How Sweden Became the Surprising Center of the Greenhouse Home Movement

Meet the Swedish pioneers living in greenhouse homes who are bringing architect Bengt Warne’s utopian vision of existing in harmony with nature from the ’70s into the modern day.

Sitting in Roja Brimalm’s back garden in the Swedish countryside, it’s easy to believe it is a bright morning in early summer. We’re bathed in sun, enjoying fika—the Swedish tradition of coffee and cake—and chatting about her plans for the garden while bumblebees dart among blossoming fruit trees. The reality, however, is that it’s a cold and blustery morning in March, one that we’re separated from by nothing more than the four-millimeter-thick glass of the greenhouse that covers Roja’s entire home and garden, creating a bubble of balmy weather.

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Mandi Keighran
Design and travel writer based in London.

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