully as possible while the already used and refined materials have to be treated not with an expiration date but as something just as valuable. Therefore renewable materials should be used as frequently as possible when designing and planning new projects. They should also be considered to be reused or modified in the future when the needs of the user will change. The result of the thesis is a new established hiking hut village, consisting of three units, by the foot of Sweden’s highest mountain peak Kebnekaise next to a famous attraction in the valley called Lisa’s Hut where a lot of hikers pass throughout the year. The cabins includes facilities such as beds, toilet, shower, kitchen and living room for a large family or group of eight people with the possibility to accommodate a few extra people if needed. The function of the cabins are similar to the already existing network in the Swedish mountains and are therefore attached to the booking and renting sites that exists.2 The focus on the modular cabins is to be fast and easily mantled, designed to be placed off grid and to give a perception of a robust feeling even though it is modules combined together. This modular building system with a robust wooden material and an engineered joinery construction will merge into a durable and long lasting hiking cabin to be shared by hikers visiting the area.