Sylvia, who works for the Swedish military, and Johan, an IT professional, built a family home fully enclosed in a greenhouse as a way to live with nature instead of resisting it. They called it Naturhus Torpadal.
Sylvia grew up on a farm; Johan grew up in the city. The greenhouse became their compromise—combining her instinct for growing food with his interest in systems and autonomy.
Their glass envelope moderates the coastal climate near Gothenburg, expands their growing season, and allows Sylvia to cultivate plants she never imagined possible in Sweden, including grapes.
Beneath the greenery is a resilient infrastructure: the couple produces their own water and electricity and treats their own waste. They are one of only two households in Sweden not required to connect to the municipal sewer system, turning their waste into a resource instead.
During the pandemic, this autonomy became even more apparent. With Johan working from home, he barely felt the disruption outside; daily life inside the greenhouse continued with planting, harvesting, and raising their children.
For Sylvia and Johan, the project is more than a home—it’s a small, self-sustaining ecosystem. Their greenhouse homestead shows how a family can live resiliently by cooperating with the natural systems that surround them.
ah sweet! domesteads for the coming cyberpunk dystopia climate apocalypse!
:yea: but i could drink a cup of coffee every month despite the famine wars and hypercanes shutting down trade outside of coastal Kansas. kids can take field trips to my homestead and learn what an insect was.
This is more or less the kind of homestead that I want, although maybe with a semi-subterranean home instead of a built one. The greenhouse would be my productive nursery, botanical garden, and all-season subsistence garden. Surrounding it I’d have a mosaic of productive gardens, outdoor nurseries, pollinator gardens, and restored beaver wetlands. It was always so nice to have morning coffee in tropical countries surrounded by flora so lush that the jungle feels like an organism. Replicating that and being overwhelmed by floral smells every time I leave the house would be the ideal.
It’s gorgeous. I love these vids, though they tend to be the height of privilege. I let autoplay go and I’m now on the third ‘house in a greenhouse’ video of the afternoon.
I found a YouTube link in your post. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
