Materiality Takes Center Stage In This Holiday Home Set On A Swedish Island
- Name
- Tham & Videgård Arkitekter
- Project
- The Atrium House
- Images
- Åke E:son Lindman
- Words
- Rosie Flanagan
In the Baltic Sea, on the Swedish island of Gotland, Stockholm-based studio Tham & Videgård Arkitekter has constructed a holiday home for a family of three generations.
Built on a ridge that marks a one-thousand-year-old tideline, the single story concrete home is an innocuous addition to a vast and open landscape. Hemmed in by bucolic countryside where constant grazing keeps the forest at bay, the square home has been built in a continuous ring around an enclosed atrium courtyard. Inspired by the material qualities of Gotland’s regional agricultural architecture, the home has many vernacular touchpoints. “The masonry construction has a natural plaster color that has been mixed with carbon black, exterior metal parts made of oxidized zinc, and oak doors as well as windows that have been treated with tar oil”, explains the studio. “The large sliding glass windows are mounted on the surface of the exterior walls, according to the same principle as many barn doors.” The resultant property is both austere and welcoming; a minimalist residence that nods to the past whilst gesturing expansively to the future.
All images © Åke E:son Lindman