Connecting people to their stories.
Good designers watch other good designers. It’s really an anthropological study, seeing what people very focused on relating to the human body or human condition or human needs can build, invent, create, simulate, order or magnify.
In this very unusual case, the design is a fire place…well, really a fire hut or fire cave. And its user audience is children.
But it is its purpose for being that is outstanding: a place to talk to each other, or more precisely a special place to tell stories and let them fully unfold.
“Fireplace for children” All Photos © Jason Havneraas & Fredriksen, Grethe
This is an outdoor project for a kindergarten. Inspired by Norwegian peat huts, the wooden structure is mounted on an illuminated and polished concrete podium. The structure consists of 80 circles in layers. The circles have different radii whereby each circle is made up of 28 pieces of naturally waterproofed heart pinewood. Owing to a small budget, the architects based their structure on a large number of small pieces of wood that were scraps from a building site in the vicinity.
Where: Trondheim, Norway
Who: Haugen/Zohar architectural firm, Oslo http://www.hza.no/
For: Municipality of Trondheim
From hza:
For us, architecture is by its nature, earthbound. Drawn by and for people.
Our body of work conveys the necessity to establish links between past and future, culture and memory, between people, their stories and their surroundings. These forms of actions have to do with social engagement and participation; they have to do with the environment and expressivity of territories; they have to do with conflicts, needs and visions in our dynamic society. These forms of actions have to do with empathy.
Learn more about the fire cave, see photos and site plan, details HERE
