Norway is best known about its beautiful landscapes and breathtaking scenery. Spotted among its amazing mountains, the Hunting Lodge designed by Snohetta fits in perfectly, without creating a disruption in the landscape. This mountain hunting lodge is situated on the edge of the Åkrafjorden fjord in western Norway and was a unique undertaking for Oslo-based firm Snøhetta. A tiny cabin dissolves into the rocky, heather-shrouded terrain. The integration of the hut into the landscape has been an important part of the concept. The terrain is characteristic with grass, heather and rocks, and the hut’s shape, orientation, and materials are dictated by this. The structure consists of two curved steel beams, connected with a continuous layer of hand cut logs of timber on top – a meeting between modern expression and traditional Norwegian mountain cabins. The cabin is notable for its terrain-conscious materials: local stone lines the front facade and the grass-coated roof appears to grow directly from its surroundings.
This tiny 376 square foot hunting lodge, or stone and log cabin, is very much a part of the tiny house movement, which is a return of houses to less than 400 square meters. The movement itself is both social and architectural and advocates living simply in tiny homes/spaces. There are architects in Europe, along with Snøhetta, designing and building tiny spaces. In Britain, Abito creates intelligent living spaces in apartments of 353 square feet. In Germany, Richard Horton developed a high end small (76 square foot) cube, designed for 1-2 persons with functional spaces for cooking, hygiene, working and sleeping. And in Russia and Germany architect Maxim Kurennoy developed a 269 square foot model designed for a family with up to two children complete with a bath, kitchen, sleeping nook and living area. While this hunting lodge by Snøhetta isn’t your typical log cabin, or even your typical hunting lodge, it is beautiful and beautifully simple in its design and construction. The perfect little log cabin get-away, even for those who don’t wish to hunt.
