Villa Kristina

Text description provided by architect.

A small house that wants to be big. A small footprint and simple construction means low cost.

We turn inward with an atrium scheme, away from the view of—and from—the neighbors. The nicest view is toward the mature trees and the exposed bedrock in the southwest, so we open the courtyard up on that side.

The building is perched lightly on piers, hovering a half-meter over granite bedrock honed by the ice age. That means that to reach the building we need a stair and a ramp (accessibility requirement) along the blank northeast side.

On the inside, it’s the outside that dominates. The narrow kitchen with its long table is always a part of the changing seasons that play out in the courtyard. Floor-to-ceiling glass and broad sliding doors help erase the boundary between inside and out. Okay, it’s a cliché—but it works.

There’s a steep ladderway up to the workroom (yes, there’s a glimpse of the sea from up there) and a shallow, almost monumentally processional stair up to a roof terrace.

The entrance wall is thickened to hold a fireplace (the chimney is part of the roof landscape) with a built-in sofa, a room for collections, the kitchen (back-to-back with the exterior mechanical room), and an air-lock entry with guest bathroom.