BOROBORO

Location: Björkalund, Norrköping
Type: residential buildning
Status: competition entry 2022, winning proposal, ongoing
Area: ca 7500 sqm BTA
Client: Norrköpings kommun, Kvarnstaden
Collaboration: Kvarnstaden

With the Boroboro proposal, Spridd has designed a groundbreaking new plus-energy wooden house that meets the high demands for low energy consumption, great flexibility in use over time and numerous social interactions. With a large courtyard and clear connections to the surrounding landscape, the project becomes an asset to the neighborhood. The courtyard becomes a safe place for play and communal activities around water, recycling, gardening and play.

Boroboro, a Japanese expression for something that is worn and patched but it is also a style with clearly presented patches and seams that refines and enriches the garments' expression while being both cost and resource-efficient.

The houses have relatively wide building volumes with large, almost flat roofs and minimal protruding installations to meet high standards for both low energy consumption and space for the renewable electricity production. The architecture is based on the possibilities of wood construction for energy-efficient and flexible construction – a flexible system that can be adapted to different requirements for apartment distribution and use over time during the design and construction phases. A well-insulated building is surrounded by surface-mounted cantilevered balconies and terraces. This forms a layer around the building that provides extra spaces and more movement possibilities for all apartments, a cladding layer that can be customized and adapted to recycled building materials in a flexible manner. It also acts as a shield against visibility and sun, when it is hottest, and it creates a semi-private zone between the courtyard, street and individual rooms.

The repetitive structure allows for many different ways of living and inhabiting. The shape of the house is characterized by recycled materials that have undergone minimal processing after being dismantled from previous buildings. From the inside out, materials are used where they fit in and meet the necessary technical requirements in the flexible design principle. It is an inclusive and permissive architecture that accommodates both solitary and shared living in the apartment's private sphere, semi-private terraces and conservatories or in common rooms and outdoor areas in the courtyard. Areas for play are central, as are solutions that facilitate reuse, recycle and cultivation in the courtyard.

Boroboro is a project with circularity in focus, both in terms of building and material usage as well as the homes' ability to adapt and evolve over time as the residents' needs change.

The competition is partly financed by Vinnova and has been organized in collaboration with Sveriges Arkitekter (Swedish Association of Architects), Chalmers University of Technology, and Halmstad University.