The Swedish summer house
The Swedish cottage remains loved, generation after generation.
Some say the switch to the summer house is a ritual deeply engrained in the Swedish psyche.
Before there was cheap and accessible international travel, many Swedes took advantage of something else cheap and plentiful: land. All across this spacious country, people built simple dwellings, often by the water, to retire to in the warm summer months.
Today, there are almost 600,000 privately owned holiday homes in Sweden, according to Statistics Sweden (link in Swedish).
What is it about the Swedish summer house that attracts generation after generation? Here is one couple's take.
Popular areas
Among the most popular areas in Sweden for summer houses are the Stockholm archipelago, SkĂ„ne, islands Ăland and Gotland, the west coast and SmĂ„land.
The simple life at the summer house
Anna and PG Wiklund, a teacher and doctor living in UmeÄ in the north of Sweden, have their own reasons for coming back, year after year, to their summer house in the HÀlsingland region of Sweden.
âIt helps you to escape the daily obligations you have back homeâ, says Anna.
Anna's grandfather bought the lakeside plot of land in 1942 and built the house that she and PG still use today.
âAnd because you spend such a long time here, you feel that you live here. If you travel abroad for two weeks, there are so many things to experience and do. Itâs not necessarily that relaxing. Most people have some sort of relationship to their summer house environment â through grandparents or through their childhood â so they can completely relax there.â
An old limestone building on the Baltic island of Gotland. Photo: Elisabeth Edén/imagebank.sweden.se
Some Swedes will tell you that the outhouse â a 'toilet' without running water â is âpart of the artâ with the Swedish summer house. But itâs not a hit with everyone, frankly. Photo: Sonia Jansson/imagebank.sweden.se
A secluded spot. Photo: Doris Beling/Folio/imagebank.sweden.se
Summer in the Swedish province of Dalarna. Photo: Mikael Svensson/Johnér/imagebank.sweden.se
A cottage on an small island in the Stockholm archipelago. Photo: Tina Axelsson/imagebank.sweden.se
An old limestone building on the Baltic island of Gotland. Photo: Elisabeth Edén/imagebank.sweden.se
Some Swedes will tell you that the outhouse â a 'toilet' without running water â is âpart of the artâ with the Swedish summer house. But itâs not a hit with everyone, frankly. Photo: Sonia Jansson/imagebank.sweden.se
A secluded spot. Photo: Doris Beling/Folio/imagebank.sweden.se
Summer in the Swedish province of Dalarna. Photo: Mikael Svensson/Johnér/imagebank.sweden.se
A cottage on an small island in the Stockholm archipelago. Photo: Tina Axelsson/imagebank.sweden.se
An old limestone building on the Baltic island of Gotland. Photo: Elisabeth Edén/imagebank.sweden.se
Some Swedes will tell you that the outhouse â a 'toilet' without running water â is âpart of the artâ with the Swedish summer house. But itâs not a hit with everyone, frankly. Photo: Sonia Jansson/imagebank.sweden.se
A secluded spot. Photo: Doris Beling/Folio/imagebank.sweden.se
Summer in the Swedish province of Dalarna. Photo: Mikael Svensson/Johnér/imagebank.sweden.se
A cottage on an small island in the Stockholm archipelago. Photo: Tina Axelsson/imagebank.sweden.se
Working on the summer house
For PG, time at the summer house is about working â with his hands.
âI dig holes, fiddle with bushes, fix things. And itâs not just me. When I look at our neighbours everyone is doing it. It troubles me that we work with our houses so much, but it pleases me too.'
But PG also likes to wind down.
âAfter a week or two I begin to slow down, and I think thatâs what Iâm looking for: a gradual winding down to a very lazy state. Itâs too much to go from daily life to zero in the time it takes to fly to Greece.â
Most Swedish summer houses were originally built to a basic standard, without hot water (or any water at all), drainage, insulation or electricity â this sparseness being an important part of their attraction. But times are changing.
Year-round retreats
Expanding urban populations and increasing property prices mean that what was once a rural summer retreat is now also a desirable property within commuting distance.
A former marketing manager for real estate agency Skandia MĂ€klarna, Magnus Gidlöf, says: âAn increasing number of people want a rural house they can live in year round. Around Stockholm and Gothenburg in particular, young people are looking to get a piece of that red house back-to-basics dream, but with good communications.â
Some also choose to work remotely from their summer house every now and then â provided that the type of work and the employer make this possible, of course.
