House Karlsson
This one family house is situated on the northern coast of the lake Mälaren in central
Sweden. It is set in a former recreational area where, in recent years, most of the
small weekend houses has been either extended or replaced by catalogue housing.
A starting point has been the simple constructions of rural buildings and the
architecture of Swedish barns and warehouses, some traces of which can still be seen
within the extensive type house sprawl of Tidö-Lindö. The clients, a couple in their
sixties, wanted a house for themselves including space to accommodate visiting
children and friends. They had never met an architect before.
The brief was defined in two parts: a complete living floor at entrance level, and an
upper floor that is only partly finished representing a future possible extension within
the house. Aiming to meet a need for cheap construction the plan is strictly based on a
cc1200 module. Due to this and to the use of standard building components the costs
was kept extremely low, thirty to fifty percent less than average.
In contrast to the deep red exterior, the interior space is very light. It is
characterised by the three light shafts that rise through the attic to let the sunlight
enter also from above. Two are situated at the short walls of the open living room, the
third marks the position of the stair at the south gable.
Combining rooms in a suite with transverse passages the plan offers several
alternative movements through the house. Windows are placed to further enhance the
difference of the interior spaces by alternatingly directing the views low towards the
garden, far away towards the lake and the horizon, or high up at the trees and the sky
above.
The prismatic exterior is clad with an oversized wooden panel made of heartwood of
slowly grown pine and treated with red tar, a way of reinterpreting the technique of
wooden roofs that has been in use for centuries in Scandinavia, mostly in the north
and on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.
Freely placed windows in two sizes punctuate the roof and the facades. Fixed
screen-like shutters complement the varied interior light as well as the pattern of
shadow and light of the outside. All exterior fittings and details are painted in the same colour as the facade.
