Only metres away from a shoreline of Lake Magelungen, one of the largest lakes in the Stockholm Archipelago, stands a family-owned villa that blends into a sloping lake-side landscape. This comprises three cuboid structures, the biggest being two adjacent buildings forming an H shape that containing the main living spaces, one of which is used by the family’s guests. These are connected below ground by a large basement level. Meanwhile, a third, smaller, separate structure serves as a gazebo – a sheltered, serene spot ideal for reading or contemplating the almost primeval panorama of untamed nature – water and woodland – stretching far into the distance. The villa is located on a peninsula and the surrounding Magelungen area is rich in biodiversity. Forest, wetlands, parks and grasslands play host to a plethora of wildlife, notably birds, from great-crested grebes and gulls to woodpeckers, while the region is popular for such sporting pursuits as bathing, sailing, fishing and, come winter, skating. Some people, such as the occupants of Villa Magelungen, live in this beauty spot all year round, though Stockholm is easily accessible from here, thanks to bridges to the mainland and rail, metro and road links. There’s an island close by that the family also has access to. Theoretically the villa’s boxy structures could have jarred with the ruggedly organic contours of the rocky shoreline – albeit one softened in summer by a grove of graceful, verdant oak and willow trees. What’s more, the buildings don’t look harshly rectilinear since they are clad with red cedarwood chosen because it naturally, rapidly changes colour to a soft silver-grey tone. At Villa Magelungen, the cedarwood has already done its thing, having changed to a grey colour that happily y harmonises with the pumice-coloured, moss-flecked rocky outcrops projecting into the lake. The same type of brick lines walls inside and outside of the villa, once again helping to unify indoors and out and creating a continuity between the villa’s internal walls and external architecture. Vasco and Maria Trigueiros, co-founders of Stockholm-based practice Trigueiros Architecture, which designed the house, is keen to stress that its relationships with its clients are very collaborative: “We start by following our clients’ dreams. They sow the seeds of the project, establish its core character. When we discuss a project with clients they often provide images that evoke an atmosphere. We then interpret that. We ask our clients how they plan to live in the house.” When it came to Villa Magelungen, architecture happened to be a passion of Trigueiros’s clients and the seeds of this project were sown specifically by their passion for the experimental, now iconic Case Study houses built in California, Vasco says. This architectural programme, sponsored by American magazine Art and Architecture, saw avant-garde residential projects constructed in California and Los Angeles from 1945 to 1966. These were designed to address the postwar housing crisis and advocated quick construction, use of inexpensive materials and embraced a modernist aesthetic. Hallmarks of these homes included steel frames, open-plan layouts, simple volumes and panoramic windows that blurred the boundaries between indoors and out – all recognisable traits of Villa Magelungen too. “When we discussed the house with the client, I said it would be inspired by the Case Study houses aesthetically,” remembers Trigueiros. “From the outside the house is very simple. It looks influenced by 1960s architecture.” Its restricted palette of three materials includes concrete – visible in the form of platforms the villa stands on – steel used for its frame and generous expanses of glass. As the villa stands on a sloping site, parts of the concrete platform on the lower parts of the slopes are raised on steel columns to compensate for this. The villa’s articulated sequence of structures leads the eye down towards the lake. Its configuration of three elements was determined by the terrain it stands on – a decision that reinforces the way the house merges with the landscape. “There was a natural path that descended to the water,” says. “We kept this path – the house’s entrance straddles it. From there, the path continues through the house, finally leading to the shore. We created a red carpet made of Swedish ceramic bricks – literally a fil rouge, a common thread bridging indoors and out – to accentuate this sense of a path. A bench once stood where the gazebo is. It was a place to rest on and contemplate the views, which gave us the idea of the gazebo.” According to Trigueiros, there are few planning restrictions in Sweden. The architects practice, which has a strongly environmentalist philosophy, wanted to integrate the villa sensitively into the landscape. The villa stands 10m high and is characterised by a horizontality that ensures it doesn’t impose on its surroundings. Further unifying the house with the landscape is a series of windows strategically positioned to optimise views of the sweeping, unspoilt landscapes they frame. These provide a clear sightline from the house to the rocks bordering the lake. “Wherever you are in the house you see views of the lake – and from all three sides of the peninsula,” says Trigueiros. The integration of architecture into nature is reflected in the interior with its palette of natural, tactile materials used even in normally utilitarian, mundane spaces. A bespoke kitchen is made of smoked oak (a nod in itself to the oak trees outside), while wood was used to custom-make other joinery and details, from built-in wardrobes and flooring to recessed bookshelves. As well as affording views of the landscape, the windows, less intentionally, connect the house to its natural surroundings when seen from the outside, Trigueiros points out. “The glass, seen from the outside, reflects the landscape, reinforcing the connection between indoors and out.” Perhaps one difference between the Case Study houses and Villa Magelungen is the use of cedarwood to clad the buildings – a feature that both makes the latter blend more successfully with the wooded landscape and nods to the Swedish tradition of constructing rural buildings out of wood. The style of the cladding – slender, vertical slats – looks more elegant than rustic, however. The house is designed to be enjoyed in all seasons, although, Trigueiros says, “it rains a lot I winter”. No matter: a tarpaulin can cover outdoor pergolas made of steel and cedar beams that extend beyond the cedarwood structures and provide shelter in colder months. The ground in the outdoor areas is covered with gravel, stone paving or decking. One area is equipped with a barbecue and outdoor kitchen, alfresco dining furniture and minimalist concrete benches all of which enhance the indoor-outdoor character of the villa. The rocks fringing the lake’s edge aretricky to walk on, so some waterside jetties, again in greying cedar, have been attached to them, making it easier to access the lake. “I see them as balconies above the water,” says Trigueiros poetically. They are perfect spots to hang out on on summer nights; on one jetty there are swimming pool-style steps – useful for anyone taking a dip. The house’s interior is generally muted, once again reinforcing its connection to the outdoors. Wood is one of the main materials here. That said, the clients requested colourful elements. The living room, for example, includes a pop of bright colour in the form of watermelon pink sofas and apple green dining chairs. Some colour is introduced in the bathrooms in the form of ceramic tiles in shades of buttermilk yellow or, more flamboyantly, rich, inky blue tones. “We used tiles for bathtubs too to give them a swimming pool-like quality.” While Villa Magelungen marries nature and architecture and indoor and outdoor living, it would be oversimplifying things to say that it lacks a strong presence: when bright sunlight hits the pergolas, for example, these create a graphic interplay of light and dark in the form of diagonal or horizontal shadows, allowing those wandering through this network of paths, corridors and gardens to appreciate the buildings’ bold, horizontal forms, too.