An archipelago residence with spaces for both social activities and privacy, making the most of an exceptional location. That was the vision for this summer house in the northern Stockholm archipelago, which combines Japanese simplicity with Scandinavian cottage traditions.
The house is located on an island and is surrounded by the forest and the sea. In order to maximize these qualities, we let the site lead the way when creating the design: With its elongated shape, window setting and the location of the rooms and the patios, the design maximizes the outlook on the water and the unspoilt nature. An unusual circumstance – and a clear challenge – was to preserve the small cottage that was already on the site. The cottage is connected to the new house through a common roof and together they form a new whole. In addition to the Scandinavian traditions the house draws inspiration from Japan, in an interpretation where simplicity, wood and the relationship with the surrounding nature are at the heart of the architecture.
A narrow site high up on a precipice overlooks the inner Stockholm archipelago to the south. It meets a dense row of pine trees to the west and a softer grove of deciduous trees to the east. One enters the site from the north, where a generous staircase mediates the initial steep south-facing slope. The stairs follow a concrete wall that forms the spine of the structure, and lead the visitor downwards between the concrete wall on the one side and a wooden volume on the other. The staircase leaves the visitor at a gap in the concrete wall, providing a glimpse of the garden on the other side. The promenade continues along the closed wall, towards the view and the water, now flanked to the west by the row of pine trees. A second opening in the wall presents the entrance to the house and extends a passage through and across it, into the garden.
The location is the outer Stockholm archipelago. Tall pines give the forested site an untouched character. The house is placed in a clearing with a high position in the landscape, on a plateau facing the sea in the north. The property has been in the family for a long time with a couple of small complementary buildings, a boathouse and a guesthouse, that has been used for vacation stays. As the family grew with a new generation, the need for a larger house with more space followed.
The starting point is the direct relation to the dramatic archipelago landscape with the objective to offer within a simple frame – a platform – several diverse readings of the relation space-nature.
Conceived as a light weight construction in wood and glass, this summerhouse is built in the outer Stockholm archipelago. The horizontal character of the black stained exterior relates to the verticals of tall grown pines and the mirrored views of the Baltic Sea.
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