""I had sworn that I would never have a summerhouse," says Bjarke Ingels."
""When I was a kid, we would always go on trips during the summer, but then when my parents bought a summerhouse, we never went on trips again-we always just went to the summerhouse," he recalls."
""I kind of liked it, for sure-it was in the middle of the forest in Sweden. But ironically, my childhood home, where my parents still live, is by a lake in a forest in Denmark, right next to the beach. I like to joke that my family was the only one who bought a summerhouse with less wonderful nature than the place they actually live in.""
""My son turned two, and it became quite important for me that he would feel rooted in Denmark," Ingels says. "I think that once you have children, the microcosmos of the summerhouse becomes incredibly lovely. And I travel so much for work that for me, a holiday is actually to not travel.""
Bjarke Ingels initially resisted owning a summerhouse because family habits had concentrated summer life at a parental cottage. His decision changed after his son’s birth, when grounding his child in Denmark and valuing a non-travel holiday became priorities. He splits time between Copenhagen and New York and lives in a converted ferry overlooking CopenHill, a waste-to-energy plant topped with a ski slope. His work spans large-scale, innovative projects that combine futurism, functionality, and sustainability. The summerhouse reflects nostalgia, family priorities, and a practical, playful approach to place-making within his broader design ethos.
Read at Architectural Digest
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