A summer house or summerhouse is a building or shelter used for relaxation in warm weather. [1] This would often take the form of a small, roofed building on the grounds of a larger one, but could also be built in a garden or park, often designed to provide cool shady places of relaxation or retreat from the summer heat. It can also refer to a second residence, usually located in the country, that provides a cool and relaxing home to live in during the summer, such as a vacation property.
Especially in the Nordic countries, sommerhus (Danish), sommarstuga (Swedish), hytte (Norwegian), sumarbústaður or sumarhús (Icelandic) or kesämökki (Finnish) is a summer residence (as a second home). It can be a larger dwelling like a cottage rather than a simple shelter. [2]
Sommarhus (in Swedish : sommarstuga or lantställe), in Norwegian hytte, is a popular holiday home or summer cottage, often near the sea or in an attractive area of the countryside. Most are timber constructions, often suitable for year-round use. Increasingly they have additions such as saunas, heating ovens, fireplaces, or attractive gardens. Increasingly, English speakers call them summerhouses. A Swedish sommarstuga is traditionally painted with a special red colour called falu rödfärg and has white trimmed corners, windows, and doors.
Many of the Danish resorts depend on the rental of summerhouses to accommodate national and foreign tourists who can rent them, usually on a weekly basis, at prices (for a family) well below those of hotels. But Scandinavians often spend a considerable amount of time in their summerhouses which are often the venue for family reunions or simply weekends away from the office.
In recent years, the popularity and, thus, the cost of summerhouses has increased appreciably, particularly in Denmark's coastal resorts. Under Danish law, owners are generally not permitted to use these houses as permanent homes; an exception is made for pensioners.
In some attractive areas of Norway, there is "residence duty" (Norwegian:boplikt), meaning that an owner of a house must use it as their primary home and spend most of their overnight stays there. Other areas of Norway are defined as "summer house areas", where it is forbidden to live permanently. This is because there are quality requirements for permanent homes that do not apply to cottages. [3]
Sweden has no ban against using summer houses all year or against using a normal house in summer only. This has made Swedish summer houses popular for Danes, Norwegians, and Germans. But in some desirable coastal areas, prices are so high that residents cannot afford a house, making some traditional coastal villages very silent in winter.
Nynorsk is one of the two official written standards of the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. From 12 May 1885, it became the state-sanctioned version of Ivar Aasen's standard Norwegian language (Landsmål), parallel to the Dano-Norwegian written standard known as Riksmål. The name Nynorsk was introduced in 1929. After a series of reforms, it is still the written standard closer to Landsmål, whereas Bokmål is closer to Riksmål and Danish.
Transhumance is a type of pastoralism or nomadism, a seasonal movement of livestock between fixed summer and winter pastures. In montane regions, it implies movement between higher pastures in summer and lower valleys in winter. Herders have a permanent home, typically in valleys. Generally only the herds travel, with a certain number of people necessary to tend them, while the main population stays at the base. In contrast, movement in plains or plateaus (horizontal transhumance) is more susceptible to being disrupted by climatic, economic, or political change.
A bungalow is a small house or cottage that is single-storey, sometimes with a smaller upper storey set in the roof and windows that come out from the roof, and may be surrounded by wide verandas.
Vernacular architecture is building done outside any academic tradition, and without professional guidance. It is not a particular architectural movement or style, but rather a broad category, encompassing a wide range and variety of building types, with differing methods of construction, from around the world, both historical and extant and classical and modern. Vernacular architecture constitutes 95% of the world's built environment, as estimated in 1995 by Amos Rapoport, as measured against the small percentage of new buildings every year designed by architects and built by engineers.
A cottage, during England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide some form of service to the manorial lord. However, in time cottage just became the general term for a small house. In modern usage, a cottage is usually a modest, often cosy dwelling, typically in a rural or semi-rural location and not necessarily in England. The cottage orné, often quite large and grand residences built by the nobility, dates back to a movement of "rustic" stylised cottages of the late 18th and early 19th century during the Romantic movement.
A chalet, also called Swiss chalet, is a type of building or house, typical of the Alpine region in Europe. It is made of wood, with a heavy, gently sloping roof and wide, well-supported eaves set at right angles to the front of the house.
A torp is a type of cottage emblematic of the Swedish countryside. It comes from the Old Norse þorp. In modern usage, it is the classic Swedish summer house, a small cottage painted in Falu red and white, and evidence of the way in which urbanization came quite late to all of Scandinavia. Its characteristic falu röd colour is ubiquitous in Sweden and became popular due to the paint's affordability. In the meaning of "simple second home", the concept exists under other names in Danish, Norwegian and Finnish.
