Hee House

Studio Ellsinger shapes a 7 × 7‑meter retreat for a creative family, armored in aluminum and lined with pine.

Hee House sits on a granite clearing just inland from Sweden’s Bohuslän coast, a few miles south of Hamburgsund. The lot is bracketed by a county road to the north and open fields that run toward pine forest and the Skagerrak to the south and east. Salt spray, wind‑driven rain, and sudden temperature swings are the norm, so Studio Ellsinger planted the 7‑by‑7‑meter structure on a strict north–south axis—mostly closed to neighbors and traffic, wide‑open to sun and long views across meadow and trees.

Working for a photographer‑writer couple with two kids, the architects pulled the seven‑meter‑high roof loads into a concealed laminated‑timber ring beam, freeing the interior from tie beams and braces. A continuous skin of untreated aluminum wraps roof, gables, and a cantilevered canopy, while slow‑grown pine panels line the walls inside. Midway up, a room‑wide bookshelf made from the same pine holds cookware, lenses, novels, and the fireplace insert; it also supports the loft floor and doubles as stair railing and kitchen storage. South‑facing windows open wide for cross‑breezes, while the north facade stays nearly solid, broken only by two narrow slots that borrow light from the tree line.

Entry, bathroom, and the main bedroom fit under the loft; above, built‑in bunks, a sofa bed, and a small workspace can disappear behind a thirteen‑foot curtain, giving the 49‑square‑meter (about 530‑square‑foot) house eight full‑length sleeping spots for visiting family. Local builders milled the cladding, welded slender steel stair stringers, and set a soapstone sink flush with the custom kitchen counter. When dusk fades over the aluminum roof, the pine boards inside deepen to honey brown, a single filament bulb clicks on above the bookshelf, and the compact shell feels ready for the next coastal storm.

All images courtesy of Christopher Hunt