House on a Hill is located on a site in Värmdö, 20 minutes from central Stockholm, where a substantial area of land rises from the water's edge through forested slope to an open plateau at the top. The boathouse sits at the waterline; the main house occupies the plateau. Because the access road climbs a steep cliff from below, the house and its views of the archipelago landscape reveal themselves only on arrival at the main level, which Tham & Videgård treated as a spatial event rather than a given.
The studio conceived the house as a concrete structure reduced to its essential components: a vertical mass fixed into the bedrock, organized around the landscape rather than against it. The program distributes across 3 levels. The souterrain serves as the entry and service level. The middle and terrace levels are the social zones. The top level holds the private family rooms. The facade structure does not simply stack these levels: it rotates 45 degrees between each floor, producing a labyrinthine effect where the exterior landscape becomes the constant point of reference for orientation both inside and out.
The folded perimeter plan creates a series of terraces that follow the sun's path around the building and are protected from the wind on each side. Large windows sit within the concrete mass, and the arrangement of the volumes and glazing ensures that the open plateau and the archipelago views remain the primary spatial experience rather than the interior itself. The client, a family that divides its time between the city and outdoors, wanted a home with a strong connection to the countryside for both solitude and gathering. The house delivers both, on the same site, through the same section.
