Addition of a light veranda-like extension to a villa in a Garden City

In Ålsten, outside of Stockholm, Marge has designed an extension to an existing villa from 1926. The area can be described as a characteristic garden city, and the existing house is a typical two-story villa from the period, with a tiled gable roof, white wooden facade, and gray-green window frames, surrounded by a lush garden with old fruit trees.

The purpose of the ground-level extension was to open up the previously enclosed villa towards the garden and create generous spaces to accommodate a large family and friends. The former front porch, with an entrance from the garden side, has been replaced by a single-story extension that includes both a new welcoming entrance facing the driveway, an adjoining veranda, and an extension of the kitchen into a spacious living/dining room with a high ceiling.

The extension is treated in terms of design as a veranda regarding scale, execution, and color. The scale is broken down through two smaller gable roofs that connect to the veranda form, and the material used throughout is wood, with a standing seam metal roof. Externally, both the extension and the veranda are clad in a wooden trellis for climbing plants, which lends the volume a sense of lightness and reinforces the character of a veranda/orangery. The generous dining room features large glass sections that open towards the garden, blurring the line between indoors and outdoors.

The gray-green color of all parts of the extension harmonizes with the existing house’s gray-green window frames, as well as with the recurring green tones on facades, garden sheds, and details like railings and fences in the surrounding area. To further unite the two building volumes into a cohesive whole, the existing balcony railing and bay window roof (previously white) have been given the same gray-green color. The extension is a clearly contemporary addition, visible from the street, but it delicately complements the existing 1920s house through its scale and light garden architecture. Here, garden and dining room merge, both in expression and function, acting as a link between the existing building and its flourishing garden.

Den grågröna kulören på tillbyggnadens alla delar samspelar med det befintliga husets grågröna fönsteromfattningar, samt med återkommande gröna toner på såväl fasader, trädgårdsbodar och detaljer som räcken och plank i närområdet. För att ytterliga binda samman de två byggnadsvolymerna till en helhet har befintligt balkongräcke och burspråkstak (tidigare vita) fått samma grågröna kulör. Tillbyggnaden utgör ett tydligt samtida tillägg som skymtar fram även från gatan men som finstämt underordnar sig det befintliga 1920-huset genom sin skala och känsla av lätt trädgårdsarkitektur. Här kan trädgård och matrum flyta samman, både i uttryck och funktion, och fungera som en länk mellan den befintliga bygganden och dess prunkande trädgård.