The southwestern shores of Lake Vänern, Sweden’s largest physique of water and one in every of Scandinavia’s hottest tenting locations, are shrouded in a dense forest of coniferous timber with barely a financial institution or grocery retailer miles away. On this panorama of summer time holidays, an A-frame home of unprecedented scale and materials composition has not too long ago settled on almost half an acre that’s fairly in contrast to the sequence of campgrounds and cottages that line the shores of the lake simply out of sight.
The primary home accomplished by Naturvillan, a Sweden-based architectural agency not too long ago based by Anders Solvarm and Niklas Dahlström, Atri combines crystal clear materials and structural expression with minimal environmental impression. The pointed geometry and pine tones of the encircling timber are integrated into the house’s placing exterior presence, the place two tall partitions of glass lean in opposition to one another to disclose an inside made nearly totally of wooden. At evening, the glow of solar-powered lighting radiates out from the home to light up the bushes simply exterior the perimeter.
Whereas an all-glass, principally open-plan residence could seem inefficient for heating and cooling year-round (particularly in a Scandinavian local weather), the sprawling quantity is provided with ample strategies of passive cooling (together with operable home windows and vents for cross air flow) and off-grid energy-efficient home equipment to maintain greater than sufficient power. Throughout the summer time, the photo voltaic cells on the lengthy partitions of the A-frame energy the inner battery that powers all the residence’s electrical and water heating methods, whereas a comparatively old style wood-burning kitchen oven gives warmth and sizzling water in the course of the summer time. grayer months.
The massive three-story atrium (from which the home’s title comes) is conceived as each an enclosed wrap-around veranda – full with a eating desk and lounge areas sheltered from the lakeside winds – and a conservatory that blurs the excellence between indoors and open air . A protracted row of plant beds runs alongside the whole south-facing wall, purifying the air and rising fruits, greens, herbs and spices with little upkeep, due to a fundamental irrigation system with water provided by an artesian effectively on the property.
The central inside of the bottom flooring is designed as a succession of communal areas to supply a constant view of the outside (apart from a small bed room with a skylight along with the hallway). A protracted galley kitchen with ash counter high runs parallel to the planting beds for simple entry when produce is prepared for harvest and results in the primary widespread space, itself separated from the “porch” by a sliding glass door that additional blurs the inside area. / exterior distinction.
The primary flight of stairs results in a barely smaller flooring plan with an open workplace and master suite, each of which have direct entry to an inside balcony overlooking the greenhouse, whereas a second, treehouse-like flight results in a slim roof terrace that extends gracefully over the whole atrium. Slightly below the highest of the construction, the deck provides miles of views of Lake Vänern, obscured solely by conifers.
