Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, AB

Atrium House

Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman

ATRIUM HOUSE

Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

ARCHITECTS
Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

YEAR
2010

LOCATION
Sweden

CATEGORY
Houses

MANUFACTURERS
Rheinzink, Bega, Fsb Franz Schneider Brakel, Tectum

Text description provided by architect.

Atrium House is a vacation home for a family of three generations on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea.

Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman
Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman

It is built on a slight ridge that marks the former location of the coastline a thousand years ago.

In relation to the open and expansive landscape, the building seems more like a low wall than a house.

It is built around a completely enclosed atrium courtyard that is designed to serve as a fixed point, a sheltered outdoor room.

Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman
Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman

The rest of the property is left undisturbed as a meadow where grazing sheep prevent the land from returning to forest.

The house is narrow, but its openings facing out are wide, giving the interior the character of a niche like shelter in the open space of the landscape.

Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman
Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman
Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman

While the roof maintains a consistent elevation throughout the house, the interior floor rises and falls in accordance with the surrounding terrain.

This means the height of the ceiling varies within the main spaces, which are arranged in a continuous ring around the atrium.

Within this continuous space, the smaller rooms are assembled in a number of solid blocks.

Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman
Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman

Inspired by the impressive materiality of Gotland’s vernacular agricultural architecture, the masonry construction has a natural plaster colour that has been mixed with carbon black, exterior metal parts made of oxidised zinc, and oak doors as well as windows that have been treated with tar oil.

The large sliding glass windows are mounted on the surface of the exterior walls, according to the same principle as many barn doors. Also the interior doors are surface‐mounted, allowing the walls to appear unbroken.

Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman


Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman
Atrium House
© Åke E: son Lindman
Atrium House
Site plan


Atrium House
Detail Section
Atrium House
Floor Plan
Atrium House
Façades - Section

Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, AB
T +46 8 7020046
Tham & Videgård Arkitekter, AB
Blekingegatan 42, 116 62 Stockholm, Sweden