Villa Straa
Near the coast just south of Aarhus lies a unconventional house. The house's architecture is inspired by the area's beautiful dune landscape with sand and wild grasses and thatched both on the roof and facades.
Villa Straa uses the historic and natural thatch roofing material in a new way. The thatched roofs have been a large part of the cultural heritage in Denmark, but the summer house outside Aarhus challenges the material anew by working with a vertical thatched roof on the building's facades. The reeds are grown locally in Denmark and come from areas around Ringkøbing Fjord and Randers Fjord. The biogenic and renewable material helps to ensure a lower CO2 emission for the construction, and it also gives the summer house a living, tactile facade that blends in naturally with the surrounding dune landscape. Over time, the covered surfaces will patina and change color to a greyish tone.
"We can use this roof, which represents such a strong cultural heritage, in our time. It dresses the facades, and it goes well with both wood and glass. The combination lifts it and makes it elegant." Mette Nymann, LOOP Architects, 2019
The house's construction is made of wood, and the facades are either covered with thatch or oak. In some places, the facades are broken with large glass sections that connect the house to a screened terrace with a private outdoor space and create a view of the scenic area at Saksild Strand.
