House HölöHouse HölöHouse Hölö
By distributing the programme across three small, independent volumes, the design prioritises an immersive relationship with nature. Connected by a central hexagonal loggia, the house encourages movement between spaces, turning circulation into an outdoor experience during the summer months.
This vacation home is planned for a family with three children. The site, with an exceptionally high position at the top of a steep cliff in the archipelago, marks the eastern end of the mainland road from Stockholm. From here, you can either go back or continue by boat to explore the vast water landscape and its thousands of islands. The client wanted to replace an existing house built by a previous owner that had become too small and was not planned to meet the needs of the family and visiting friends.
The local and rather old building regulations stipulated that the maximum built area should be divided into three separate structures: one main house and two secondary outhouses. This, together with the Scandinavian tradition of summer houses organised to emphasise the relation to nature through the use of outdoor connections between indoor spaces—a concept that was also explored in the Söderöra house—inspired a solution with separate house units for the different uses of the brief: the parents' house, the kids' house and the social house.
The three houses are slightly rotated in relation to each other and placed on different levels in the natural landscape, which, with a common roof level, results in an interior variation of floor-to-ceiling heights. The only interconnection is by an external passage, an open loggia in the form of a hexagon, that encloses a semi-open courtyard and offers covered sitting areas between the houses.
The materials used are local stone for the foundation walls, polished concrete for floors and terraces, and solid wood for construction and interior finishes. From the house, a series of steps leads twenty metres down to the sea level, where a new boathouse and jetty will be built.
