Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

Exploring projects that are inspired by outdoor spaces, we find an commercial project at a university in Sweden that has a “lawn” made entirely from carpet tiles…

Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden recently teamed up with startup incubator Chalmers Ventures and office hotel Stena Center to launch a new meeting venue on campus. Intended to connect the academic world, the business community, students and start ups this entrepreneurship investment aims to transform research outcomes to sustainable actions.

Architect: Torunn Ingersdotter Melander, CaseStudio AB

The new meeting space forms a shared view from surrounding office windows and walkways on multiple stories of the campus building. From the very beginning, the creatives of Stena Center had a vision of turning the meeting facilities into an upgraded artificial grass area. The intention was to create a minimalist yet playful garden creating a relaxed environment for idea generation and sharing.

CaseStudio AB managed to transform this design idea into an unconventional and stylish multipurpose room with an outdoorsy look and feel. Inspired by Vera Sandberg, the first female student to graduate from Chalmers University of Technology in 1917, the meeting venue was named “Vera’s Lawn”.

Carpet tiles turned into an inspiring garden

The idea of the lawn as a symbol and a real design element had been a vision for some time. The creative team was initially set on the artificial turf used for outdoor soccer fields to materialise the look and feel. However, it only took a few samples to realise that a more conceptual lawn of carpet tiles was by far preferable due to the visual outcome, installation and cleaning.

In opposition, the Rawline Scala Ecotrust collection manages to create the exact atmosphere requested by the creative team including architect Torunn Ingersdotter Melander from CaseStudio AB. Featuring the characteristically crafted and structured surface, the Rawline construction makes the perfect imitation of a natural underlay.

Combined by the six patterns Crepe, Denim, Denim Stripe, Stitch, Velvet and Velvet Bloom the collection brings a grass-ish look and floral elements into the décor. Kept in a number of close-to-nature green and grey shades, the look is artistic and vibrant. Various Rawline Scala tiles mark zones with different characteristics: the grey walking areas match the stone flooring in the entrance, the event zone features a large surface with irregular patterns and finally the quiet zone is equipped with tiles in deep green tones.

When talking about a challenging aspect of the project Melander explains:

“The company contracted to install the carpet tiles sent me pictures right after installing the first few square meters questioning if this was really what I intended. I asked them to stick to the scheme and explained that the random look would make sense later on. So, they carried on and luckily they felt relieved after some time[…]the fact that Rawline Scala Ecotrust carpet yarns are made from used fishing nets. In the bigger picture, this is the product feature I like the most.”

– Torunn Ingersdotter Melander, Architect, CaseStudio AB

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