Lovisa Bernrup

The 50-year-old office building KV Hugin in the centre of Uppsala was previously a government building and a symbol for an expansive period in Sweden’s history. The building has now been demolished. Through sand casting techniques, traditional craftsmanship and the transformations of discarded objects from the building’s demolitions, I aim to tell an alternative story to demolition. How could an office building from 1976 be transformed into apartments and a makerspace?

The design process is based on site visits, model making, colour and material studies and reference studies of dismantling techniques for the reuse of building materials. The purpose of my degree project is to explore unfinished spaces and their connection to creative behaviours in ateliers, makerspaces and wood workshops. Instead of being demolished, could the Hugin complex become an atmospheric and playful space where we dare to fail, mess up, break things and imagine, and find joy in creativity?