"Live in a Work of Art": How Ross Architecture Builds Homes That Last Forever

Tucked away at Drottningholm on the outskirts of Stockholm, Ross Architecture and Design has spent 30 years building on a simple but radical belief: that a home should be as enduring in the way it feels as in the way it functions, designed not just for the family moving in, but for every version of that family over the decades to come. Across 368 projects and counting, with homes in Los Angeles, Spain, Turkey, and Denmark, Pål Ross and Jan Öström have built a studio defined by a single ambition. Their motto: live in a work of art.

The studio is small – nine people – but its influence has travelled far. Architects have written to say they entered the profession because of what they saw Ross creating. Clients have returned for a second house, a third, and then commissioned their offices too. And in almost every project the duo takes on, something that might seem like a luxury add-on has become non-negotiable: the home lift.

We sat down with both founders to talk about future-proof design, the “forever home,” and why the Aritco home lift has been woven into their thinking since the very beginning.

Pål Ross: We create living environments that load their inhabitants with energy and happiness. I see other work out there that looks good, but lacks that energy. We came to the conclusion that life is not square, so why should we spend all our time in different sizes of boxes when nature is not square? We found a building technique that lets us create organic environments in concrete, of high quality, for a reasonable cost and time.

Jan Öström: When people see our houses – the forms, the shapes – first they’re surprised. Can you really do this? And then they ask, can we really afford this? We say yes to both.

Pål: Most houses are boxes with so many windows they end up more like aquariums. People admire them, but maybe they don’t want to live in them. What we’re offering is a home you long to come back to. One you don’t want to leave, because you love being there.

Pål: Forever is maybe 40 or 50 years. For that, you need a house that makes you happy and proud throughout all of those years.  We explain from the start that with a home lift, the second or third floor stays accessible forever. In our projects, it’s as straightforward to include as a wine cooler. Once you understand that, it stops being a question.

Jan: And one that works, functions-wise, for all of those years. You start as a couple, you have children, the children grow up and move out, you get older. That house has to work for all these different stages of life and adapt along the way. To make a home that truly works forever, it has to function well, but it also has to give you energy. You have to want to be there. Because if you don’t want to be there, you won’t stay forever.

Pål: There’s a misconception that a home for your later years should be smaller, because you don’t want to be cleaning too much. And that it should be one floor, because you might eventually be in a wheelchair. I think both are wrong. If the house you built 30 years earlier still attracts your children to come back each summer – not to their old rooms, but to proper suites with a double bed, because you thought ahead about who they might become – that house is doing its job.

Jan: When a young couple comes to us – no kids, early days – they wonder, why would we need a lift? We say: you have two storeys, and it’s a perfect way to send laundry down. They think, oh, that’s smart. Then we extend the story. If you injure yourself in your 40s playing volleyball and break a leg, wouldn’t it be useful? And later, if you end up in a wheelchair, you can still stay in your home.

Pål: The staircase is one of our gems, always created to be beautiful, placed in exactly the right position.

Jan: It’s an art form knowing where to place it, how to curve it. Like frozen music.

Pål: And we do the same with the lift. It should also be a gem. Today, you can have lifts that are glass, with art inside, with lighting. When it all comes together, clients say, “Oh, that’s smart.” And it is.

Pål: The added cost of a home lift is super small, but it opens the possibility of accessing every part of the house for the rest of your life. In the big equation, it’s zero point something percent of the project. At that level, it’s not a question of whether you can afford it, it’s a question of whether you can afford not to.

Jan: As with all our partnerships, we look for the best product, best value, best design,  and there has to be good service as well. We found that with Aritco a long time ago, and it has been working ever since. I don’t see why it shouldn’t continue working forever.

Pål: In the early years, we had to hide the lifts. They were functional, like a boiler. You need it, but you don’t want to see it. These days, with the way the Aritco home lift looks, we can choose to display it. When it is concealed, honestly, it’s a shame because you only experience how good it is when you’re inside it.

Jan: One thing we really appreciate is the ability to have doors on different sides at different floors. You often need to exit in a different direction depending on the level, and it works beautifully. We use that quite a lot. The only projects where we struggle to include a lift are the single-storey ones. (Laughs.) But I’m sure Aritco has a plan for that eventually.

Jan: In one of our houses on the west coast of Sweden, the family there are in their late 50s. Healthy, active, they still use the stairs. But they love knowing the lift is there. The security of being able to get to their bedroom, to the office on the second floor, to the views up there. You can already see the value, long before it becomes a necessity.

Pål: In almost all our projects where the laundry room is in the basement, we create a spot where clothes can be dropped down from above. The children actually drop their laundry down, because it’s enjoyable. Then, the clean laundry comes back up in the lift. It becomes part of daily life in a way that surprises people.

Jan: Our most recent project on Lidingö is a four-storey rebuild of an older property. The lift runs from the walk-in wardrobe all the way down to the basement – the laundry room on one level, the gym on another. The clients are in their 70s, and this is exactly what it’s designed for.

Pål: We’re also working on a project where the family’s daily entry is through the garage. They arrive, pull in, and take the lift straight up into the house. When you’ve just done the grocery shopping, that changes everything. It’s where the lift is placed that determines how much it actually becomes part of life.