Project: Bikers Rest
Designed by: Marcus Abrahamsson
Client: Nola
Year: 2013

ABOUT:
Traffic lights are annoying to motorists and cyclists alike. From within the comfort of a car, waiting at a red light is a matter of keeping a foot on the brake, but for cyclists, it can be a delicate balancing act. Cyclists need to stay upright to quickly wheel out of the way of cars when the light turns green. This bollard gives cyclists a footrest to lean against and a handle to hold on to while waiting for the light to change. The metal mesh insert on the footrest provides a grip to push off from, while the handle helps the cyclist maintain an upright position and contact with the saddle. Crafted from tubular steel and extruded metal, the bollard coordinates well with most features in the urban landscape, including the traffic light itself.

Project: Archipelago Pavillion
Designed by: Marcus Abrahamsson & Benoit Croo
Client: Rhösska Museum of Design
Year: 2012 (Ongoing)

BACKGROUND:
During the summer of 2012 a pavilion built entirely of precision cut steel is exhibited at
Röhsska Museum of Design, Gothenburg, Sweden. With perforations that sift the light and
with joints that are put together by hand, it serves as a focus point in the big courtyard
while visitors can relax in the shade.
The pavilion is parametrically designed in Grasshopper and Rhino, and loads, sun and
shade, and material use has been optimized.
Steel sheets of 2 mm have been laser cut and rolled at the factory and then assembled by
hand in situ.
The pavilion is a collaboration between Röhsska museum of Design, Chalmers University
of Technology and Ribo-verken, and is the end result of 33 Architecture students’ work during
half a semester, in the master level class ‘Material and Detail’. After letting a jury select one of the 33 students initial designs, all students have worked together to develop the winning design, and to turn the project into a pavilion which is safe and constructable.

WINNING PROPOSAL
The jury selected Archipelago, by Marucs Abrahamsson and Benoit Croo. It found that it made the best use of the potential qualities of steel - using the rolling to shape the sheets-, and created clearly defined exterior and interior spaces. The design had a reasonable number of pieces and implied a reasonable work load production - and construction wise. From from the Museums point of view it was the entry that they found the most interesting from a visitors point of view also keeping the many young visitors in mind.

JURY
Martin Tamke, Dipl Ing MAA, Associate proffessor CITA Centre for Information Technology and Architecture, Copenhagen
Vanja Hermelin (representative Röhsska)
Daniel Norell (CTH)

WORDS ON THE DESIGN
”When talking to the staff at Röhsska at our first site visit, it became clear that the
courtyard, even though at the time covered with snow, could get extremely hot during
summer days. Adding this fact to the briefs’ demand for seating and the size of the empty
courtyard, we set out to create a pavilion that provided shaded seating inside it as well as
creating shaded spaces around it to place existing chairs and tables. The pavilion
therefore creates a network of spaces with the existing furniture that altogether manages
to inhabit the large courtyard, like different small islands in an archipelago, which together
with the technique of rolling the steel in to arc segments gave it its name.
Well inside the pavilion you can lie comfortably on the smooth surface that uses the steels
excellent possibility to stay cool when shaded. Inside you find yourself in a space, the
pavilion, within a space, the courtyard, that creates a small but secluded getaway from the
hectic city life of central Gothenburg that is just outside the courtyard. The perforation in
the ceiling spreads out an organic pattern resembling the one you would see from a tree in
the forest. Contrasting the smooth inside, the outside of the pavilion lets the visitor study in
detail how the 133 pieces are joint together with 1535 joints with a total of 3640 bolts
holding it together”
Marcus Abrahamsson & Benoit Croo, Initial Design

COURSE DIRECTORS
Mikael Frej Architect SAR/MSA, CTH
Frans Magnusson Architect SAR/MSA, CTH
Klas Moberg Architect SAR/MSA, CTH

TECHNICAL ADVISORS
Magnus Nilber, civ ing SVR, CTH/DIC, Head of dep.
COWI AB
Peter Olesen Marketing manager, Ribo-verken

SPONSORS
Ribo-verken
COWI, Tengbom
SBI Stålbyggnadsintitutet
Swebolt
Unit Arkitektur AB

FACTS
The steel comes from Ribo-verken.
600 kg stainless steel , 2 mm
133 unique rolled pieces
3640 screws
1535 ear-flap joints
140 bent connections
1103 m laser cut edge
The pavilion remains on the courtyard until August 19, 2012.

