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01 / Residential

Villa Askim

Gothenburg2026
Living room with a cloud sofa, a textured plaster wall and a slim brass floor lampPhotography / Pexels

Project introduction

A quiet reworking of a coastal home, organized around long views, warm oak and the changing western light.

The existing house had generous light but a fragmented plan. The intervention removes unnecessary thresholds and uses a continuous material palette to connect kitchen, dining and living spaces without erasing their individual character.

The brief

Client

A family of four moving into a 1970s house on the west coast near Gothenburg.

Programme

Open the ground floor to the view, add generous hidden storage, and keep a quiet room for work and a place to retreat to.

Constraints

  • One partition and part of the corridor wall carry load and had to stay in some form.
  • The facade and window openings stayed as they were.
  • The existing concrete slab could not take a new heated floor.
  • Budget went to joinery first, finishes second.

Existing conditions

The house had generous light from the west, but the ground floor was cut into four small rooms by doors and a long corridor. The kitchen faced the road, the living room faced the sea, and nobody in one could see the other.

WEST / SEAEAST / ROADLIVINGDININGKITCHENCORRIDORSTUDYWCENTRY
Before
WEST / SEAEAST / ROADSIGHTLINE TO THE SEALIVINGDININGKITCHENJOINERY WALLSTUDYENTRY
After

Schematic ground-floor plan / not to scale

Long kitchen with oak cabinetry running toward a concrete-ceilinged living space
Kitchen and living / oak and concretePhotography / Pexels (opens in a new tab)01
Oak joinery with open shelving and deep drawers
Joinery study / oak and shelvingPhotography / Pexels (opens in a new tab)02
Oak dining table with rattan placemats under a woven pendant, beside a tall slatted oak panel and a sculptural mirror
Dining / oak, rattan and slatted timberStock photography03

Design decisions / 01—04

Why it looks like this

  1. 01

    Open the middle, keep the edges

    We removed the corridor wall and one partition, and kept a short return of structural wall as a place for art. From the kitchen you now see across the dining table and living room to the sea.

  2. 02

    Change the material where the use changes

    Honed limestone covers the kitchen, hall and entry, where floors are cleaned and walked on in boots. Oak takes over where people sit. A brushed steel strip marks each change, so the floor reads as a sequence instead of one surface.

  3. 03

    Make storage the architecture

    A long wall of white-pigmented oak joinery runs along the line of the old corridor. It holds coats, a pantry and the television, so removing walls did not cost the family their cupboards.

  4. 04

    Treat light as a material

    Lime plaster on the west-facing walls catches the low evening sun and spreads it softly. There are no downlights in the living room: a few table lamps and one slim brass floor lamp do the work after dark.

Design challenge

Create greater openness while preserving places for retreat, storage and the practical rhythms of family life.

Spatial concept

A sequence of warm, grounded rooms held together by long sightlines and a restrained palette drawn from the surrounding coast.

Material specification / 01—04

Material decisions

  1. 01White-pigmented oak

    Joinery, kitchen fronts, study floor

    Warm but light. The pigment keeps the grain visible and stops the oak turning orange.

  2. 02Honed limestone

    Kitchen, hall and entry floors

    Takes wear and spills. The honed finish stays matte in low sun.

  3. 03Lime plaster

    West-facing walls and the living room ceiling

    Diffuses the evening light and forgives small movements in an old house.

  4. 04Brushed stainless steel

    Worktop edge, thresholds and handles

    Quiet and hard-wearing. It does not compete with the oak.

Process / 01—05

From first study to finished room

  1. 01 · 3 weeks

    Study

    Measured survey, a light study across the day and conversations with the family about their routines.

  2. 02 · 4 weeks

    Concept

    Three plan options tested with the family. One was chosen and a first material board agreed.

  3. 03 · 6 weeks

    Design development

    Joinery drawings, a structural review, the specification and the lighting plan.

  4. 04 · 4 weeks

    Tender

    Samples approved and contractors compared on their ability to build the joinery.

  5. 05 · 18 weeks

    Site

    Weekly site visits, with full-size mock-ups of the plaster and the oak before anything was finished.

Durations are illustrative.

Outcome

A ground floor that reads as one room from the kitchen to the sea, with everyday things kept out of sight. The family wanted fewer, calmer pieces of furniture, and the plan now gives each room one clear job.

Scope

Interior architecture · Spatial planning · Material specification

Interior architecture / Studio Lind · Photography / Pexels
A concept project: details are illustrative

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