Cozy Swedish Living Room We Love

Swedish architect Per Bornstein’s house, from our Small Spaces issue, sits on a hill between a large forested park and Gothenburg’s former industrial area, a welcome addition to a previously abandoned lot. From the outside, it looks like a 1,400-square-foot timber-paneled box cutting into a slope. And, despite the Corbusier-like efficiency of the interior plan, the spaces Bornstein has carved out for himself and his daughter are as cozy as they are cutting-edge. Split between two levels, the majority of walls are clad in two-by-eight-foot boards of untreated glued-laminated pinewood. “I hadn’t really dug into wood before,” says the architect. “Then you realize there’s so much wood in Sweden. It’s a cheap material. Everybody can use it. It ages beautifully and it’s instantly cozy.”