Förstberg Ling’s House with a Hidden Atrium in Veddinge, Denmark redefines coastal living through an interplay of enclosure and openness, creating a sequence of spaces that shift in height, light, and perspective.
The project extends a 1950s cabin, introducing a new composition of four interlocking volumes that enclose a central void—an unseen atrium that becomes the project’s organizing principle. This concealed core disrupts the expectation of open coastal dwellings, instead offering a more introspective spatial experience. The structure navigates between intimacy and openness, its rooms shifting in height and proportion as one moves through the house.
The play of scale is fundamental to the project’s experience. The varied heights of the new volumes create a dynamic sequence of spaces, from narrow and soaring to wider and compressed. This internal movement contrasts with the surrounding landscape, where the rolling hills and expansive sea views dominate. The exterior, clad in blackened pine, gives the house a monolithic presence, while inside, a material palette of plywood in different veneers softens the architecture, bringing warmth and tactility to the interiors. The contrast between darkened exteriors and light-filled interiors intensifies the transition from exterior to interior, reinforcing the house’s layered sense of enclosure.
Perhaps the most striking spatial gesture is in the positioning of windows. Instead of mirroring the cabin’s panoramic sea views, Förstberg Ling chooses a more vertical orientation, framing the tops of trees and sky. This deliberate shift redirects the gaze upwards, disconnecting from the expected horizontality of coastal homes and instead immersing the inhabitant in a more enclosed, almost forest-like atmosphere. The result is a dwelling that is both a retreat and an architectural meditation on concealment and revelation, responding not only to its site but also to the nuanced interplay of light, materiality, and spatial sequence.
