Hasta La Ideas

The two parts of this house near Oslo by Schjelderup Trondahl Architects are joined at an angle, with their gabled roofs meeting to form a distorted M-shape (+ slideshow).

Oslo firm Schjelderup Trondahl Architects designed the family home for a site overlooking the city of Holmestrand and the adjacent fjords.

The house’s two wings are angled at 22 degrees to one another, creating a concave facade facing the access road and opening up on the other side to provide different views of the landscape.

“The challenge in sites like this is usually to refine the views rather than exposing everything everywhere, switching between distant and close views, glimpses and different sources of light and reflections,” said the architects.

“Because of its complex form, cantilevered roofs, shifting facades and intersecting spaces, the house offers a spacial experience, a number of different views and randomly occurring reflections” they added.

The topography of the plot influenced the layout of the plan, which rises over a rocky outcrop and is nestled among existing trees.

The exterior of the ground floor is clad in brick and juxtaposed against the angular wooden box above, which cantilevers outwards to create sheltered porches and balconies.

Heartwood fir boards that cover the walls of the upper storey, as well as the roofs, are burnt and brushed in a process that protects them and will cause them to fade to a pale, silvery grey.

Spaces inside the home correspond to the complex angles of the exterior, with gabled ceilings in several of the first floor rooms, and a kink in the wall of the staircase clearly showing where the two wings of the house are joined.

The same brick used for the exterior of the ground floor covers some of the internal walls and forms a breakfast bar in the kitchen.

Walls and ceilings are covered in oiled poplar plywood, with white ash floor boards helping to maintain a bright and airy feeling inside the house.

Windows with chunky oak frames look out on the surrounding forest and across the fjord, while internal glass partitions provide views between some of the rooms.

Photography is by Jonas Adolfsen.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

House Off/Ramberg – Holmestrand, Norway

Location

The city of Holmestrand is divided by a characteristic 120m vertical cliff, separating urban functions at the lower sea side from the housing estate on the upper level. Holmestrand is under constant transformation being a part of suburban Oslo and important for commuting and regional business. The Norwegian State Railways are currently building new tracks to the city with a new elevator shaft between upper and lower levels, thereby improving the connection further.

The single family house is situated on the edge of this prominent cliff edge overlooking Holmestrand and the fjords. The site has a spectacular 180 degree view towards the sea to the east and an open cultural landscape to the west. The challenge in sites like this is usually to refine the views rather than exposing everything everywhere, switching between distant and close views, glimpses and different sources of light and reflections.

Adapting to site

The house was planned merged with the terrain with the least possible intervention, based on extensive analysis of program, strict municipal regulation, landscape characteristics, views (both distant and close) and the vegetation/location. The site was measured down to 10cm accuracy allowing untouched terrain and existing trees to be planned right up next to the building.

The volume has a distinct duality with its compact, west façade facing towards the access road and the more extroverted and fragmented façade opening up to the great eastern view. The two main wings are bent 22 degrees relative to each other to adapt to the terrain and capture different views. Because of its complex form, cantilevered roofs, shifting facades and intersecting spaces the house offers a spacial experience, a number of different views and randomly occurring reflections.

House specifics

The ground floor body is made from site-typical colored tile stone diaphragm walls (two sided) and light concrete floors. The upper part of the house is a wooden box climbing and cantilevering over the heavy base. The walls, external ceilings and roofs are covered with burnt and brushed heartwood fir to make them maintenancefree for generations – a Norwegian style of the Japanese method Shou-Sugi-Ban. The patination process will continue. With time the soft parts of the surface will stay burnt and the harder winter grain will have become silvery gray resulting in a rough but refined expression.

The interior wooden walls and ceilings are clad with white oiled poplar plywood boards and white ash floor boards are used introducing a light softness to the interior. The internal geometry represents necessary constructions for the cantilevered roofs in addition to defining spaces. Integrated furnishings are made on site from white fiber cement boards or bronze colored Glimmerdesign lacquered MDF depending on their placement and function. All windows and doors are made from massive oak.

