Markim House

Ongoing project for a villa in the woods of Orkesta, north of Stockholm.

(Also the birthplace of Gustav Vasa, the founding father of modern Sweden.)

Jomas Cottage, Latvia

Ongoing project for a compact summer house.

The house hovers above the landscape on a pier foundation, allowing it to sit lightly within its natural surroundings with minimal impact on the existing terrain. Large natural boulders form stepping stones leading up to the elevated platform.

The house is constructed primarily from locally sourced larch, used for the structure, exterior cladding and built-in furniture. The exterior timber is left untreated to weather naturally over time, while clay-plastered walls bring a soft, tactile quality to the interior.

A simple and restrained material palette connects the architecture to its surroundings and allows the house to age naturally with the landscape.

Detailed section drawing.

The kitchen and bathroom share a service wall, simplifying the construction and reducing overall building costs.

Initial design sketches exploring spatial organisation, room proportions and programme.

The wall construction is vapour-open, with a clay-plastered interior that provides both a warm texture and good acoustic qualities. The window frames are made entirely of wood and painted in the same colour inside and out, helping to keep construction costs to a minimum.

A freestanding outdoor shower is placed against the vegetation at one end of the house, offering a degree of privacy while maintaining a close connection to the surrounding landscape.

A reused kitchen is paired with a back wall and shelf made from solid pine. The kitchen island is constructed from prefabricated pine cabinets, clad in the same solid pine panels.

A simple steel light fixture with a low-profile design.

A built-in desk is integrated into the knee wall. To make use of the tight spaces beneath the sloping roofs, the workspaces are positioned within the window recesses.

The roof is designed without gutters or downpipes. Instead, a shallow channel has been formed in the ground and filled with coarse stones, allowing rainwater from the roof to drain naturally into the ground.

This solution gives the house a more slender character, while the visible movement of rainwater from roof to ground creates a distinctly summer-house atmosphere.

Built-in bench niche providing shade and a sheltered place to sit.

20 × 20 cm clay tiles against natural-coloured clay plaster.

Clay plaster workshop, testing different grain sizes from 1 to 4 mm, alongside colour samples using both clay paint and limewash.