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Architects: Bas Bergen
- Area: 30 m²
- Year: 2015
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Photographs:Melissa Hegge
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Manufacturers: Hunton, Montér, Superwood
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Consultants: Bergen School of Architecture, Rolf Jacobsen
Text description provided by the architects. It is a design and building story. The first Norwegian Eco-Village opened in 2015 in Hurdal, with its first Sustainability Festival programmed for the summer of that same year. One hour away from Oslo and half an hour away from its airport, Hurdal is situated by a lake and close to the large forest of Nordmarka. It is a strategic position for those who would like to work in the city but live immersed in nature and be part of a community that is based on the idea of ecological living.
The Ecovillage in Hurdal requested a design for a rational and minimal space, firstly defined as a guest tower, temporarily hosting guests of the inhabitants, but also with the function of temporary office spaces for professionals who spend a few nights while working remotely in an unconventional context.
It's placing within the forest made us think of verticality for the proposal, in order to merge with the unique nature of Hurdal, mainly composed of tall thin birches. The client set a limit of 25 square meters to be freely distributed either horizontally or vertically, where the latter was chosen in order to reduce land use.
Constituted by three identical boxes, stacked and mounted on top of each other as an architectural strategy for naturally solving the vertical circulation, ends in a belvedere terrace on top, which allows for the visitor to feel like a part of nature in its entirety. The big window in each room gives the possibility of experiencing two opposite views depending on the floor, one towards the extensive forest and the other of the calmly flowing river. Built entirely of wood by the architects themselves during an intense couple of months, the Mini house fully relied on local businesses’ productions for all the construction materials, such as wood, glass, and wood fiber insulation.
