Bruno Mathsson’s Solar Architecture

My article “Bruno Mathsson’s Solar Architecture” is published here. Mathsson is an immensely-interesting mid-century Swedish furniture designer and architect. I conclude Mathsson internalized both the ‘glass house’ and the ‘solar house’ as new types, although these “were fundamentally incongruent in concept.” Ultimately he was more interested in the therapeutic and psychological effects associated with glass architecture than in the energy savings promised by solar architecture. (Passive solar energy savings are difficult in Sweden, as the data shows in my article, but Mathsson tried—by inventing Brunopane.)

I also find that Mathsson’s Villa Södrakull (1965) is “a true masterwork of mid-century modernism.” Mathsson imagined “Swedish homes of the future will be a kind of greenhouse with tropical heat,” and here it is, including a green glass floor and tropical textiles by Josef Frank:

Credit: Tina Stafrén / Visit Sweden.