European Landscape Architecture: Best Practice in Detailing

Sweden

and constructed dry wall of two different kinds of

Swedish granite. These have a robust character,

with a rough surface marked by the wedges of

the stone craftsmen, open joints and small wedge

stones, inserted as stabilisers for the whole con-

struction. This is an example of best practice in

traditional stonework. The coping of wall consists

of turfs of Sedum, but these have proved hard to

establish.

The Balconies

The Balconies are intended to be pieces of cabinet

making, like ‘cigar boxes pushed into the slope’.^7

The design is a contribution by architect Anders

Lidström. They are placed in the eastern part of the

park, in the slope from the Lawn up to the gravelled

walk. They are elevated approximately 1m above

the level of the Lawn. You enter the Balcony by

climbing a few steps from the walk. As with the

Scouts, this small elevation reinforces the form and

identity of the element.

The construction consists of a platform of concrete

sitting on concrete columns upon a cast concrete

foundation. On top of the concrete platform lies a

wooden decking of azobe. The enclosing walls do

not have a supporting function, and would more

correctly be described as an embracing fence. The

outside covering of wood is like a façade covering

the supporting structure.

The framing fence, height about 1.1m, is covered

on the inside with horizontal wooden laths. On the

outside the covering is made of small, thin pieces

of wood, like a traditional spåntak or chip roof. The

chips are tarred, giving a dim black impression that

at the same time is impregnating and protective

to the wood. The façade facing the lawn is slightly

tilted like the outside façades of the Node. On this

side there is also an opening in the fence, like a

peephole to the park and the sea. In the opening

there is a grid made of circular steel, following the

tilt of the fence. The fence has a coping lath of teak

with carefully rounded edges. The lath is screwed

on to steel sheets, that are fixed to brackets on the

fence posts. The outside façade is illuminated dur-

ing the hours of darkness by lighting fittings hidden

under the coping lath of wood.

At the entrance to the Balcony is a tree, which gives

the impression of being planted in a box, though

actually it has a pit in the slope below.

8.17

Face of the wall

8.18

Surface of the in-situ cast concrete paving

8.19
Photo of the scale model of a balcony