Patrik and Anna Johall looked for for years to find an escape in nature, such as an escape from their main home in Boras, Sweden.
“Just when we were very young, Patrik had the dream of having a house next to the lake,” said Mrs. Johall, now 50, executive director of Superstudio, a creative agency that Mr. Johall founded.
“We pray in some houses in the last 20 years,” said Johall, 51, a photographer and partner of Superstudio. But nothing worked.
When the right property is finally found in 2018, he had the splendor they longed for, but it was not an escape: the lot in front of the sea in Lake Oresjo was little more than a mile of his house, which he shared with his two children.
“He feels very remote even thought he was close to the city,” said Johall. “It’s 10 minutes by car to enter the city center.”
The half acre lot, which they bought for around $ 200,000, was not exempt from challenges. He rose abruptly from the lake as a beautiful rock and trees disaster; There was a small primitive cabin in its place that should be demolished; And the main access was through a narrow and private road.
The lack of a flat construction site led some of the couple’s acquaintances to doubt their choice. “Everyone was a count of us,” Oh, you are such idiots. Are you trying to build on that property? How will that work? “Johall said.” But we never doubt it. “
To get help, they resorted to the architecture firm Classon Koivisto Rune and developed a concept for four separated by the hillside instead of a single larger house.
“The concept was almost like a rock crystal,” said Marten Claesson, a partner of Claesson Koivisto Rune, with perfect cubes emerging from the landscape.
The largest of the structures is a 700 square feet bucket containing the main space and the main bedroom. With the aim of disturbing the earth as little as possible, the architects placed it on a single concrete column that descends to the rock. “It’s like a fungus, almost,” said Claesson.
The house turns 45 degrees to lean towards the lake, with an exterior divided horizontally “as a line of Ecuador,” Claeson said. The background, where the living spaces are, is all glass; The upper part, where the walls wrap a roof terrace, is made of galvanized steel.
Inside, a narrower cube in the center of the structure is covered with dark -colored ashes and has private and functional elements, including a bathroom and storage cabinets. Roted 45 degrees to the rest of the house, creates four separate spaces in the corners of the largest cube, which serve as living room, dining room, kitchen and main bedroom.
As a final touch, the Johalls selected metal and mitigal light switches of buster + punch, which resemble the lever switches that could have been taken from a personalized guitar or vintage car.
“The house is so small that we investigate the details, all the furniture,” since each piece would affect the general sensation of space, said Johall.
Closer to water, a cube of 323 square feet with a kitchen and a small bath offers a space for life and sleep for the two children, now teenagers or guests. On the edge of the water, a 108 square feet bucket holds a sauna with a wooden bench of curved and marble tiles Nero Marquina, as well as a laundry area. The fourth cube is near the road and provides a garage.
The construction blessed in August 2020. “He was supposed to take a year,” said Johall, “but played two years.” The project faced numerous delays from the peaks related to the pandemic, the advertising climate and the complications that obtained materials at the construction site.
“We are hiding that they are allowed to drive heavy trucks on the road during the winter,” said Mr. Johall, which was a problem since my deliveries needed to come with a crane that could reduce the materials to the construction site.
The team ended up making the helicopters do some of the final deliveries. “That was a good idea, and something we should have done much earlier,” said Johall.
As the project advanced, the construction cost was shot at more than $ 1.5 million, more than double what the couple had initially budgeted. But it was an investment that they believe it was worth it. As creative professionals, they were anxious to realize the most ambitious architecture they could dream of Classon Koivisto Rune, without cutting corners. “We try to do everything in the best possible way,” he said.
The reward is a home that the family enjoys so much that it has become its main residence, it only thought it is half the size of its house in the center of the city of Boras.
“You can’t have art on the walls,” Johall said. “But when you open the curtain in the morning, nature offers a new painting every day.”
