The greenhouse grows up: a public building under glass
In 2015, Tailor Made arkitekter completed the Uppgrenna Naturhus above Lake Vättern in Sweden, with Fredrik Olson as architect in charge. A derelict red barn came down; what replaced it is around 520 m² in total, roughly 200 m² of that greenhouse.
An insulated core inside an unheated shell
The building keeps a properly insulated core — where you need real comfort — and wraps it in an unheated greenhouse that carries on over the roof, with plant beds and sheltered terraces looking over the lake. Visitors describe the growing climate as something like northern Italy. Sewage is treated on site in the greenhouse plant beds; the building isn't connected to municipal sewer at all. It took Jönköping's environmental award in 2016.
Not just houses
This is the moment the idea stops being domestic. A café, a spa and meeting rooms under the same glass logic works commercially — the shelter is amenity, and the amenity is what people pay for. It's the argument behind the Sophab Atrium and RoofPhab: the enclosed, tempered floor area carries the case long before the energy savings do.
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