In with a Bang

Building a spacious villa on a precarious rocky outcrop would have proven mission impossible for many architects. But for Gert Wingardh it was an opportunity to bring out the dynamite.

_Words Abby Trow
Photographs James Silverman_

It certainly was a challenge. On a 700sqm plot set amid steep rock, the owners wanted to build a large, light and airy two-storey villa overlooking the rugged coastline south of Gothenburg on Sweden’s west coast. Stringent planning rules relating to height meant the most likely solution would be to construct a single-storey property. To find a way around the rules, the owners turned to award-winning architect Gert Wingardh, an ingenious thinker not easily fazed by regulations.

“It was an awkward space, with steep rock at the back leading to a small road that serves the houses in this area,” explains Wingardh. “I designed the house in a V-shape, to make best use of the space. And because the owners wanted two storeys and planning rules mean walls can’t be more than 3.5m high, my solution was to blast into the rock with dynamite.” This meant Villa Astrid could literally be built upside-down, with the bedrooms on the lower floor and a big living area on the ground level with a terrace in front looking out to sea.

The design involved blasting down more than five metres to create a level surface, which took about a week. The two main sides of the house at the rear are built around a small, decked inner courtyard, off which are the bedrooms. The narrow rear walls of the ‘V’ then follow the lie of the rock up to the top of the plot. This has resulted in some rock appearing inside the house at several points – in the main bathroom, rock forms one of the walls, and it also creeps into a far corner of the living room. “It wasn’t a problem to incorporate the rock into the structure and it’s a very unusual feature where you find it protruding into some rooms,” says Wingardh. “Some villas are built to pacify nature but this project works with the dramatic natural location.”

Entering the building at ground level you find a guest room, then a vast two-sided, glass-walled space, with an open-plan kitchen and dining area and living room. A mezzanine study hangs over the far side of the living space, which is where the owners, who are both in the pharmaceuticals industry, work when they’re at home. “This house is interesting because from outside you can’t see what it is,” says Wingardh. “It’s only once you get inside that it reveals its three-level structure, if you include the hanging mezzanine.” A staircase, enclosed by a frosted glass wall instead of having a balustrade and handrail, leads down to the lower floor, where you find the master bedroom, two children’s rooms and two bathrooms. Although not as bright as the upper lever, floor to ceiling sliding glass doors in the bedrooms allow for plenty of ambient lighting.

The interior design is described as ‘warm Scandinavian’ by Wingardh. “It’s contemporary, with lots of sliding glass doors and big glass windows, plain white walls and an ash wood floor throughout.” The exception to this is the master bathroom, which has been clad with black slate to act as a dramatic contrast with the rest of the house. The kitchen is also made from ash, with a large black concrete worktop. For lighting, some halogen downlights have been installed but otherwise simple lamps provide illumination.

The interiors have been purposefully kept quite simple so as to let the huge rooms, high ceilings and acres of glass speak do the talking. The exceptional views also do away with the need for extraneous detail, such as billowing curtains or fancy wallpapers. “You get to watch the weather, which is a wonderful thing,” says Wingardh. “And at night-time, because the glass walls are at a slight angle, you get some wonderful reflections.”
As with all new-build Swedish houses, great attention has been paid to eco-friendliness, with double-glazing and low energy consuming underfloor heating. The house itself is built largely from concrete, including the roof, which was then clad with special insulating foam. It was then covered in pre-weathered black copper. “The result of cladding it twice is that it’s a very maintainable and safe building that is remarkably energy efficient,” says Wingardh. And in time, the black copper will start to turn green, making Villa Astrid even more a part of its surrounding environment.