Matchbox houses

The gently sloping plot is located in a villa area near the sea. Two detached houses are built in a place of one demolished house in order to make them naturally sit on the plot. The blocks settled down like overlapping matchboxes. The lower floors settled in different directions than the upper floors in order to have both sunny outdoor areas and the best possible views. Old stone fences, rocks and pines were spared to give the site a temporal perspective.
Arrival to the buildings is gradual. From the street, you enter the courtyard through the stone fence gate
and enter the houses‘ entrance canopies, either on a garden stairs or on a paved path. The entrance lobby
faces a long view through the house and the “stairway to heaven”. The passage is guided smoothly to the upper floor of the building where the main spaces are located. The floors are joined by an open, glass-covered space, where daylight is screened. At the heart of the buildings is a warm wood core with smaller, more private spaces inside.
The buildings were to be rooted in rocky pine forests. Facade brickwork is randomly live, resembling pine bark. The frame of the buildings is mainly in-situ cast concrete, giving sufficient strength and stiffness for the overhangs. The buildings are heated with geothermal heat and self-sufficient ground cooling is used for cooling.