Varberg is a locality and the seat of Varberg Municipality, Halland County, Sweden, with 35,782 inhabitants in 2019.
Eastern Norway is the geographical region of the south-eastern part of Norway. It consists of the counties Oslo, Akershus, Vestfold, Østfold, Buskerud, Telemark, and Innlandet.
A holiday cottage, holiday home, vacation home, or vacation property is accommodation used for holiday vacations, corporate travel, and temporary housing often for less than 30 days. Such properties are typically small homes, such as cottages, that travelers can rent and enjoy as if it were their own home for the duration of their stay. The properties may be owned by those using them for a vacation, in which case the term second home applies; or may be rented out to holidaymakers through an agency.
A mountain hut is a building located at high elevation, in mountainous terrain, generally accessible only by foot, intended to provide food and shelter to mountaineers, climbers and hikers. Mountain huts are usually operated by an Alpine Club or some organization dedicated to hiking or mountain recreation. They are known by many names, including alpine hut, mountain shelter, mountain refuge, mountain lodge, and mountain hostel. It may also be called a refuge hut, although these occur in lowland areas too.
A bothy is a basic shelter, usually left unlocked and available for anyone to use free of charge. It was also a term for basic accommodation, usually for gardeners or other workers on an estate. Bothies are found in remote mountainous areas of Scotland, Northern England, Ulster and Wales. They are particularly common in the Scottish Highlands, but related buildings can be found around the world. A bothy was also a semi-legal drinking den on the Isle of Lewis. These, such as Bothan Eòrapaidh, were used until recent years as gathering points for local men and were often situated in an old hut or caravan.
A vacation rental is the renting out of a furnished apartment, house, or professionally managed resort-condominium complex on a temporary basis to tourists as an alternative to a hotel. The term vacation rental is mainly used in the US. Other terms used are self-catering rental, holiday home, holiday let, cottage holiday and gite.
Frederiksberg Gardens is one of the largest and most attractive greenspaces in Copenhagen, Denmark. Together with the adjacent Søndermarken it forms a green area of 64 hectares at the western edge of Inner Copenhagen. It is a romantic landscape garden designed in the English style.
A hut is a small dwelling, which may be constructed of various local materials. Huts are a type of vernacular architecture because they are built of readily available materials such as wood, snow, ice, stone, grass, palm leaves, branches, clay, hides, fabric, or mud using techniques passed down through the generations.
Djursland is a 1,417 km2 hilly lowland peninsula in Denmark at the entrance to the Baltic Sea, between Denmark and Sweden in Northern Europe. Djursland protrudes into the Kattegat sea, as part of the larger peninsula of Jutland, which itself extends from the Central European continent. Djursland comprises the two municipalities of Norddjurs and Syddjurs.
Nordkalottruta or Arctic Trail is a marked hiking trail in the Arctic region of the Nordic countries. It has a total length of 800 km (500 mi) and lies along the border of Norway, Sweden and Finland. It begins at Kautokeino and 380 km (240 mi) of the trail lies in Norway, 350 km (220 mi) in Sweden and 70 km (43 mi) in Finland. The trail crosses international borders 15 times and ends in the south in Sulitjelma (Norway) or alternately Kvikkjokk (Sweden).
Raudvatnet is a lake in Rana Municipality in Nordland county, Norway. The European route E12 highway passes along the northern and eastern shores of the lake between the town of Mo i Rana and the border with Sweden. A Red cross hut is located east of the lake Raudvatnet. Water flows into the lake Raudvatnet primarily from the nearby lake Tverrvatnet to the south. From Raudvatnet, the water flows into the river Tverråga, a tributary to the main river Ranelva.
A wilderness hut, bothy, backcountry hut, or backcountry shelter is a free, primitive mountain hut for temporary accommodation, usually located in wilderness areas, national parks and along backpacking and hiking routes. They are found in many parts of the world, such as Finland, Sweden, Norway, northern Russia, the Alps, the Pyrenees, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the United States. Huts are basic and unmanned, without running water.
Varde is a Danish city in southwestern Jutland and is the primary city in the municipality of Varde, in Region of Southern Denmark. In 2015 municipality changed its motto to "We in nature" to emphasize its rural atmosphere. The town has an old market environment and is located by Varde stream/river and is a short distance away from the beaches by the North Sea. These features make it a tourist destination. The age of Varde is not known precisely, but it is mentioned in written sources from 1107 A.D. and is therefore thought have been founded sometime in the early Middle Ages.