Fönster mot naturen : den landskapliga infattningen av Bruno Mathssons glashus i Kosta

Sammanfattning: The main purpose with this thesis has been to study the design philosophy of Bruno Mathsson, how he worked with his houses and the landscape surrounding them and which kind of inspiration sources he had. My work started when I during the autumn 2004 got involved in an existing project related to one of his glass houses. The glass house is situated in Kosta and has during the last fifteen years suffered from so much vandalism and decay that it has become a problem for the municipality of Lessebo. The intentions are to restore the house and to transform it to a center for Swedish design, also containing a store and a café as well as hosting one apartment for scholarship students. My task in this project was to form and develop the outdoor environment in connection to the house. During my writings I have studied literature about Bruno Mathsson and his contemporaries. I have also paid visits to several other glass houses in Sweden made by Bruno Mathsson during the fifties and the sixties. The work is divided into two parts, where part one is a kind of investigation and search for the inspiration and design philosophy of Bruno Mathsson. Part two is a design proposal, where I am using the conclusions made under part one. Part one During my investigations I have made clear that Bruno Mathsson was an optimistic modernist with naturalistically elaborated bounds. He got inspired by worldwide known architects as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright and Mies van der Rohe, but he also found ideas in the ancient traditions of Japanese wooden house constructions. Bruno Mathssons distingnishing work for Swedish architecture was his so called glass houses. The glass went to be a kind of role model for many of the modernistic architects. It was ascribed to represent modernity, exclusiveness and often almost divine properties. Bruno Mathsson gave his own interpretation to the spirit of the time. As the healthy and nature-loving man he was, the glass in his houses can be seen as a way to open up mans living to nature, to erase the border between indoor and outdoor as far as possible. Part two My proposal is the result of an intimate cooperation with one indoor architect and one antiquarian. Both of them has acted as initiators and leaders of the project to restore and transform the glass house in Kosta. Many, on spot case studies and discussions with other contributors to this project has been the pillars for my sketches and my solutions. My final proposal for the near environment to the house and purposed center, has also got its roots from my studies of Bruno Mathsson and other modernists related to him.