This pine-clad summer house on a rocky outcrop on a small island in Sweden's archipelago of Gothenburg features minimal plywood interiors designed to highlight the island's dramatic landscape.
Created as a holiday home for a retired couple, Villa Vassdal was designed by Gothenburg-based Studio Holmberg to blend with its coastal surrounds.

The house is built on an island with historical connections to Gothenburg's fishing and shipping industries. Today the island consists of family houses that are occupied year-round as well as holiday homes that are mostly used in the summer.
Overlooking the sea and surrounded by exposed cliffs and wild vegetation, the house's low profile is made up of a cluster of pitched roof volumes. Arranged in a staggered layout, the volumes are designed to blend in with the rocky landscape.
The house is oriented so that the clean-lined interior spaces take in views of the sea but are also shielded from the neighbours and the glare of the sun.
Studio Holmberg chose to clad the house's roofs and facades in untreated heart-pine to match the cliffs. Sourced from the north of Sweden, the pine will weather over time gradually becoming more grey and enabling it to blend with its environment even better.

Each of the four volumes that make up the house are allocated a specific function. The first is for sleeping and bathing as well as storage, the second is for cooking and dining, and the third is for the living room.
The fourth smaller volume at the back f...