A cabin has far more meaning than just a building when both its owners and the designer have deep connections to its location.
Stockholm architect Mat Fahlander and his client are lifelong friends, and they played together as children on this parcel of land, which has been in the client’s family since the 1940s. That kind of intimacy with a place also gives a unique perspective on how to fit a structure into it.
Fahlander chose a simple box shape for both the main summer house and its guest satellite, floating them above the granite shortline of this rugged stretch of western Swedish coast, in order to retain a strong sense of the natural environment. This is enhanced by a huge glass facade on this cabin at Western Swedish coast, which includes a 16-foot sliding door and reminds that the sea is your front yard.
Mindful of the storms that batter this coast, Fahlander wrapped the shelter in corrugated cement boards and topped it with corrugated tin, curved as a reflection of the many boulders that stud the shore. Total space is about 900 square feet, half that in the large communal area that faces the Skagerak Straight, half in three small bedrooms in the back.
All Photos by Åke E:son Lindman/Otto
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