IMAGES
1/2/3: The finished Pavilion on the courtyard between the Röhsska museum of Designs building from 1916 and the 1960s addition to HDK School of Design and Crafts. Photos: Christer Engström
4: One of many models built before the final design was set, cardboard, 1:10. Photos: Students
5/6 : A few of the 133 pices in plan, and instruction in for the rolling. Drawings: Students
7/8/9: After receiving the files and having done the nesting of the pieces onto the steel sheets, the laser cutting begun at Ribo-verken. Preferably, there is an edge parallell to the roll, to ensure the right direction of the rolling. The edges towards the waist of the pavilion could be used for this purpose, and in no such edge existed the annotations of each piece was used. The shape of some pieces required the rolling to be stopped after a certain distance, to achieve the right shape. Photos: Students
10: Stress calculations were made and the detailing modified accordingly. During this phase several mockups were produced at Ribo-verken, the whole pavilion was redefined in Grasshopper, several versions of the computer model were tested in ANSYS to see deformations and optimize the global form.
11/12/13: Assemble was done in late May and took about 300 man hours. Small attachments where bent by hand, using a specially made tool. Starting with the bottom middle pieces, the pavilion was assembled following the manuals made. Photos: Students
14/15/16/17: At the vernissage many people spontaneously used the Archipelago Pavilion just as intended by lying down inside it, relaxing, conversing and enjoying the space in general. Photos Students.
19: Detail of the shadow play inside the pavilion. Photo Students.

Project: LOOKLET Head Office
Designed by: Marcus Abrahamsson & Kristoffer Fagerström
Client: LOOKLET
Year: 2010
Size: 600m2
Budget: 100 000 €

BACKGROUND:
Looklet is a young and fastly growing fashion company that produces an internet application for fashion brands such as H&M. Their new head office is situated at Södermalm in Stockholm in an old brewery building now holding the some of the creative industry that Sweden has gotten known for. For us, me and Kristoffer the assignment was focused on creating an office which they could grow inside in terms of staff and also a good way of handling the logistics behind all the clothes that passes in and out the studio. The work started with taking down all the existing walls to make room for the office, three meeting rooms, kitchen, lounge, the studio and a reception.
THE CONCEPT: Not knowing how the staff would grow during the coming year we aimed for a flexible open office landscape with no walls, Looklet being a fashion company, we decided to work a lot with light textiles letting the light in far to the space which is rather deep and has very little windows. The client wanted a soft and very grown up mood and in contrast to the “crazy ad offices” most of them had worked on before staring Looklet. The materials are three nuances of valchromat and 5 different types of wood.

Project: Villa Abrahamsson
Designed by: Marcus Abrahamsson
Client: Bengt Abrahamsson
Year: 2010 (Ongoing)

