The house at an altitude of 943 meters above sea level was built by the Mork-Ulnes couple for themselves and their family. The couple is seriously into skiing, and from the ledge on which the "hut" is located, in a few minutes you can reach any of the slopes of Kvitfjell, a ski resort built specifically for the 1994 Olympic Games. Casper and Leslie Mork-Ulnes call their country house "laboratory": in the Skigard Hytte project, they managed to embody ideas that did not find a response from third-party customers for all 15 years of their bureau Mork-Ulnes Architects. Thus, almost all the components of a building are made of wood: load-bearing structures, floor and wall coverings - even in such "controversial" rooms as bathrooms - as well as furniture and fittings.
The structure is supported by 45 thin one and a half meter pillars made of glued wood. By abandoning the concrete foundation, the architects were able to preserve both the natural environment and the path along which the sheep living near the site went down to the pasture located at the foot of the mountain. Now, in the space formed under the house, animals are hiding from the weather.
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zooming 1/5 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 2/5 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 3/5 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 4/5 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 5/5 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
The façade of the building is lined with "quarters" of untreated poles, laid diagonally - in a similar way, Norwegian farmers install hedges around their fields, the technique is called "skigard" (skigard). In winter, the snow clogs up the cracks in the "siding" and makes the rugged structure look more friendly.
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zooming 1/7 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 2/7 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 3/7 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Juan Benavides
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zooming 4/7 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Juan Benavides
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zooming 5/7 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Juan Benavides
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zooming 6/7 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 7/7 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
Another nod to local traditions is the sod roof. The fluffy grass “cap” flapping in the wind helps soften the rigid geometry of the building and provides the occupants with protection from the cold. Additional thermal insulation is provided by double-glazed windows filled with argon.
The layout of the "hut" follows the pattern of a traditional farmhouse called "trønderlån". As a rule, several generations of the same family lived in such houses at once - the rooms were located on both sides of a long narrow corridor stretching from one end to the other; the central part of the building was occupied by a common room. The rectangular "box" built by the Mork-Ulnes Architects workshop is divided into two unequal blocks: to the right of the through portal there is a small guest "house" with all amenities, to the left is the master's part of the building, where a living room combined with a kitchen is located, three bedrooms, bathrooms and sauna. The total area of the construction is 145 m2.
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zooming 1/9 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 2/9 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 3/9 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 4/9 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 5/9 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 6/9 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 7/9 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 8/9 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 9/9 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
The skylights that crown each room and the floor-to-ceiling windows - and in the living room, the width of their openings, one of which faces south, is a full six meters - provide access to sunlight. “With so many windows in the house, there is no need to turn on the lights in the daytime,” the owners of the house explain.
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zooming 1/6 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 2/6 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 3/6 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Bruce Damonte
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zooming 4/6 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Juan Benavides
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zooming 5/6 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Juan Benavides
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zooming 6/6 Mountain hut in Kvitfjell Photo © Juan Benavides
