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The feeling for Place can be strong. After 35 years in Australia, I rediscovered a block of land, close my family home, on the Swedish West coast. The fjord, rocks, cliffs, woodlands, and wetlands continue to evoke a visual and emotional sense of belonging, both to the land and its people. The simple idea behind the summerhouse is continuity with the landscape. The narrow and long form makes an efficient and practical floor plan and was developed to maximise the connection with nature – even during cold or rainy conditions. Materials and colour were chosen to be recessive as not to take away from the colours and patterns of nature.
The western facade is similar in style to the vernacular architecture of the area. However, the roof shape cleverly plays within the building controls, tiling up and down to create the ‘longhouse’ shape to maximise volume in living areas. The grey metal-clad roof and wall extrusion ends in black stained vertical pine gables. The treatment recesses the house and prevents competition with the colours of nature. The neutral interiors do not compete with external views. The exception is the green flooring, which creates a medium for vegetation to ‘flow’ through the house from one side to the other. As the house sits elevated from the road and without neighbours, the building is very private, avoiding the need for window coverings.
Materials were chosen to be robust and require minimal maintenance and to be sourced and/or made locally. In Sweden, the obvious choices are timber and steel. The building is framed in timber/LVL with OSB bracing; gables and ‘services’ box clad in pine and birch ply. The heavily insulated roof and walls are in zinc-coated steel. The triple glazed windows and doors are made locally. The granite and the woven vinyl flooring are also locally sourced. The sewer system consists of tanks and filtration to prevent run-off to the fjord 500m away, and the WC uses less than 0.5 liter/flush. Heat pumps minimise electricity usage and solar cells will reduce grid reliance in summer.
After 35 years in Australia, I rediscovered a block of land on the Swedish West coast, 200 meters from my childhood home. The fjord, rocks, cliffs, woodlands, and wetlands continue to evoke a visual and emotional sense of belonging, both to the land and its people. The simple idea behind the building is continuity with the landscape. The western facade is similar in style to the vernacular architecture of the area. However, the roof shape cleverly plays within the building controls, tiling up and down to create the ‘longhouse’ shape to maximise volume in living areas. The dark metal and timber facades recess the house and prevents competition with the colours of nature. The house-plan is divided by a timber ‘services box’, penetrating the metal facade. The free-standing timber entry porch also hides the heat pumps/plant. The two opposite wide glazed doors, highlight the connection between the living area and surrounding nature – even when doors are closed during inclement weather. Interior colours are neutral, and walls are left undecorated, as to not compete with external views. One exception is the green flooring, which creates a medium for vegetation to ‘flow’ through the house from one side to the other. The end of the living area creates a nook, with views of sunrises through the eastern wetland, and familiar night-time sightings of deer and hare along well-worn trails.
TBA
RAAarchitects, led by Erik Rudolfsson and Joseph Alliker, is an internationally award winning practice, that focuses the power of high quality design on the experience of people who use their spaces, through efficiency, sustainability, economy, innovation and beauty.
Since its establishment in 2010, its projects have included aged care, childcare, industrial, multi-residential, residential, commercial and hospitality.
