Atlas of World Architecture

Our delightful Hill Hut is representing Sweden as one of seven projects in the lavish new tome "Atlas of World Architecture".
(You can buy it here if you're interested.)

Hill Hut in 1000x European Architecture

Hill Hut is published in the prestigious book "1000x European Architecture" which is now in stores.
Order it here or visit your local distributer for a delightful read.

From the publisher:
The selected works in this volume provide a cross-section of contemporary European architectural culture in the current context of the building boom, financial crisis and economic recovery. These diverging developments combined with significantly increased ecological awareness have sustainably and creatively influenced the world of architecture between the North Cape and the Mediterranean Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and the Ural Mountains during the past five years.

It is therefore time for a new edition of 1000 x European Architecture. The 1000 buildings featured, of all types and sizes, are a comprehensive overview of how differently architects and building owners have reacted to the challenges. This compendium brings together on 1000 pages the latest works of the world’s leading architects as well as great projects by up-and-coming future stars. Across all countries there are fascinating examples of a wide variety of buildings types and sizes that substantially enrich the exciting diversity of European architecture.

visiondivision in Residence

Residence, the best-selling home style magazine in Sweden, includes an article about visiondivision in their September issue where the magazine proclaims that the young team "is on their way to become the most exciting architecture office in Sweden".

The talents was photographed inside Hill Hut and talked about architecture, their projects and how they got started. A pleasant read.

Breaking News

Hill Hut is once again in the eye of the media hurricane, now on the front page of Dagens Nyheter, the biggest newspaper in Sweden reaching millions of people every day.
If you can't get a hold of a paper, you can see the article here.

Hill Hut in Frame #74

Frame #74 is out and Hill Hut is in it.

Morning Glory

When one million souls in southern Sweden got their morning paper Sydsvenskan last Sunday, they probably got a big smile on their faces when they saw the front page and the pure stroke of genius from the whiz kids at visiondivision.

Were happy that Hill Hut got its acknowledgement that it deserved and hopefully the northern parts of the country will be informed as well.

visiondivision strikes again

The latest long distance missile from our humble factory amazes an entire world once again. Hill Hut is the most popular article this week on designboom; the worlds biggest design site.

Hill Hut

Visiondivision was commissioned to design an extension to a villa for two kids in a picturesque lake setting in southern Stockholm. The owner of the old house had met his new wife in Thailand and the couple wanted to move and settle down in Sweden along with her two children. The beautiful nature surrounding the plot and the fact that the house would be occupied by two kids became the main key to our design. Instead of designing a house with expensive materials and detailing we deliberately chose rather cheap windows, facade materials and so on, thus allowing a bigger budget for a more playful architecture. It is much cheaper to get something wonderful done with landscaping than traditional architecture so we made a landscape surface with enhanced elements around and inside the house for the kids to thrive in. Being a kid in Sweden means that you naturally spend a lot of time in the nature which our country have an abundance of and we wanted to give the two new citizens a safe base where they can explore their new surroundings and be able to appreciate it to the fullest.


Hallway

To be able to create a steady foundation for the new house, huge earth masses where to be taken away and used to create a hill which we enhanced with different elements such as an outdoor cinema and a sledge slope. A carpet of artificial grass connects seamlessly with the natural grass on the hill and enters via the terrace to the living room between the two children’s room. A custom made grass sofa, a couple of grassy knolls that also functions as lighting make the interior more organic and enhancing the nature experience even further. These artificial hills can be moved around and can be put outside as well. Two pairs of big glass doors on both sides of the room makes one fully take in the surroundings and creates the impression that the nature goes in to the house, this effect is even more apparent when the doors are fully open. The carpet of artificial grass continues out on the other terrace as well as to the hallway and makes a stop just before the old house.


Living room

The excavations left a big void under the house. By ordering all the windows from Poland instead of Sweden we could afford to do two secret caves in that void. The caves were made out of concrete with in-cast IKEA drinking glass as small lanterns. One cave is directed to a lush grass knoll that leads down to the lake and is disguised with artificial grass to blend in. The other cave is pointed towards a patch of forest and is left in its raw concrete. Besides from being an excellent hidden escape route, the caves can be equipped with poker tables, hold new found pets from the nearby forest and much more. The caves are accessible from both the outside and from the children’s room by hatches in the floor.


Hatch to cave


Inside the cave


Outside one of the caves

The outdoor cinema has six chairs that are inserted in a concrete foundation in the sloping hill along with a secret compartment for a microwave for snacks and popcorn and a projector. A screen is set up between two trees that also have two bird houses on its trunks which in fact are two disguised speakers for this small outdoor cinema. At daytime this is a perfect place to just take in the lake atmosphere and observing bird behavior, night time is movie time.


Outdoor cinema

The entrance to the new house is a removed window from the oriel and makes the old house inserted in the new building and shapes the walls of the children room next to it.The hallway that leads to the old house slopes because of the differences in heights of the two houses and makes a nice transition from the traditional Swedish house down to the new and playful one. The children’s rooms are almost as two separate units with the landscape between and around them. Except for the hatches in the floor, the children’s rooms are quite normal with wooden floors and white walls.The house itself follows the municipality’s different regulations such as the pointed roof and the appearance. Wood is the predominantly material in this region, like the existing house and the neighbors. We chose white corrugated metal sheeting that looks like wood from a distance but is more alive and reflecting as one comes closer and gets nice shadow effects from the surrounding trees. Choosing metal sheets also allowed us to have the walls and the roof in the same material which creates a very consistent building. The beautiful setting and the strict whitish house combined with the eccentric landscaping makes it a great place to grow up in.


South-west facade


Facade facing the lake


Facade facing the entrance - late autumn


Facade facing the entrance - winter


West facade - winter


Icicle facade


Front terrace


Playtime in the livingroom


Axonometry of the landscape


Section


Section


Plan



Details



Diagram of movement

Fake vs natural diagram