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Two million Swedes design 'house of clicks'

The Local Sweden
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Two million Swedes design 'house of clicks'
Image: Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

A team of award-winning architects have joined forces with two million Swedes to design the country’s most sought-after home.

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The prototype for an ideal Swedish home was drawn up by architects Tham & Videgård after they looked at all the available data on price, area, room and floor space for properties listed between January and October 2014 on Hemnet, the country’s biggest property portal.

"The response we've got is that the design provokes an emotional response. A lot of people love it, others don't like it so much, but it doesn't leave anyone untouched," said Hemnet spokesman Staffan Tell.

A dizzying 200 million clicks on 86,000 properties gave Hemnet and the architects a deep understanding of what two millon Swedes a month are searching for when home-hunting. 

"We have a lot of visitors and data and we were curious to see what dreams lie behind the numbers," said Tell. 

After all the numbers were crunched the designers set to work mocking up a 104 square-metre (1,115 square foot) home that fuses the traditions of the iconic Falu red cottage with boxy 20th century functionalism. 

"The price we arrived at was 2.8 million kronor ($334,000), and while that's not affordable for everybody, it does make it a realistic dream for a lot of people," said Tell.

The design leaves nothing to chance, with the architects also conducting in-depth searches to see what Swedes are looking for in interior design. 

The results revealed that Swedes like their homes to have an open-plan kitchen and living room, white walls, hardwood floors, a stone kitchen counter, an open fireplace and a grey sofa in the living room. 

"It was interesting to see that the kitchen has become our most social room, which is reflected in the design," said Tell. 

Hemnet wants the blueprint to move off the drawing board quickly.

"We would like the first house to be built by next spring," he said. 

All images: Tham & Videgård Arkitekter

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