BACKGROUND:
In the summer of 2009 my father bought a summer house on the island of Frösön in Storsjön, Swedens fifth biggest lake. Although it was not the original idea he almost immediately decided that he wanted
to move there permanently. The work with making this a reality started in the fall of 2009.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
CONCEPT &
THOUGHTS:
Driving through the dense forest you will close in on the house which lies down by the water camouflaged by the choice of a sedum roof and massive wood walls. To allow as many functions as possible to have contact with the water without the house being too wide, blocking this narrow plot, a square footprint of the building was drawn which is cut to push back the more private rooms giving them protection from surrounding neighbours and the main plot. The facade facing you and where you enter is quite closed but with a few windows giving you a welcoming light from inside as you approach the house. Well inside you are presented with a spectacular view of the main plot and the lake through the north facades big window partitions. Directly from the hall you see the main part of the lot and the lake. The west and east facade has no windows, this to create a good focus of the view and to get as little insight from surrounding houses as possible. There was a few parameters going in to this project that became the starting point. Since my father is not in architecture or any other practical field and due to fact that we were set on building it ourselves we had to keep it relatively simple and manageable. A few keywords and a fascination for building it in massive wood beams were set early in the project. Massiveness has been the key word in the choice of materials, building in wood beams and the strive to build a rigid house was the starting point of this rule. What is the key factor in this line of thinking is the aging process of this house Locally produced materials and services. Cost effective – The total cost of this could not go over 2000 000 sek excluding the initial cost of the lot. Low-Tech vs New Tech – The building technique is an updated version of timbering which sets the felling of old and new meeting each other right from the start. This feeling is kept by choices of materials and techniques all the way through the project. Perceived as a simple and back to basics kind of building it’s still possible for my dad to put on the coffee maker from bed using his iPhone.

Project: PYLON Bench for NOLA
Designed by: Marcus Abrahamsson & Kristoffer Fagerström
Client: NOLA Industrier
Year: 2010
The bench, originated from the Konstfacks outdoor café project, has evolved into a product carefully developed by NOLA industrier. The PYLON bench.
This sleek seat is based on a traditional bench shape, wich has been dramatically transformed into a strikingly futuristic design. Taking inspiration from the pylon towers that support power lines we constructed the base of the bench from twin uprights that anchor the seat to the floor. Two layers of thick pine slats are glued together to form the seat, which is gripped between the upper reaches of the base supports. Pylon is a perfect complement to high-design interiors and cutting-edge architecture, or any setting where design takes centre stage. A one seater version is also available.

Project: FRAME Concept
FRAME Sofa feat. Swedish Pine
Client: Prototype
Year: 2010
Design: Kristoffer Fagerström & Marcus Abrahamsson
Description: Outdoor Sofa made with the FRAME Sofa-module.

Konstfack outdoor café with the furniture concept FRAME. Bachelorwork (2009)
Collaboration with Kristoffer Fagerstrom.

Text from spring exibition catalouge:
How can Konstfack communicate its inner soul in its external space?

On the basis of our new professional role as interior architects and furniture designers, in our degree project we have taken on Konstfacks outdoor café. The project has been an opportunity to work on this location as a whole and to design a series of site specific items of outdoor furniture.
The current concrete floor, which is part of the main entrance to Konstfack, has been converted from a windy no mans land to a well kept and pleasant outdoor café. Through clear choices of materials and generous design we have made it into a place for relaxation and spending time together in the sun. No pretentions, just a nice lunch in pleasant company.
With the aim of creating an interdisciplinary space, we have created a framework that lets the space react to influences and allows it to change over time. In the future when the wood content of this framework is worn out it is up to the current students to decide the content. By this we hope that the space will develop into a collage of materials. We are leaving something behind us that not only represents us and Konstfack at present but can also represent Konstfack in the future…

Lighting (2009)
Wood cube and powdercoated steel legs. The warm tone of the reflected light from the wood gives the missing piece of the puzzle when using low energy lightssources.

Stackable chair: Braid (2009)
Thick oversized felt is braided around a thin steel frame. It is a generous chair both in its proportions and its way of inviting you to sit. The braided structure along with the material gives it a soft feeling and a good sound absorbing quality.

Table: Plockbord (Pick n’ Mix Table (2008)
In this age, where the cycle of consumption is spinning faster and faster, I think that a closer relationship with your furniture can contribute to its value and life expectancy.

The table’s components comes in different materials and colors so that the users themselves can combine their own table allowing them to get a more unique and personal piece of furniture. The legs, surface and frame is connected without glue or screws. If one of the components should brake or if the user wants to change material, it should be easy, this to prevent the scenario where the whole table is thrown out.

Selected to represent Young Swedish Designers at the traveling exhibition UNG7.