At the summer house, we lead a completely different life

“A summer house makes it possible to step away from your everyday life and live a completely different one. It’s about establishing a ‘different kind of sense of home,’” says Claus Bech-Danielsen, a professor of architecture at Aalborg University. He has conducted research on everything from public housing to the sense of home among the homeless and life in a summer house.

We invited him to discuss what this new sense of home in the summer house entails and what’s important to keep in mind when seeking the good life at a summer house.

“Even though I own a summer house myself, I’ve come to realize the absurdity of the fact that most summer house owners are people who already own a similar property with a house and yard—typically a single-family home lot—located perhaps 70 km away. They’re building small clones of their own single-family homes,” Claus Bech-Danielsen begins.

So why do we have summer homes?

Having a summer home is about creating a setting that makes it possible to live differently than you do in everyday life. It’s about creating a new sense of home. At the summer home, it’s not so much about the house itself—but about the life it invites you to live. It’s a relaxing place where you live and spend time together in a different way than you do at home.

How does the vacation home make us live differently?

You spend time together as a family in a different way because you don’t have as much space. You don’t each have a big room where you can hide away with your PlayStation and toys. At the vacation home, you’re forced to be together—in a positive sense. You also spend more time outdoors, since vacation homes are half the size of your home, and that draws us outside. If it’s cold, you just put on a sweater. At home, you’d have waited until it got warmer. In that way, vacation home life embodies the romantic ideals of simple living and a healthy lifestyle under the open sky. The vacation home is closely linked to the pursuit of health.

At the summer house, people also don’t worry nearly as much about cleaning when they have guests. It doesn’t matter if there are a few pine needles or some sand on the floor. People greet their neighbors even with messy hair. That’s why it’s important to many summer house owners to be a few kilometers away from their primary residence. Ideally, these two ways of life shouldn’t be mixed together.”

> As a family, you spend time together in a different way because you don’t have as much space. You don’t each have a big room where you can hide away with your PlayStation and toys. At the summer house, you’re forced to be together—in a positive sense.

How important is the interior design for a good summer house experience?

The interior design of a summer house isn’t as much about economic status as it is in one’s primary residence. At the summer house, there are different norms and rules for socializing. You typically have more guests, and it doesn’t turn into a stuffy dinner for two, which is often a bit of a show-off. Guests make their own sandwiches when they’re hungry, and the whole atmosphere is more relaxed.

Another trend we’re seeing is that people decorate their vacation homes with items found in nature—a piece of amber, a seashell, or a hollow stone. Many also have a map of the region and a nautical chart. These are items that directly reference the local area, and this sets the decor apart from what you’d find at home. In this way, staying at a summer house becomes a kind of exotic journey, where you’re out experiencing things and bringing the memories home with you.

When summer house life is so different from life at home. How do you adjust to these two worlds?

People experience life at home and life at the summer house as two distinct ways of living. And some summer house owners actually have a hard time adjusting. The transition from everyday life to summer house life is also associated with a lot of rituals—things they always do when they arrive at their summer house. Some take off their wristwatch as the very first thing. Some put up the pennant right away. Others have to take a special walk, and some start by going for a swim.

What’s so special about summer cottage life?

It has surprised me just how strong a need summer cottage owners have to create a narrative that they’re out in the fresh, clean nature when they’re at their summer cottage. Even though, in many cases, there’s the constant sound of hedge trimmers and other engine noise. It’s just as much about the idea and the talk of peace and quiet that takes center stage. Summer house owners know exactly what the good life is—and no one is going to change that understanding. It’s perfectly clear.