This stunning townhouse in Landskrona, Sweden by design firm Elding Oscarson really caught our eye. A perfect storm of modern clean lines and surrounding old traditional architechtural bones of neighboring houses. “We wanted to create a sharp contrast; to express inherent clarity, but more importantly to highlight the beauty of the surroundings,” says the firm. “We made a single space, softly partitioned by thin exposed steel slabs. These span the entire width of the house and divide its program – kitchen, dining, living, library, bed, bath, and a roof terrace. A home office is located in a separate building across a small garden. Mechanical and service spaces fit next to the entrance. Gross area is 125 square meters”.
The interior reflects an array of different spatial experiences. It aims at a non-minimalistic and lively sequence of confined and airy spaces, niches, interiors and exteriors, horizontal and vertical views as well as carefully framed views of the site. The continuous interior space is opening up to the street, to the middle of the block, and to the sky above. “This openness to all directions generates a building volume that is both monolithic and transparent. All facades are treated equally, exposing the interior and offering views through the building with similar apertures whether on the front, back or sides.”
Energy consumption was also a factor, the project ended up 57% lower than regulation standards and was reached through the use of an air-source heat pump alone with a ventilation system with heat recovery, wall construction of LECA sandwich blocks with integrated EPS insulation, and a sedum roof delaying temperature fluctuations between day and night.
The wall construction is, except for being ideal to build right up to the neighbors’ walls on this difficult site, fully breathable, needing no vapor barrier, and exclusively composed of materials that cannot mold. Though these technical aspects are important to a responsible architectural practice, they found that their process is sustainable in a wider sense.
Having taken great care to thoroughly study everything from all imaginable dimensions, light, transparency, spatial sequences, domestication of street space,they were truly challenged with the task, the site, the client, and persisting conventional thought – being bold and sensitive at the same time.
Project: Townhouse
Location: Landskrona, Sweden
Architect: Elding Oscarson
Structural Engineer: Christian Hoffman / Konkret
Builder: Skånebygg
Structure: leca-masonry, metal deck slab
Gross Floor Area: 125sqm
Construction Cost: 280,000 Euro
Completion: 2009
Photographer: Åke E:son Lindman