Focus

Sweden’s Tengbom Architects won the architectural design competition launched by the town of Kungälv to rebuild a nature centre that had burned down at the Fontin Nature Reserve. The agency designed a new fire-resistant building inspired by the shape and texture of a pine cone, giving it its name: Kotten (which means pine cone in Swedish). The building was designed to meet environmental standards and to blend into its surroundings, achieved with its rounded shape clad in panels of Scandinavian pine and covered with a roof of sedum.
The new trail centre includes a café where visitors can warm up around a Meijifocus, as well as an outdoor space that has been restored with a new playground and sports area. Kotten was inaugurated in 2015 and was nominated for Sweden’s 2016 Årets Bygge (Building of the Year) prize.