Location: Holmestrand, Norway
Building type: Single family house
Constructor: Larsen Bygg AS/Lars Arnulf Finden
Consultant: Frederiksen AS / Håkon Bergsrud
Size: 273m2 (gross)
Architect: Schjelderup Trondahl Architects AS
Primary Architects: Stian Schjelderup, Øystein Trondahl, Katrine Skavlan

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fjord by Schjelderup Trondahl Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

Danish architects COBE and Transform have completed an aluminium-clad museum of maritime history in Norway with a zigzagging profile modelled on the shapes of local wooden buildings (+ slideshow).

Located south-west of Oslo in the harbourside town of Porsgrunn, the Maritime Museum and Exploratorium was designed by COBE and Transform to relate to the scale of its surroundings, which include a number of small wooden residences and warehouses.

The architects broke the volume of the building down into eleven blocks, with asymmetric roofs that pitch in different directions. Combined, these shapes give a zigzagging roofline to each elevation.

“We wanted to understand the area’s characteristics and then we wanted to strengthen it but at the same time create something new and contrasting,” said COBE founder and director Dan Stubbergaard. “The abrupt building structure of downscaled building volumes and the expressive roof profile are, for example, clear references to the area’s historic small wooden buildings, which all have their own particular roof profiles.”

“This interpretation of the area’s pitched roofs and small wooden building entities sets the final frame for a unique and characteristic contemporary building,” he added.

Aluminium shingles give a scaly surface to the outer walls and roof of the museum, and pick up reflections from the river that runs alongside.

Opening today, the museum’s exhibition galleries chart the town’s maritime history and tell the story of its dockyard industry.

A grand staircase leads visitors up to a large exhibition hall on the first floor, while smaller galleries and events rooms are housed on the ground floor.

Transform principal Lars Bendrup said he hopes that the building will help to revitalise the formerly industrial section of the town.

“Our general vision was to turn a backside into a frontside,” he said. “With the new museum, the town will now orientate itself towards the beautiful river that for much too long has been Porsgrunn’s industrial backside.”

Photography is by Adam Mørk, apart from where otherwise stated.

Here’s a project description from COBE and Transform:

Porsgrunn Maritime Museum and Exploratorium

Today is the grand opening of a new spectacular Maritime Museum and Exploratorium in the Norwegian town Porsgrunn. The building is designed by the Danish architects COBE and TRANSFORM, and has already, before the opening, become an architectural landmark of the town.

From backside to frontside

Porsgrunn Maritime Museum and Exploratorium is situated in the Norwegian town of Porsgrunn, 100 km south west of Oslo. The new museum will tell the story of the town’s dock yard industry and its maritime history, which has employed thousands of people from the whole region. In addition, the attractive location of the museum right on the riverside opens up an important process for the city concerning the future extensive urban renewal of the entire Porsgrunn Harbour area.

“Porsgrunn is an industrial town, which is reflected clearly in the museum’s surrounding context. It consists of small to medium sized industries in the shape of small characteristic wooden buildings. It was important to create a museum with a high level of sensitivity towards these surroundings, yet at the same time for the new Maritime Museum and Exploratorium to stand out as a spectacular contemporary building and become a landmark of Porsgrunn,” Lars Bendrup explains, owner of TRANSFORM, and continues: “Our general vision was to turn a backside into a frontside. With the new museum the town will now orientate itself towards the beautiful river, which for much too long has been Porsgrunn’s industrial backside.”

New meets old

The new Maritime Museum and Exploratorium is composed of eleven smaller square volumes, together amounting to almost 2,000 m2. Each volume has a different roof slant that assembled make up a varied roof structure. A characteristic aluminium facade, locally produced in Porsgrunn, not only holds the dynamic building structure together, but at the same time it reflects light and colours from the surrounding Norwegian mountain landscape.

