Johäll Getaway House

Ake E:son Lindman

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“Claesson Koivisto Rune stunned us at their first presentation, what they proposed was something we had never expected. That push made us commit to the project, without compromises.”
Patrik Johäll, Getaway House owner

“The clients had bought a plot, not far at all from their hometown, but in a surprisingly secluded setting best described as otherworldly. The idea was for a ‘getaway’ house – a private place to go to for a weekend or so – to swiftly get away from stress, work, city.

The rocky and steeply sloping site is reached from above, from a one lane country road cut into a forested hill slope. The other end of the plot is where the slope ends at the shoreline of a long lake – stretching in a way that you can’t tell its end, left or right. The scene is one where you’re almost expecting a troll looking out from behind a mossy boulder and a fairy tale princess down by the lake, gazing at her own reflection from the still freshwater.

photo_credit Ake E:son Lindman — Ake E:son Lindman

photo_credit Patrik Johall — Patrik Johall

The sloping and rather inaccessible plot were a clear challenge for construction. The other constraint was a building allowance that was for a mere 65 square metres, with the addition of a couple of smaller accessory constructions. Yet the expectation was for a fully functional home for a family of four.

It was established from the outset to leave this enchanted nature as intact as possible, with a small visual imprint of the new. The concept can be likened to rock crystals breaking out from the hill between the trees, barely touching the ground. Only two materials are dominant: glass and galvanized steel. Chosen to meet the demand of being maintenance free, but adding also the quality of being pure and ‘honest’, as the zinc is left untreated to slowly oxidise and patinise.

The little ‘hamlet’ of four scattered cubical buildings – main house, twin-bedroom annex, sauna, carport – are parallel to each-other but at a 45-degree angle to the lake. Thus, making two sides instead of one facing the lakeview and at the same time stopping direct reflection from the glass as seen from the lake. The cubes are ‘cut’ at a waistline, with all glass for the lower half and all galvanised for the upper half. In case of the main house, the high upper metal half is hiding a sunken roof terrace reached from a back outdoor spiral staircase. This roof terrace is creating a 50% addition to the total of flat ground to the plot, for outdoor living. When on the terrace you find yourself literally ‘in the trees’. Like in the childhood tree house you secretly built with your friends.

The main feature of the main house is inside: A central ‘solid’ core cube, containing bathroom, kitchen and storage, is twisted at a 45-degree to the house itself. And this is how an open plan still have four defined ‘rooms’ – entrance/kitchen, dining room, living-room, bedroom – with an intact spatial flow. This core cube is entirely clad in wood, adding warmth to the otherwise ‘hard’ palette of concrete, glass and steel. The inner cube is continued structurally underneath the house, making for the central ‘mushroom stalk’ foundation from which most of the house cantilevers out from.”

– Mårten Claesson, Eero Koivisto and Ola Rune, Claesson Koivisto Rune Architects