The talked-about house on the cliff

On a remote, roadless island lies this unique summer retreat. Two of the world's most visited architecture and design sites - Archdaily and Designboom - have both featured the project. They have highlighted how the houses' form and placement have been adapted to the special location and the miles-wide view over Stockholms skärgård.

The story began when the family contacted Sommarnöjen to create a country house from scratch on the undeveloped plot they had just bought. After studying the conditions, a decision was made to build on site since it was not possible to lift whole modules to the location.

The houses were designed together with Anders Berensson Architects and were built with materials that were landed on the island from a helicopter.

The building site has large variations in topography and vegetation. Parts of the plot are low-lying with tall pines while others consist of steep cliffs. In addition to the geographical conditions there is also a strict detailed development plan to take into account. On large parts of the plot no buildings are allowed and on other parts only outbuildings.

Anders explains:

“To handle all these constraints I started from a concept of seeing the house and the plot as an interwoven walk. The walk begins on the highest cliff on the plot where you look out over the archipelago around Sandhamn. Since the detailed plan does not allow any buildings up here it was instead designed as the perfect outdoor space.”

“From the cliff you move down towards the main building. The house's living room and kitchen become a natural part of the walk. From the living room you look out towards the uppermost cliff and from the kitchen you see a solitary wind-swept pine. From the large house you then move across a southwest-facing terrace and then over a boardwalk towards two smaller houses. One functions as a guest cottage and the other as a sauna. The boardwalk continues between the houses and up a stair to the roof of the sauna house. Here on the sauna roof the walk ends in a view over the inner archipelago to the west and the evening sun.”