Famous Swedish glass and ceramics designer Ingegerd Råman and her husband Claes Söderquist bought an abandoned schoolhouse in the countryside in the very south of Sweden, in the mid 90’s. This house was converted during a period of five years, together with Claesson Koivisto Rune, into a home. Originally, one of the two former classrooms was intended as the studio, but this idea was later abandoned in favour of a separate studio building in front of the house. The studio building, together with a freely placed wall, against which firewood is stored, defines the courtyard, in a similar way to how traditional farmhouses in the area have been positioned for centuries.

The Råman studio is a one-room space with a single pitch roof. The studio is contained within massive walls to create a secluded atmosphere. Natural light enters from a slit window in the roof and two grand windows (with doors), placed diagonally in plan at one end of each long wall. The lack of ”normally” sized doors or windows plays with the perception of the scale of things, creating a strong sense of stepping into a much bigger space than expected. The two grand windows are placed on a precise sightline from the entrance of the residential house. When Ingegerd is working she can see who enters the residence without being disturbed by the people passing by in the courtyard. At each grand window there is a recess, or a”fold”, in the wall to define the solidity of the wall next to it.