Dissolving boundaries; Architecture Between Building and Landscape

Abstract

This master’s thesis explores how architecture can dissolve the boundaries between building and landscape to engage with the surrounding natural context, focusing on the design of a new visitor’s center in the nature area of Skutberget, Karlstad. Public architecture in natural environments has the potential to shape how people connect with both each other and the landscape around them. Yet, buildings in natural contexts often risk becoming disconnected, intrusive objects rather than meaningful extensions of their surroundings. Architecture within sensitive landscapes must therefore be carefully integrated to support a deeper relationship with place, creating meaningful spaces that exist in harmony with nature. The theoretical framework of the thesis draws on Norberg-Schulz, Zumthor and Pallasmaa, emphasizing site character, atmosphere and a multi-sensory experience of architecture through natural light, tactile materiality, spatial continuity and thoughtful detailing. Visual case studies, including Barcelona Pavilion by Mies van Der Rohe, Nordic Pavilion by Fehn, and Leça Swimming Pools by Siza, among others, illustrate strategies for visual, material and spatial continuity between indoors and outdoors, while functional case studies of Swedish outdoor recreation centers provide insight into programmatic requirements. The research is synthesized into design principles for dissolving boundaries and a tailored space program for a reinterpreted outdoor recreation center. These principles guide iterative sketching, drawing, modeling and visualization throughout the design process, leading to the final proposal. The outcome is a context-sensitive proposal that dissolves the boundaries between building and landscape, strengthening the user’s connection to nature through design. The thesis contributes to a broader discussion on architecture in natural contexts, arguing for a more empathetic and experience driven architectural practice rooted in atmosphere, landscape and embodied experience rather than object-driven form-making. By reframing boundaries as experiential rather than purely physical conditions, the project highlights architecture’s potential to support a deeper connection to nature. Skutberget Visitor’s Center further reinterprets the Swedish motionscentral typology by prioritizing the experience of nature alongside functional spaces, offering an alternative approach to public recreational architecture in nature.