The Danish Summer House is a story about different people coming together to realise a client’s dream. Tollgård Design Group completed the project alongside renowned architect Knud Holscher on the island of Fanø located off Southwestern Denmark.

Built for a British-based family as a summer retreat, the Fanø house is characterized by distinctly Scandinavian design aesthetic. The Scandinavian notion of the red thread is one that Staffan uses in every project as a shorthand to describe the creative design DNA. Pulling together clues from the architecture, from the cultural history, environment, from the client’s own personalities and the questions of living that need to be solved by the design, the red thread draws a protective framework around the project, linking architecture with interiors, client with design.

For this project the red thread was the visual and sensory connection with a uniquely Danish natural setting. This was expressed by fusing inside with outside as seamlessly as possible, using vernacular and true materials as simply as possible. Comfortable, functional minimalism was the goal so that the clients could enjoy every space to its fullest and detach from the buzz of city life left behind.

The floor-to-wall windows and a neutral color and material palette ensure that the hero of the design is the natural landscape beyond. Staffan Tollgård developed serene spaces that accommodate the clients’ needs who spend time in the house during the summer months together with their children. Unassuming and elegant at the same time, the materials were carefully selected and kept simple in order to underline the modern shape of the house and frame the surrounding nature and natural lighting. Embracing a strong graphic identity as a counterpoint to the simple palette of hard materials, the scheme features natural heavily textured woven textiles, light natural and smoked oak furniture and Made a Mano monochromatic patterned worktops in the bathrooms. Craftsmanship and quality was further elevated throughout the home with a bespoke kitchen, wardrobe and bathroom furniture solution from the Danish master craftspeople at Københavns Møbelsnedkeri.

The Danish Summer House is a place to decompress, to connect with nature, to put down cell phones and look out at the bigger, more important picture. To be with their children, to be more at peace and live a simpler life. These were the client’s hopes and dreams for their sand dune retreat. The amount of time they are drawn back to it, is testimony to its success.