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Swedish Housing: As Snug as a Cocoon
| Article
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11776 |
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Section : |
LIFE
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| Issue
Date : |
4 / 1987 |
2,022 Words |
| Author
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Miles Cunningham
Miles Cunningham wrote for Gannett for nine years and the
Philadelphia Bulletin for sixteen years. He is now a writer
for Insight. |
Swedish housing has something in common with auto imports: The Swedes have made substantive improvements in the way houses are built.
When the energy crisis of the 1970s prompted homeowners to turn down the heat, Sweden kept the thermostat high and turned to technology perfected since the end of World War II.
Energy efficiency is an integral part of the Swedish house, not an add-on or optional extra as with many conventionally built American houses.
The following is excerpted from a report on Swedish housing called "Coming In from the Cold," commissioned by the German Marshall Fund of the United States and the Swedish Council for Building Research:
"The snug, well-lit interiors of Swedish homes provide a cheerful defense against the chill and gloom of winter. Yet these homes use less energy for heating than the housing stock of any other temperature-climate country. Adjusted for climate and the size of homes, the average energy use for home heating in Sweden is barely two-thirds of that of other European and North American countries. This is even more impressive when one considers that Sweden has both higher indoor temperatures and more central heating than other countries."
The factory-built shell is put up on the site in one or two days in Sweden. (The Swedes prefer "factory-crafted" to "prefabricated" housing.) Therefore houses can be build year-round since most of the work is indoors, whereas the conventionally built house may be open to the weather for weeks or even months. Pilferage, a problem with on-site built houses, is also minimal with factory-made housing because few unattached building materials are necessary on the site.
Site or stick building is likely to disappear over the next five years in Sweden, where the factory-built home is recognized as the custom product. U.S. inroads - where site construction dominates - is not projected.
A Swedish house appears similar to a well-built American house. The technology that makes it energy efficient can be applied to conventionally designed houses, condominiums, office buildings, shopping malls, and churches.
"In this country, we simply build a loose house so that there is natural
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