Pelham Planning Associates

05/02/2026

06/01/2026

06/01/2026

29/12/2025

28/12/2025

It’s story time! In 1976, architect Bengt Warne constructed a timber building within a glasshouse to test the concept of a biodynamic model of living in which residents and the home itself are part of a self-sustaining ecosystem. While the project got some attention, it stayed a unique vision for three decades. Recently, it’s gained momentum. Orthopedic engineer Anders Solvarm came across Warne’s work in 2000. “I realized it was like moving the house to Italy,” he recalls of the way the greenhouse creates climates for year-round growth. After contacting Warne, Anders spent the next seven years building his own version of the naturhus.

A television program about Anders’s home inspired another couple, Roja Brimalm and Johan Holmstedt, to start their own journey, first by visiting Anders. “It was a cold November day when we visited, but inside it was like a paradise,” Roja remembers. The couple spent the next two years designing their home with Fredrik Olson.

These two homes are far from the only ones to have appeared in the Swedish countryside since Warne. French engineer Charles Sacilotto constructed a greenhouse over an existing home outside Stockholm back in 2004. Charles’s partner, Marie Granmar, moved in a few years later, and became enamored with the practice. She eventually went on to write a book—Naturhus—on the subject.

Throughout each of the homes, Warne’s guiding principles shine through. “The concept is simply to live as part of an eco-cycle,” Anders says of his setup, where gray water nourishes the garden before reentering a pond nearby. “The concept sounds complicated, but it’s very simple.” In a world where so many of our challenges come from humans working against the outside world, it’s a refreshingly optimistic approach to living. Read the full story: https://www.dwell.com/article/swedish-greenhouse-homes-bengt-warne-utopian-vision-0d4c5ca5

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