Houses in the area are traditionally built to be sturdy and nest-like, providing protection fromver, while the clients were attached to the traditional style, they also desired to experience nature indoors. the windy, open landscape.

The challenge of the conversion was to re-invent the elements that gave the house a sense of belonging. While elements like original windows and floors were kept, two-thirds of the interior walls were torn down. The space was further opened by inserting large window openings with hidden frames that dissolve in the existing fabric. Accordingly, the fine detailing of the old windows is rather accentuated than opposed.

This strategy of reducing the elements is present in all interventions. Materials are limited to concrete, pine wood and smooth white plaster. The pale and bleached palette connects to the scenery outside and is finished off by an infusion of bright-coloured surfaces relating to conceptions of context and memory. The colours are reminiscent of the clients’ many years in China but also of summer days spent on the nearby beach with its bright towels and kites. The colours are never boldly presented but appear and disappear as one transitions from one space to the other.

The precise placement of the stairs, windows, and floors emphasises the meeting of contrasting surfaces. The result is a contemporary simulation of the narrative that old houses often seem to possess. The two-sided stove is placed in the heart of the home, elevated slightly to bring the fire closer to eye level. The stove placement marks the meeting of the new concrete floor with the old wooden floor. This meeting ends precisely at the edge of a large cut-out window.

Having a restrained budget, the fundamental design strategy was to opt for an ‘immaterial luxury’. Using only inexpensive materials opened up for adding elements made on-site, like a heated concrete bathroom bench, a wooden shower niche or a custom-made steel bench. The result is an unpretentious summerhouse that brings the notion of luxury back to being about experience and simplicity: the direct relation to nature, splashes of bright colours or the sound of water falling on wood.

Photography by Laura Stamer