Villa Wintzell

Abstract

The Swedish summer is sacred to those of us living through the Scandinavian winter, and our lives take on a whole new character with the start of spring. Therefore, the summerhouse is a common addition to the year-round home. It is a place where architecture can take on a simpler form, and sustain a carefree life in close connection with nature. Our summerhouse, located in Bohuslän, represents all of these things to me. It was bought by my grandparents in 1967, and what was their way of reconnecting with their roots, has since become our entire family’s way of coming home. It is because of this that my parents want to build a new house to retire in, just across the street from the summerhouse. This new house figures as the design task for this master’s thesis, and the thesis question accumulates in the final design of the house. This master’s thesis investigates what a summerhouse is, what it consists of and stands for, and if it is possible to translate architecture that is so deeply rooted in the escape of everyday life, into architecture that houses it. It explores the history and heritage of summer houses, with a focus on our existing summerhouse and ultimatley the ideals that shaped it. This investigation is done through both research on design and research by design. The research on design ends in a definition of what a summerhouse is, and moves on to an exploration of wood construction and composition that support that definition. While wood is the obvious choice for this master’s thesis, it is carefully explored so as to convey the defined expression. The research by design results is a design proposal of a year-round home for my parents to retire in, including an additional building. In the end, it is a house that stands confidently among the already existing summer houses besides it, in a way that resembles them, without copying them. It is not a summerhouse, but it is a similar escape to a simpler and freer lifestyle supported by an equally carefree architecture.