In Denmark, many Danes spend the summer in their allotment gardens. Here they can be close to nature and each other, because the houses on the garden plots are usually quite small.
When architects and spouses Karen Jelnes and Peter Hoffmann got the opportunity to buy an allotment garden, they jumped at the chance. They chose to remove the existing house to design their own summer home, and for two years they spent their weekends and holidays building a small house on their garden plot.
The couple wanted the house to look like a dark box lined with light wood, and they did so by constructing a 22 m2 / 237 ft2 black wooden house that has no visible extra external edges, such as gutters, that would interfere with the box design. To provide the light lining, the walls on the terrace are covered with larch panels. Despite being only 22 m2 / 237 ft2, the house seems much larger. In addition, a 15 m2/ 161 ft2 terrace is used as a multi-room and outdoor kitchen.
The indoor kitchen has no stove, only a refrigerator and some cabinets and shelves, and the kitchen on the terrace has a gas burner.
It was important for these architects that the house be able to be opened up to the outside because the family loves the outdoors, so they installed bi-folding patio doors, thereby making it possible to turn the terrace and the kitchen into one big room. The materials used to build the house are a combination of new and used. Karen and Peter enjoyed scavenger hunting, and the front door and the steel tabletop for the outdoor kitchen were bought used. The house ended up costing about US$ 18,400 in materials.
The combined kitchen and dining room is 9 m2 /97 ft2
Ingeborg loves her loftbed that her mum and dad designed and build.
The bedroom, which Karen Jelnes and Peter Hoffmann share with their two children, is about 10 m2/ 108 ft2.
The bathroom has a clever space-saving wall mounted changing table
The family likes to cook, and they love not having to go to the supermarket all the time, they can just harvest vegetables from their garden.
The whole family: Peter, Karen, Ingeborg and Johan enjoying a sunny summer day
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