PHOTOS BY Jacob Bellander

The small country house just outside Järna is located on a hill with a fantastic view of Lake Vällingen. The house is originally from the 40’s and has been expanded with some smaller additions since then. Our task was to expand the floor area of the house as much as possible within the framework of what the building rules allowed and at the same time modernize the house with as maintenance-free materials as possible. Since the area and height of the house was already used to the maximum according to the local plan, the only possibility was to maintain the footprint of the house and use a rule which in Sweden says that you can make an addition of 15 m² on an already existing house, no matter what the regulations in the local plan. There was also an opportunity to increase the roof angle and thus create a loft.

The house also got a new window replacement based on the functions of the different rooms. In the bedroom, smaller openable windows were placed to be able to ventilate together with a new panoramic window towards the lake.

The kitchen, which was placed in the addition, got corner windows over the kitchen top to easily overview the garden and the road at the back while cooking and doing the dishes. Here, too, a larger window was placed towards the lake to get a nice view from the dining table.

PHOTOS BY Jacob Bellander

PHOTOS BY Jacob Bellander

In the living room, we created a large sliding glass section out to the terrace combined with a skylight to maximize the light and the view of the lake. The increased ceiling height by the sliding glass section makes the living room seem bigger and creates a feeling of being almost outdoors.

At the top of the two gables, round windows were placed to let in the morning and evening light as far into the house as possible. The exterior expression is clean and without big details. The facade of maintenance-free Siberian larch will turn grey over time and together with the grey metal roof, the house will eventually blend into the surrounding nature and the rock on which the house stands.

PHOTOS BY Jacob Bellander

PHOTOS BY Jacob Bellander

PHOTOS BY Jacob Bellander