Lådan - The Box
Modelling and learning from Ralph Erskine
Djupdalen, Sweden, 1941 (modelling from 2022)
Architecture, Residential
Photo: Render of Front Entrance, done in Sketchup
Lådan or The Box is a project centered on recreating and learning through modelling Ralph Erskine’s house he built in Sweden shortly after arriving there in 1941. This was done mainly in the programs Sketchup and Vray for the modelling and renders, and research was done with the help of the BBC Audio Archives, the Stockholm County Museum and my wife, Karma, with translating the Swedish documents. The complete model, research and photos will be located here or at the end of the page for all to use for personal use.
Typography Residential Home
Location Djupdalen, Sweden
Status Research Complete
Client None
Above: Front entrance to recreation of original house at Stockholm County Museum
Above: Render of The Box by Ralph Erskine
Above: Main hall, with chimney, kitchen to the left and bed on pulleys located above
Ralph Erskine and Lådan
Ralph Erskine is a Scottish-Swedish architect and personal idol of mine, focusing his career on social infrastructure and housing. When himself, his wife and their two daughters first moved to Sweden, he designed and built a small home for them on a nearby farm in Djupdalen, where they lived for 4 years. The house has been demolished now, with a replica now standing in Lovön, Sweden. The replica was built with Erskine’s participation in 1989 and donated to the Stockholm County Museum.
When trying to learn about Ralph Erskine and this house, I found very little available about the house, especially in English, so I decided to try to recreate the house in Sketchup to be able to virtually walk in it and experience the home myself, while also learning through designing and research, what, why and how Erskine designed like.
Left: Photo of Erskine’s drafting desk in the house
Above: Floor plan and Section of The Box by Ralph Erskine
Info on the project
Of the actual design and a central parti, I could not find much that Ralph wrote or drew about. The project itself was very small and had very little in terms of amenities: there was no power, cooling or running water on the site, with a well on the farm that they would have had to fetch to get with a pail.
The house is constructed predominantly with wood studs (2” x 4”) and wood siding, treated with a chemical called treetex. There is insulation in the walls surprisingly, but it is just wood chips, which offer little insulation value compared to modern insulation and more likley would have just dampened noise rather than insulate. The house rests upon a cobblestone base with 2” x 7” floor joists on top, and includes a central fireplace, which includes what I presume are niches to warm clothes and food. The roof is a metal standing seam roof on top of 2” x 5” roof joists below and 3/4” boards, coated in tar paper.
If there is a parti in this house, it is the word compact. As you stand in the living room, the bed is located above you on pulleys. Each night, the bed would have to be lowered down to be used, and then hoisted up again after use. The drafting table, located in the top-right corner of the floor plan, is also compact, allowing Ralph to fold it away when not in use into the wall of closets.
Rough Models
These models were created using Sketchup, and rendered using Vray. All line drawings were made using Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.
