Fjords on the coast, high mountains, green forests - Norway is particularly known for its amazing and varied nature. If you would like to treat yourself to a break from noise, you drive to this country in the far north. Today we show you such a retreat that rises through a fjord and from which you can enjoy an incredible view of a forest. The “Malangen Retreat” project is located in Tromsø in the north of the country and has been completed by the architecture firm Snorre Stinessen in 2017. The holiday home is designed in such a way that the owners have enough space to receive their friends and family and at the same time have the necessary privacy. It is a cozy house with an incredible design where warm wood meets cold shades of gray.
The house consists of a main area and an extension, which are separated from each other by the central covered courtyard. You enter the house through a large sliding door made of oak wood, which has an interesting geometric pattern. In order to adapt the architecture to the cold climate of the area, this room also serves as a winter garden with a kitchen and a fireplace. From here you can also reach the main building or the extension.
The rooms
The holiday home is distributed in separate construction volume to ensure a higher level of privacy and also improve the connection between indoor and outdoor use. The main living area and the extension each consist of two buildings. In the annex are the service rooms, a relaxation area with a sauna, the guest rooms and an entertainment room. The sauna is equipped with a room -high glass wall that not only leaves a lot of daylight, but also opens up the view of the forest.
In the main part there is a children's room, a small living room (in the first box) and the bedroom and the main bathroom (in the second). A few steps lead down into the open kitchen with a seating area with a view of the fjord. From this kitchen you can get to the south -facing outdoor area, where the family enjoys dinner on warm summer days.
The materials
All construction volume are withcedarclad inside and outside. The wooden panels were treated with iron sulfate and kept outside for months before assembly so that an even patina is created. The architects used oak to achieve a warmer contrast with the outer for the inner surfaces. All spaces have a concrete floor so that it is emphasized that these rooms are connected differently to the house and nature. The ceilings in these rooms are all covered with oak wood, which, of course, becomes black due to the treatment with iron sulfate due to the high content of tannin. The black ceilings optically settle and at the same time ensure somewhat gentler acoustics.
Furniture and decoration
Most of the furniture we see in this holiday home, for example the table and the bank in the dining room, the beds, the cupboards, the fireplace and the sliding door in the winter garden, were individually designed by stinesses.
For the decoration, the architects chose soft carpets and cuddly ceilings to give the rooms more warmth. The wooden pendulum lights also set beautiful accents. However, the focus is on theUse of woodAnd the connection with nature.
A project ofSnorre Stinness Studio
