Workspace · 2024
Verk Workshop
A maker's workshop on an exposed coastal ridge, clad in tarred timber that will silver with the weather. Inside, the plan is one room and one mezzanine, sized around the machines rather than the other way round.
The brief
A workshop for making things by hand, on a ridge that takes the full weather.
A furniture maker needed a large, warm, well-lit shed on an exposed coastal site. The brief asked for a building that could be put up by a small local crew, would need no maintenance and would not look out of place among the fishing huts below.
The approach
We used the simplest form available — a long pitched-roof shed — and gave it one big north-facing rooflight over the bench. The timber frame was cut off site and raised in three weeks.
The cladding is pine, tarred the way the boats are, and left to silver. Inside, the frame is exposed and the walls are lined in birch ply so the whole building can be screwed into. Three materials, all of them from within an hour of the site.
Project facts
Location
Bohuslän, SE
Year
2024
Scale
420 m²
Role
Architecture & landscape
Client
Verk Studio
Status
Completed
Partner in charge
Erik Marklund
Photography
Atelier Nord
Plan
A long bench under a long rooflight.
The plan is a single volume. The main bench runs down the centre beneath the rooflight, machines line the sheltered eastern wall and a small office and kitchen sit in a timber box at the entrance end.
01
Main workbench, top-lit
02
Machine wall
03
Office and kitchen box
Ground floor plan
1 : 200
Weathering
The building is designed to look better every year.
Tarred timber greys unevenly at first and then settles into a consistent silver. The steel is galvanised and left dull, the concrete plinth is rough, and nothing in the building will ever need painting.
Down to the last detail
Three junctions, drawn full size.
Design intent is protected in the details, and details are decided on site. These are the three we spent the most time on.
01
Cladding to plinth
The tarred boards stop 300 mm above the rough concrete plinth, with a galvanised drip so the timber never sits in water.
02
Rooflight ridge
The glazing sits in a folded steel cap that also forms the ridge, so there is no separate flashing.
03
Birch ply lining
Sheets are set out from the bench so that every joint lines up with a rafter, and every wall is a fixing surface.
Gross floor area
Months from brief to opening
Weeks to raise the timber frame
Rooflight, the full length of the bench
“
It is the best tool in the workshop. Warm, bright, and it gets out of the way.
L. Berg
Founder, Verk Studio · Client, Verk Workshop