E-040

Norrköping House . Sverre Fehn . 1963-64

'The Norrköping Villa was designed by Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn in 1963-64 as a model architecture for an ideal family of four. The 150 m2 house was designed for the exhibition NU 64 and it is a project which was not intended specifically for its building site in Norrköping, but conceived to be independent of any plot, an autonomous architecture responding only to its own internal rules.

The plan is cross-shaped and symmetrical with a central square core hosting services, bathrooms, toilets, kitchen and storage spaces and a second square, without any specific function, surrounding it. In the middle of the four edges of the second square are four “c-shaped” walls which can host the private rooms or be left open and empty in continuity with the central open area. The exterior c-shaped walls are made of bricks while all the corners are glazed with a massive wooden frame. The flat roof covering the central area is lifted to let the light enter the central core. This exercise in symmetry, geometrical control, plan organization based on the module of the square is said by the architect to have been inspired by the architectural principles Palladio developed in his villas.'

http://socks-studio.com/2016/06/18/a-palladian-villa-in-sweden-the-norrkoping-house-by-sverre-fehn-1963-64/

E-034

Mathsson summer house, Frösakull, Sweden . Bruno Mathsson . 1960

'Frösakull consists of a base platform measuring 10x15 metres, on which a structure of galvanized iron is erected. The walls are made of corrugated plastic, South American wood (“parapine”) and glass which have been attached directly to the structure. The roof was made by fl exing translucent opal-white acrylic plastic between the rafters to form six barrel-vaults that run across the structure enclosing the entire space except for the inner court. Under the transparent vaults and steel rafters, a ceiling of angled and mounted wood slats is suspended, sifting the light like venetian blinds. The house has two yards: an inner court enclosed with corrugated plastic and thus screened from view, and a sun patio that is not on the platform, but is enclosed with the same corrugated plastic thus incorporating it into the body of the building. The layout is very simple; the building consists of two parts: a closed part with north-facing wooden walls for the bedrooms and bathroom/toilet, and an open part with corrugated plastic walls and a roof covering half the space that makes up the living room and inner courtyard. The only different part is the little sun patio, added as an extension to one of the façades.'

Helena Mattsson

http://www.mikaelolsson.se/media/ahomeisnotahousehelenamattssonsteidlverlagmikaelolsson.pdf