Sophisticated Suburban Simplicity

Summary

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[Rahel Belatchew Lerdell] knows and understands the concepts and principles of the 20(th) century Modernist movement and smoothly incorporates them into her distinctive design. With the completion of the house, Rahel has successfully synthesized the elements of the Bauhaus philosophy: Use of visual space and light; Use of the landscape to support the house; traditional indigenous materials, and the functional simplicity in the interior scheme. Rahel says she does have an overall good feeling on the completion of the house. "I'm quite happy," she says, "but never entirely satisfied. I can always find things that could be done differently, but overall it worked out well." She adds that while the minimalist look may seem simple, it really is difficult to achieve. "It demands a lot of thought to get it so pristine, but overall, I feel that the end result has been very positive!"

The house, built in 2002, sits high above street level. The strict rectangular form is covered in horizontal, untreated larch panels, and simple geometric architectural elements that create interesting and contrasting accents. The house is not large in size, but big on impact. "I wanted to build a house for a reasonable price," says Rahel, "I wanted to show that houses of modern expression didn't have to cost a fortune." The house consists of two stories; the private zone, placed on the ground floor; the living room and kitchen are on the first floor. The front of the house faces North, and therefore the back faces to the South. Rahel took these directionals into consideration to orient the rooms in the house during the design phase. On the West side, she provided wide, sliding windows that open up to a large terrace, allowing plenty of natural light into the space. On the North side, facing the street, long horizontal windows allow light into the home, while providing maximum privacy from the street.

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Sophisticated Suburban Simplicity

A Swedish architect designs her own home with modern simplicity, and affordability in mind.

For architect Rahel Belatchew Lerdell, the biggest challenge she faced was situating the home she designed for herself and her family on the proposed building site in a suburb 15 km east of Stockholm, Sweden. The site was not only extremely rocky, but local building regulations restricted the size and height of any new houses to be built in the area. She solved these design issues by taking advantage of the stony top...

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