​The Domestic Machine: A Hybrid Approach to the Arvid Nordquist Roastery

Sammanfattning

This thesis proposes the adaptive reuse of the decommissioned Arvid Nordquist coffee roastery (1960–1963) on the border of Solna and Sundbyberg. In what ways can the transformation of industrial structures into hybrid buildings prolong their lifespan?By what methods can intangible heritage be maintained when a building undergoes a fundamental change in its intended use? The roastery is a modernist “corporate home” (handelshus) designed by the prolific yet uncredited industrial architect Karl G. H. Karlsson. Facing an indeterminate future in one of Sweden’s rapidly gentrifying areas, the project conceptualizes the factory as a hybrid evolving place. Through subtractions—lifting the warehouse roof and carving a V-shaped atrium into the office wing—the massive industrial volume is opened up to house a hybrid program of housing, an artisanal marketplace, and a walled public garden. The design inserts independent wooden volumes into the raw concrete frame, treating the building’s monumental mushroom pillars as spatial generators. By preserving the physical edges of the concrete slabs and emulating the site’s historical allotment gardens (kolonilotter), the architecture ensures that the intangible “cultural experience value” and original rituals of occupation remain embedded within the transformed space.