Villas by the Woodland Cemetery in Stockholm Sparsamheten is a development of nineteen semi-attached houses in Skarpnäck close to the world famous Woodland Cemetery, in the south of Stockholm. Like Renaissance palazzos they have a public (almost commercial) ground floor and private spaces raised to the second floor.
The idea is to create typologies that have a public character towards the street and more garden related, intimate rooms inwards. A footpath runs along the rear edge of the plot and adjacent detached houses, which contributes to integrate the project with its surroundings and creates functional routes.
The ground floor features an open sequence of rooms, with spaces that interlock and functions that can be separated in a flowing, more or less transparent way. The section shows a long continuous sloping ceiling with overhead skylights. The living room facing the garden opens up towards the multipurpose room on the second floor, slightly separated by a wooden screen made of bars spanning from floor to ceiling. A terrace can be reached from the upper level bedroom and connects down to the garden by an outside staircase. The materials are chosen with the proximity to the Woodland Cemetery in mind, while emphasizing the home's character as a social and interactive stage. The materials are intended to make each space feel taken care of. The effect is clear in the rough-sawn siding and in the bronze-coloured sheet metal that faces the front elevation's ground floor, folding back into the carport. These are materials to get close to, to examine carefully and to touch. Overall, there is an internal flexibility and spatial complexity. Outdoor spaces have great usability and different character, sunlit during different parts of the day.