Dan Stubbergaard, founder and creative director of COBE, elaborates: “It is a sensitive art adding new to old in a historic area. First of all we wanted to understand the area’s characteristics and then we wanted to strengthen it but at the same time create something new and contrasting. The abrupt building structure of downscaled building volumes and the expressive roof profile are for example clear references to the area’s historic small wooden buildings, which all have their own particular roof profiles. This interpretation of the area’s pitched roofs and small wooden building entities sets the final frame for a unique and characteristic contemporary building.”

He continues: “The goal was to create a house that not only understands and shows consideration for its surroundings, but also contributes with something radically new and different.”

Porsgrunn Maritime Museum and Exploratorium
Porsgrunn, Norway
Client: Telemark Museum
Architects: COBE and TRANSFORM
Engineers: Sweco
Gross area: 2.000 m2
Construction period: 2011-2013
Total construction costs: 34 mio.

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Porsgrunn Maritime Museum appeared first on Dezeen.

Alors que nous présentions récemment sa série photographique intitulée « Dolomites », l’artiste Kilian Schönberger magnifie cette fois-ci les paysages de la Norvège. Des clichés d’une incroyable beauté, rendant honneur au pays des fjords. A découvrir en détails et en images dans la suite de l’article.

by LinYee Yuan Rough quarry granite, matte steel and a highly polished copper mirror are the elements that make up one of the most visible design objects at this year’s London Design Festival. The sculptural Copper…

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Mesh sections in the walls and floor of this Corten steel bridge in Norway provide views of the Suldalslågen river rushing beneath it (+ slideshow).

Norwegian firm Rintala Eggertsson Architects designed the bridge to connect the town of Sand with a woodland area that is a popular recreation spot with local residents.

Inhabitants of the town were invited to vet early proposals for the bridge during a workshop with Rintala Eggertsson Architects and Czech architect Ivan Kroupa.

“The idea behind the chosen proposal was to establish a horizontal reference line in the landscape, to emphasise the undulant and organic shapes in the bedrock,” say the architects.

Walls with diagonal bracing are clad in sheets of Corten steel and panels of stainless steel mesh, which allow users to look out at the landscape and cause the bridge to glow from within at night when the internal lighting is switched on.

The enclosed steel volume amplifies the sound of the cascading water, which can also be seen through a steel grate in the floor.

A small concrete pavilion on the south side of the river can be used as a picnic site or resting place.

Other bridges we’ve published recently include Thomas Heatherwick’s design for a garden spanning the River Thames in London and a twisting concrete form crossing a river in the Austrian Alps – see more stories about bridges.

Rintala Eggertsson Architects is constructing a giant treehouse in a Swedish forest for Treehotel and previously designed a 19 square-metre dwelling in Oslo that it describes as “a kind of urban cave”. See more architecture by Rintala Eggertsson Architects »

Photography is by Dag Jenssen.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

The bridge is located just north of the town Sand in the municipality of Suldal on the west coast of Norway. It is the result of extensive design process which started in 2008 after a design workshop together with Czech architect Ivan Kroupa where the inhabitants of Sand were given the opportunity to make a referendum over some of our initial ideas.

The bridge connects the town to a vast wooden landscape which is used for recreation by the inhabitants of Sand. This new connection makes the area more accessible for the general public and allows people of all generations to use the area.

The idea behind the chosen proposal was to establish a horizontal reference line in the landscape, to emphasize the undulant and organic shapes in the bedrock. The bridge consists of two steel lattice beams in corten steel on each side of the walkway, with a system of vertical and diagonal members.

The walls are clad with sheets of stainless steel stretch-metal and corten steel. On the south side of the river, after crossing the bridge from Sand, a small pavilion in concrete was made to accommodate for small picnics and pit-stops for passers-by.

An important issue from the very start of the design process was to capture the power of the river running underneath the bridge. This was developed into an enclosed acoustic space above the middle of the river with a view through a steel grate directly down to the river, which gives the visitor a direct connection with this untamed natural element.

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Eggertsson Architects appeared first on Dezeen.