Architects:Kastler/Skjeseth Architects AS MNAL

Area:75m²

Year:2023

Photographs:Max Creasy

Lead Architects:Erlend Skjeseth

Country:Norway

Text description provided by the architects. The addition to a cabin in Nordmarka is an example of how a traditional log cabin can be given a new lease of life with added space and functions without the building's older parts being demolished or the cabin's footprint increasing. The building is an archetypal Norwegian cabin built with notched logs from right after the war - a classic cabin with classic problems.

The project consists of an extension by "onfill" and renovation of a log cabin in the outback north of Oslo, a secluded private cabin a short bike ride or ski ride from the city on the western edge of the field towards the Tyrifjord. The cabin is a simple wooden box from 1945 without much insulation or daylight inside. The project adds a large picture window to the southeast, a new attic floor, and a new bathroom on a built-in porch.

The homeowner wanted more space and the building was practically uninsulated with rot in the logs and dampness in the basement. In the floor plan, the intervention is quite modest – encasing a porch, introducing a bathroom, and enlarging the window to the south are the biggest changes on the ground level.

To the south are two new windows which offset the façade and mirror the treetops from the landscape in front. At the same time, a brand new modern roof with an attic floor for bedrooms belongs above the existing loft box, while the typical living room is preserved in the new construction. The log construction is protected by a new zinc roof with a more spacious roof with a large dormer providing views over the forest. The parts of the notched log box that could be saved are preserved up to a given height, while all added parts are given new cladding and painted green, which gives it legibility in the façade between the original parts and added parts. The house's silhouette has changed with a tight element that protects the cabin below, which now appears with a near-classical symmetry in the north elevation.

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