How Sweden became the surprising center for the Greenhouse Home Movement
When you sit in Roja Brimalm’s backyard in the Swedish countryside, it is easy to believe that it is a bright morning in early summer. We bathe in the sun and enjoy coffee– the Swedish tradition of coffee and cake – and talks about his plans for the garden while bumblebees tremble among flowering fruit trees. The reality, however, is that it is a cold and windy morning in March, one that we are separated from by nothing but the four millimeter thick glass in the greenhouse that covers Roja’s entire home and garden, creating a bubble of balmy weather.
Roja and her partner, Johan Holmstedt, are part of a small but growing group of sustainably-minded homeowners in Sweden who have built these greenhouse homes. The origins of the concept – known as a nature house – can be traced back to the Swedish architect Bengt Warne, who half a century ago proposed a model for biodynamic living where living and the home itself are part of a self-sufficient ecosystem. The home inside a greenhouse creates a climate that allows almost all year round the cultivation of fruits and vegetables; the garden is nourished with recycled water and composted nutrients.
To test his theory, Warne built a log building in 1976 in a greenhouse in Saltsjöbaden. It served as both his research center and family home. Although the project attracted some attention, it remained a unique vision for almost three decades.
The idea seems to have taken off again when orthopedic engineer Anders Solvarm accidentally came across the nature house concept in 2000. He built his own log house near Brålanda and looked for a way to protect it from bad weather during the entire construction. During a lunch break at the library at the hospital where he worked, he happened to meet a book written by Warne in the 1990s and became fascinated by this way of living in harmony with nature. “I realized it was like moving the house to Italy,” he recalls.
Anders contacted Warne to discuss how he could integrate the concept with his initial plans for a conventional log house. During the architect’s mentorship, Anders spent seven years building his own simpler version of a nature house. He locked his home in a standard greenhouse – the type used by commercial farms but designed to be larger than normal – and refined the water filtration system to make it more affordable. He also created a flat, usable roof terrace instead of the sloping roof style that is usually found in Sweden to handle heavy snow.
– I could not afford to build a house like the one Bengt had built, says Anders. “I was very uncertain about the costs, because almost no one had done this before, so we had to simplify it as much as possible but still achieve the same benefits.”
Warne died in 2006 and in the following years Anders has become one of the movement’s most prominent voices. In addition to his hospital work, he is part of two companies that play a major role in the future of this way of life: Naturhusvillan is on a mission to make these types of homes more accessible and affordable by offering catalog-style architecture, while Greenhouse Living is a consulting company for major commercial projects, such as the (well-known in Sweden) conference house and café.
It was actually a program about Anders’ home on Swedish television that inspired Roja and Johan to go on their own nature house trip. “I could not think of any other type of house,” Roja recalls. “So I called Anders and asked him if I could visit to feel the feeling of being in the greenhouse. It was a cold November day when we were visiting, but inside it was like a paradise – 20 degrees, sunny and all the trees were Green.”
Roja and Johan spent two years designing their home together with the architect Fredrik Olson at Tailor Made Architects and it ended up that they built the wooden and glass home almost entirely themselves, with the help of friends – as well as Google and YouTube. Their epic business, which is still going on, was smooth presented on Grand Designs Sweden last year. As a result, their home has become something of an architectural interest. They have received visitors from as far away as Canada who have seen the home on television and wanted to replicate it.
– Many of them dream of building a house like this, says Roja. – They are surprised when they come in here that it is not so hot or muddy. While the idea of a home inside a greenhouse can evoke thoughts of mold, mud, scary insects and endless gardening, the reality for many greenhouse owners is much more idyllic. Automatic roof panels provide ventilation, fruit flowers gently smell the air, dirt stays in the garden and the glass provides protection against common pests in the garden, strong winds and snow.
Thanks to the “cycle system”, which was designed by Anders as a further development of Warne’s original concept, the garden irrigates itself with the help of household water and wastewater. After being filtered through a series of tanks stored in the basement and two garden beds – where nutrients from wastewater nourish the plants – the water is clean enough to be returned to nature, in this case a pond near the house. The biggest difficulty, says Roja, is having to take longer showers in the summer so that enough water is pumped through the system.
When Roja takes me on a tour of her home, one of the most striking aspects is the different climates that exist around the place. As Anders likes to say “We have Italy outside the house, we have Greece on the roof, and then in the basement it’s like northern Sweden.” This means that regardless of temperature, there is always a nice place to sit – and fast-growing vines are a base in nature home life, thanks to the abundant shade they provide in the summer.
These are far from the only greenhouses that have appeared in the Swedish landscape since Warne was a pioneer with the concept almost half a century ago. The French engineer Charles Sacilotto completed a nature house in 2004 – simply to build a custom greenhouse around an existing summer house just 30 minutes from Stockholm. He also read Warne’s book and met him in 2000, and was immediately fascinated by the self-sustaining lifestyle that a nature house offers.
In 2010, Charles’ partner, Marie Granmar, moved in. “My first thought was ‘Wow,'” she says. “A nature house is creative and inspiring – and it does not have to be expensive. Charles built over an existing house, so the most expensive part was the greenhouse, but it saves energy and heat, so you get your money back.”
Marie became so fond of greenhouse life that she eventually wrote a book …Nature house—About the subject, explore it through eight different greenhouses in Sweden. However, the idea has spread far and wide. Today there are examples in Norway, Denmark, Japan, Belgium and even Hawaii.
Although it may seem counterintuitive to build a home in a greenhouse in a more temperate climate, one of the most important aspects of the concept is that it can be adapted to suit different situations. And according to Anders, you do not always need a greenhouse to create a nature house; it just so happens that the climate in sweden makes it necessary.
“It’s an arrangement so you can live in a garden,” he says. “The concept is simply to live as part of a cycle. For me, it was about trying to create a lower footprint with my lifestyle without living in a cave and enjoying nature.”
Inside Roja’s greenhouse, it is impossible to ignore that connection – and for more reasons than the obvious abundance of plant life. When we sit and drink our coffee, the sound of the roof’s automatic glass panels being opened and closed to regulate the temperature makes it feel as if the house itself was alive. “Your house is like your colleague or friend,” agrees Anders. “The concept sounds complicated, but it’s very simple.
The house provides your protection and food, and you provide water and nutrition. You interact with natural flows and feel like you are part of nature. “In a world where so many of the challenges we face come from people working towards the outside world, it is a refreshingly optimistic attitude to live.