The Humlegård House

The building is in the village of Fiskars, a few kilometers away from the centre of the old ironworks. It stands on a small knoll at the edge of an overgrown glade and is orientated in a north-south direction. The garden is bounded on the west by a shed and a carport, on the south by a field with an old village road winding across it, and to the north the building is sheltered by a high cliff. A log sauna has been built to the east of the house and Fiskars Lake can be seen through the forest leading down to it.

The house is not unlike a traditional yeoman’s house sliced in half. It consists of three parts: two kitchen/living rooms linked by a balcony, with a bathroom and walk-in wardrobe below. The interior is dominated by a horizontal spruce board, which has been left untreated to allow the structure to breathe.

The plywood surfaces in the centre part are finished with coloured translucent varnish: the orange bathroom, yellow ochre walk-in wardrobe, honey-coloured balcony and Prussian blue store are all framed in spring-green birch ply.

The elevation facing the road is of stout spruce boards. The vertical boarding is fixed with the heartwood facing outwards and the base wood at the top. Each board is cut on the splay to form a drip, and the untreated cladding will gradually turn an even grey colour with time.

The east side of the building is clad with corrugated galvanized steel sheet and the large windows are arranged freely to suit the interior. The high window openings catch the first rays of the sun, which are reflected into the interior by the ceiling.