Linus started playing ice hockey at the age of 6 in the old ice rink in Stenungsund, Sweden. He dreamed of playing in the Swedish Hockey League (SHL) in front of thousands of fans at Scandinavium in Gothenburg. The dream came true, but his ice hockey career ended abruptly due to a head injury, leading him to pursue a career as an architect.
Different circumstances and a passion for personal growth led him to this new path. Just as the ice was fundamental for his ice hockey career, SketchUp became the same for his architectural work. Linus believes that the combination of joy and inner motivation is essential to success.
Looking back, during his ice hockey journey, Linus became determined in their late teens to make it to the Swedish Hockey League (SHL). He set up a plan, kept a diary of his practices and matches, analyzed his performance, and made improvements. He heard that statistically"not even 0.1% of those who start playing ice hockey in Sweden make it to the SHL - that's a fact!", but used it as motivation. At 19 years old, he played in the third division and was not on the radar of talent scouts. Most people would think that the dream of a career in the SHL was out of reach by that age. However, Linus thought differently as he trained with the senior team and worked extra as a coach for the juniors. He woke up early to hit the gym before school and read books about psychology, all because he enjoyed it and wanted to improve.
During one game in 2018, Linus received a blow to the head, which was not considered severe. However, after the game, he experienced headaches and dizziness. Days, weeks, and months passed, but there was no improvement. Eventually, after years of rehabilitation, it became clear that his concussion during the match had ended his career. His life changed from living his dream and working with what he loved the most - to losing everything. But mostly he no longer meets his teammates every day, with whom he trained together for a common goal, ate lunch together, won together, and lost together. Now Linus was alone, with a terrible headache.
Linus and his family moved into their summer house in Stenungsund. As a pastime, Linus began sketching a new house. The family loved the area and felt it was where they wanted to live. But they saw some changes that had to be made. The first step was to study the land, to figure out how they wanted to live there, without any visibility from neighbors, with sunlight coming into the living room, and with a clear view of the sea to the north. Many hours were spent with pen and paper, studying the landscape and all the surroundings. These hours were soon replaced with even more hours drawing in SketchUp, which Linus had downloaded a few years earlier to learn the basics of creating plans via YouTube videos.
The fundamentals he learned in SketchUp allowed him to start designing his new family house. The design process involved experimentation, redrawing, deleting and starting over again, refining and adjusting until the desired outcome was achieved. During this time, he found himself in a mode that he recalled from his ice hockey career; a combination of joy and inner motivation. But this time around, his focus was on improving the design of a house, rather than refining himself as an ice hockey player. Despite doubts expressed by some individuals in the industry about the difficulty of designing a house without an architect, his inner drive remained strong, fueled by the knowledge that it was challenging but not impossible.
He needed proper house drawings and building permit documents with facades, floor plans, and sections to apply for a building permit. A 3D model was not sufficient and he wondered if this could be done in SketchUp. After researching online, he discovered the icon next to SketchUp on the desktop, LayOut. In LayOut, he started creating the drawings he needed, which was perfect. After a few hours of learning from YouTube tutorials, the building permit drawings began to form.
A fundamental requirement as an architect is the ability to transfer the images in one's mind directly onto a piece of paper or into the computer using SketchUp. The sketching and shaping in SketchUp are now as effortless as the flow of a pen over paper. There is rarely a need to consider the commands required to create a specific geometry. This level of proficiency was achieved through self-learning from interactive and collaborative resources such as YouTube, podcasts, and forums. The lack of competition and the willingness of users to share their knowledge is something that Linus describes as a unique "SketchUp spirit."
The decision to become an architect through self-study led him to read many books and learn to interpret building regulations, solve accessibility issues, and read site plans. These are all requirements formally needed to obtain a building permit, based on the laws, rules, and regulations in place. However, there is another aspect, and probably the most challenging aspect of the profession, which is capturing the feeling or soul of a building. Here is where Linus shines like a star - at least if you ask his clients - as he manages to capture the essence of an environment, his client's desires, and creates beautiful structures where form meets function based on the given constraints from his perspective.
After obtaining the approved building permit for his own house, he participated in the Swedish television program "Husdrömmar" in 2021, where architect Gert Wingårdh was one of the hosts. It almost felt unreal for Linus to see and hear him say at the end of the program: "This is perhaps the best-executed project we have ever seen in Husdrömmar. I think there will be a market and a demand for houses that Linus draws." After Husdrömmar, his career as an architect took off, and now he runs his own architecture firm, Fernström Arkitektur & Design, where he primarily designs residential buildings for private individuals. What he loves the most is experiencing a team spirit again, now between the client, contractor, and himself.
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When starting a new project, Linus often begins by sketching on a piece of paper. However, when it comes to determining dimensions and more precise measurements, he chooses SketchUp over a physical ruler. He appreciates the user-friendliness of SketchUp, the ability to do everything, and the many different ways to do it. For example, he wanted to show the facade sides but had yet to learn the section tool. Thus, he drew the floor plan and section cuts from scratch in SketchUp. This produced the same result as using the section tool but was more time-consuming and complicated when changes were necessary. With SketchUp, the more time spent learning, the more efficient the work becomes. He can now work more time-effectively when creating drawings and send the 3D model to engineers to work on the structural aspects of the projects.
