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Architects: Nyréns Arkitektkontor
- Area: 70 m²
- Year: 2021
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Photographs:Thomas Zaar
Text description provided by the architects. The yoga pavilion in Vasaparken is a result of a quick and intuitive process emerging from citizen requests to the local authorities of the City of Stockholm. The City asked landscape architects at Nyréns to produce a design for a circular pavilion made of wood on a beautiful plot in the north-western area of the park.
With a very limited budget and a demanding schedule, the design team was set up to include landscape architects, a lighting designer, the wood constructor company, and representatives from the city. After carrying out a detailed analysis of the natural context of the park, as well as its historical background as a place for healing and wellbeing, the landscape architects moved the location and reassessed the form of the pavilion.
An untapped piece of land on top of a dramatic hill facing the western entrance to the park was preferred to the original plot, an open grass area amongst large trees. This new location offers a light and airy space in the evening sun, high above the green park and a vivid city beyond. It is a place in its own right that gives a great opportunity for relaxation and reflection. In this situation, the pavilion also draws light to the area and extends the usage of the western part of the park.
The built volume was investigated to fulfill the needs of a meditative space, which, instead of a circular form, concluded in a rectangular floor in two layers. The upper floor of approximately 35 m2 gives the possibility for yoga sessions of 1-7 people, and its form gives a clear direction towards a common view. A lower terrace surrounds it, creating a frame and a step that reminds us of the arrival to this reflective space.
The design is based on traditional Swedish woodwork, with inspiration from the Japanese tea pavilion. The woodwork intends to give simple and rigid construction with a traditional knotting technique, avoiding metal fixing. Semi-transparent wood trellis, each one on a revolving axis, was designed in order to create a variable closure to the park behind. The light design aims to give the pavilion a glowing expression with a system integrated into the wood construction.
The construction was carried out by Linjon AB who is also the supplier of the wood material, processed with their own linseed-oil technique. The yoga pavilion balances on the cliff’s edge, with a sense of lightness and serenity as it announces the park the western entrance of Vasaparken, glowing like a lighthouse in the sparse Nordic light.
