"Beach house” isn’t the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Swedish getaways, but Villa Vassdal by Studio Holmberg proves that the graceful simplicity of Scandinavian design, featured in many a striking mountain cabins, translates well to the coastal variety too.
On a small island in Sweden’s Gothenburg archipelago, this seaside cabin (with a vibe similar to that of famed Vega Cottage) was built for a retired couple looking for a holiday home. With historical connections to Gothenburg's fishing and shipping industries, the island now plays host to year-round residences, as well as vacation houses primarily used in the summer.
Made up of a cluster of low-profile pitched roof volumes, the cabin’s design blends in with the surrounding rocky-outcrops. Sitting snuggly within its site, the plan is oriented to shield the view of neighbors and the glare of the sun, while opening up the living spaces to ocean views.
With both exterior walls and roofs clad in untreated heart-pine, the structure appears almost monochromatic, allowing the volumes to be featured over materiality. The heart-pine will gray with age, further camouflaging the cabin within its site.
The wide pitched roofs inform much of the birch plywood-lined interior. A wide-open, spacious living area abuts a sleeping, bathing, and storage wing, where the sloped ceilings make for cozy corners that host amenities like a workstation and washroom. The familiar Nordic balance of beauty and utility is found throughout, most overtly in the living area, where a wall of built-in grid-like shelving features a woodstove front and center.
Serene and meditative, the cabin looks like the perfect place to tune out and tune into the waves. Sign us up.
Published 02-25-2021
