The Swedish architect Elding Oscarson is leaving a trace of eccentric as well as experimental architecture with the ‘home by the sea’ in the Swedish seaside town Mölle.
When it comes to topography and landscape, Mölle is an extreme location. In addition It has an extreme history, since Northern Europeans were migrating to the “Sinful Mölle” around the turn of the century. “Sinful” because men and women were allowed to enjoy each other’s company at the same beach.
Today Mölle is considered an architecturally conservative area which provided a series of challenges and features when Oscarson was planning the home for a couple and their child. It has become a house that enjoys views in all directions rather than focusing each room towards the Östersund sea.
‘Molle by the Sea’ is a 300sqm house, both exposed and private with the social zone on the main level completely clad in floor to ceiling glazing and the upper, private volume wrapped in a stunning display of oversized rough sawn Douglas-fir boards.
The site has many qualities all around, with stone and brick walls, vegetation, and an original old ice cellar semi-submerged into a hill. An asterisk-like footprint with three wings projecting to the various corners of the site, delineate private yards of different characteristics.
The graphic form of the plan results in a building volume that rather reads as a fragmentized whole – from some angles striking, from other neat. Full-height glass panels allow the exterior to frame the interior and allow the owners the constant enjoyment of the scenic surroundings.
One of the most predominant eccentricities of the home is the choice to wrap the main level in glazing for a transparency that gives a floating effect to the upper volume. It is a study of contrasting elements working in harmony with each other.
Upstairs the bedrooms are fitted within a more opaque form clad in large format Douglas-fir planks that provide more privacy and introduce a new material to the street.
The furnishings are carefully selected to offer a fresh and free spirited aesthetic to the social zone.
A Swedish Home of Tenderness and Contrast, written by Tor Kjolberg
All images: image © åke e:son lindman