Split View Mountain Lodge
Buskerud, Norway
This holiday home has a clear and clean-cut expression. The volume has a main wing, housing mainly bedrooms, which naturally adapts to the terrain and divides into two branches of living zones. The shift in program and use of different levels allow this part of the building to adapt to the slope of the site. With the same timber cladding on all of the outer walls and on the roof, the holiday home is unified in one structure. Awards German Design Awards - Architecture Typology Private, Residential Status Direct commission (2011) Completed (2013) Location Buskerud, Norway Illustrations by Søren Harder Nielsen and Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter.
The client had envisioned the lodge situated at the flat centre of the site, which was covered with low bushes. Thanks to an initial design inspired by the landscape, however, we encouraged the client to engage the landscape more actively and move the lodge up the slope. From there we could use the natural overview as a compass to frame more particular views of the surrounding landscape while protecting the existing vegetation. We were aiming for minimum impact. The steep terrain called for a smaller footprint, and when planning the programme for the building we encouraged the client to reduce the building volume by more than fifty percent, finding a way to focus on more essential qualities and designing a project that combats the copy-paste logic of contemporary living.
Together we tried to arrive at new interpretations of a simpler kind of luxury —ways to explore the imperfect and relate to qualities that go beyond the standard still lifes of household appliances and social settings. The allencompassing aspirations and wishes were reduced to an unpretentious sequence of specific views, spaces, and niches. A quiet, secluded alcove for a beloved granny and a central shared family space offered a split view of the surrounding landscape. The virtual hinges created by the spatial offset became solitary caverns. A place midway between the intimate privacy of the bedroom and the shared space of the living room was created — the smallest possible space providing comfort
