Josef Frank: Villa Carlsten

Between 1924 and 1936, Austrian architect Josef Frank built five holiday homes on the Falsterbo Peninsula in southern Sweden. Conceived as summer houses for friends and relatives of Frank’s Swedish wife, the Falsterbo Villas constitute a key part of Frank’s architectural work and demonstrate concerns at the core of his housing designs.In 2016, Villa Carlsten, the smallest of the Falsterbo Villas, underwent an extensive restoration. Published on the occasion of its completion, Josef Frank—Villa Carlsten is the first book to comprehensively document the building. As with all of Frank’s housing designs, Villa Carlsten sees the architect paying special attention to the connection between interior and exterior, to the availability of daylight, and to inhabitants’ movements throughout the home. A particular part of Villa Carlsten’s charm is its scale, as everything is of smaller dimensions than one would expect. Despite its intricate layout, however, Villa Carlsten is also one of Frank’s mos