In the shadow of the mighty Skuleberget mountain there is a building, inspired by the extraordinary nature. A building which has come about with the aid of ‘geological surgery’, a precise incision made into the bedrock.
The landscape forced down by the inland ice is now springing back and rising out of the sea. Nowhere is this land uplift phenomenon more extreme than along the High Coast, which is the reason for the area being included in UNESCO’s natural world heritage list and the High Coast is the only hilly area around the Baltic Sea. The task was clear: Create a nature centre that acts as a gateway to the countryside without trying to compete with the 295 metre-tall Skuleberget mountain.
It would obviously be impossible to try to draw attention away from it and a building at the foot of Skuleberget has to work like David against the mountain’s Goliath. We concentrated instead on identifying links to the mountain, allowing ourselves to be inspired by this globally unique environment.”
When a boulder is cracked or a tree trunk split, fracture surfaces are created. Interesting geometric patterns and angular displacements that provide a rich and varied expression.
It is precisely this coarse and anything but regular feel that characterises the High Coast nature centre. The simple, straight base of the building, dominated by icy glass surfaces, is crowned with large, irregular bodies that rise up through the roof and are reminiscent of large erratic boulders.
The exterior colouring also uses a range of greys, with concrete and bre cement the dominant materials.