WORLD HERITAGE LODGE
The High Coast, Sweden
Location: The High Coast, Sweden
Date: December, 2004
Type: Personal Academic Work
Graduate Design Award, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004
Critic: James P. Warfield

The High Coast in Sweden is the only hilly area around the Baltic Sea, where the islands and coastal area are wild and largely unsettled. After the latest ice age, the iceberg that was depressing the land melted away and as a reaction, the land rose 918 feet above the present sea level. The land uplift continues at a rate of 0.3 inch per year, and will further rise up to 164 feet.

The site is located in the middle of the High Coast where the sea and land meets, surrounded by a cliff, a hill, and a forest.
The architecture embraces a little part of the site not so tightly nor so loosely, but just enough for the lodgers to form several communities that have different hierarchies.
The lower part of the architecture is a concrete podium that is massive and firm whereas the upper part is a cluster of wooden boxes that are light and flexible. These two contrasting elements become a platform of observation where you can see, feel, and enjoy the changes of the High Coast.