Tubakuba

The project of this tuba-tunnel, hidden behind trees in the forest of Bergen’s most famous mountain, is the result of a design-build workshop at Bergen School of Architecture lead by Espen Folgerø at OPA FORM architects.

Tubakuba is a 14 square meter room with a view, somewhere between a tent and a cabin, that you enter through a “tuba tunnel”. The feeling of floating over the city is highly present, especially when you get closer to the large windows facing the steep hill down towards the city center. The project also wants to be an experience for the hikers, Sunday strollers and the neighbor kindergarten. Sheltered under the cottage you will find a nice picnic area – and the tuba tunnel can function as a shelter for rain, for fun and play.

Tubakuba is constructed of 95 percent wood. The interior is clad in plywood, while flexible wooden boards of the western Norwegian pine and the exterior is clad with burned larch. The characteristic tunnel consists of curved shavings of pine mounted in layers to provide sufficient strength, while the south wall is clad with untreated larch, which will turn gray with time. The burned cladding is made with the traditional Japanese method Shou Sugi Ban. This is a treatment to prevent fungal decay and damage.

With no electricity, the project is the only off-the grid hotel-room in Bergen. It aims to minimize the need for heating by minimizing the indoor volume. The materials chosen for the construction and insulation is wood all the way through the walls, floor and ceiling. The bent strips of wood in the entrance can be found as shavings from sawmill production and the cladding is made by carbonizing (burning) second grade wooden cladding planks. Inside the walls, roof and floor the insulation consists of wooden fibers – a hygroscopic material that allows for the construction to breath, excluding the need for mechanical ventilation.

Tubakuba, Bergen, Norway
Program: cabin
Students: Gunnar Sørås, Bent Brørs, Ida Helen Skogstad, Adrian Højfeldt, Eivind Lechbrandt, Alice Guan, Luise Storch, Eline Moe Eidvin, Shepol Barzan, Øyvind Kristiansen, Stein Atle Juvik, Eva Bull, Kristian Bøysen and Sondre Bakken
Professors: Espen Folgerø, Håvard Austvoll, Sigurdur Gunnarsson and Hans Christian Elstad
Financial support: G.C. Rieber Funds
Area: 14 sqm
Completion: 2015