anders berensson designs a small extension to a summer house in stockholm

anders berensson has designed and partly built an extension to a house in the stockholm archipelago. to maintain a low budget and still be able to elaborate with architecture, the office divided the house into two categories. the ‘house box’, that is designed like a simple box to be built on site with local materials and building techniques, and the ‘prefabricated architectural elements‘ that are designed and prefabricated by the architects and later inserted into the house during the building process.

‘look out lodge’ exterior

the ‘look out lodge’ is designed with a focus on simplicity and function. it is big enough to host a sleeping area and a small space for working. the swedish based office anders berensson architects has focused on designing two custom-made windows that can be built and prefabricated by the architects for those two spaces and purposes. one window to look towards the outside fields while working and one window to look towards the sky when resting or falling asleep.

‘look out lodge’ exterior 

ABA’s other aim with the design is to redefine the idea of a window as a flat readymade glass piece into an architectural element that creates its own space with a clear focus towards the outside. this goal led to the design of a sky tower that one can crawl into when being in bed, totally dedicated to the sky, and one corner window with a desk inserted to it that creates a work space on the inside and table for flowers on the outside with a clear focus and direction to the outside field.

looking out the desk window

the sky tower, looking towards a starry sky when falling asleep, is a countryside luxury. the design team has been wanting to enhance that feeling by making a round tower dedicated to that view where you can lay down in bed and only see and focus on the sky above. during day time the tower takes in a lot of light and is a good place to sit and read. at night time it is the perfect place to study the stars and space. the tower’s inside is cladded with spruce boards with a sky light on top that appears invisible when looking out. the outside of the tower is cladded with overlapping boards. there is a local tradition of making jigsaw patterns in this type of façade so we decided to design a pattern of big animals, amphibians, birds, flowers and fishes that are living in the archipelago and the baltic sea.

‘look out lodge’ interior

the stockholm archipelago is known for its fantastic flora of wild flowers. outside the ‘look out lodge’ lies a meadow with many of the species represented. anders berensson architects has designed the desk window to focus on this local treasury. the spruce board ceiling continues seamlessly above the window and protrude long enough to cover the sky and direct sun light framing a view towards the meadow. a desk is inserted through the corner window. on the outside, the desk is made out of terracotta red concrete with holes for flowers to grow. on the inside, the desk is made of birch plywood with holes cut out for different purposes such as ventilation, cables, lamps, pencils and pencil sharpeners.

pencil sharpener inserted into the desk

sky tower from inside

looking out sky tower

jigsawing the local fauna pattern for the sky tower

sky tower exterior

diagram of prefabricated architectural elements

section

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: apostolos costarangos | designboom