Swedish Family Encloses Entire Home in Greenhouse Glass to Create Year-Round Warmth

While many people who live in colder climates dream of relocating to sunnier places, Stochholm natives Marie Granmar and Charles Sacilotto have taken a different approach to staying warm. Instead of packing up their life and moving, they created a warmer climate at home by enclosing their house in a giant greenhouse.

The couple drew inspiration from architect Bengt Warne, who pioneered the first Naturhus (Nature House) in 1976. His innovative design combined a protective greenhouse with smart engineering solutions for heat retention and waste management, laying the groundwork for a truly sustainable home.

In 2004, Granmar and Sacilotto decided to follow Warne’s lead and create their own version of a sustainable home. At first, Sacilotto planned to construct a brand-new Naturhus from scratch on an empty plot. But he and Granmar ended up renovating an existing summer cottage in the Stockholm Archipelago. Inspired by Warne’s early architectural concept, they encased the original structure—along with a new extension—in a shell of 4-millimeter-thick (almost 0.16-inch-thick) glass. The 200-square-meter (approximately 2,153-square-f00t) greenhouse now spans nearly twice the area of the house itself, but still leaves space for a beautiful, wraparound garden.

As you’d expect, the Stockholm weather in winter can be extremely cold, with daytime temperatures below freezing in January. However, Grammar and Sacilotto created their very own, ideal climate that means they can stay warm all year round. Thanks to the Mediterranean-like conditions inside, the couple can now cultivate crops rarely seen in Sweden, such as figs, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Sacilotto explains, “At the end of January it can be -2°C [28.4°F] outside and it can be 15 to 20°C [59 to 68°F] upstairs.”

Because the glass enclosure shields the home from wind and weather, the couple removed the original roof entirely. In its place, a glass-covered deck now serves as one of their favorite spaces to relax and enjoy each other’s company. While the greenhouse is ideal for winter, one of the main challenges of living in this unique home is managing the intense summer heat, which can soar to 40°C [104°F] inside the glass enclosure. To combat this, the couple installed a vent in the greenhouse roof to help release excess heat and maintain a comfortable temperature.

The custom climate isn’t the only amazing thing about this property; Granmar and Sacilotto can also take advantage of solar power and live completely off-grid when it comes to sewage. Sacilotto, an engineer, built a system that starts with a toilet that separates urine. From there, the water is cleaned using centrifuges, storage tanks, plant beds, and garden ponds, while the waste is turned into compost. Sacilotto says, “It’s not just to use the nature, the sun, and the water, but it’s all a philosophy of life, to live in another world, in fact.”

Learn more about Granmar and Sacilotto’s greenhouse home in the video by Kirsten Dirksen, known for documenting unique homes, below.