Sit down in a quietly perfect chair, set on plain wood floors, sourced locally. Take a deep breath. And then look up at the view over the fjord below and the soaring mountains that surround it. You’re a lucky guest at a holiday house in Valldal, Norway, designed by distinctively Scandinavian architects Office Inainn to become part of the steep terrain on which it is built and to showcase that extraordinary outlook. It’s the result of a painstaking design process, and a rigorous build.
The cllient's brief was to “let nature lead”, and that’s been taken entirely literally by Maksymilian Sawicki and his team at Office Inainn. The owners have longstanding links to this area and were keen that their new hideaway respected its breathtaking setting. Result was that the architects decided that the brief meant that the demanding site not be cleared or levelled in any way. Their design for the holiday home would have to be worked around the rocky terrain.
Remarkable result is a building that looks like it’s always been there. A concrete plinth is the basis of it all, allowing the terrain to remain untouched, as the client wished. Dark timber cladding wraps the 127-square-metre home, so that it recedes into its landscape rather than in any way dominating it. An entry volume greets the visitor, before a descent into the living and sleeping areas, in a long intersecting volume, downstairs from the entrance area. There you’re greeted by swathes of glass, framing that view.
Office Inainn: Doing things the Norwegian way
Somehow despite the drama of the setting, it’s all very subtle. This is no show-off trophy home. Interior walls are painted in an olive colourway, complementing the greenery that abounds here, while those wide plank floors, locally sourced, speak of peace and the forest all around. Bespoke cabinetry is by Limstrand Interiors and furnishings are by fellow Norwegian specialists Fjordfiesta. Everything feels like it belongs here.
Each view is different, so that the occupants have a sense of not only the fjord below and the mountains above it, but the rocks around the holiday home. These quiet interiors are very much part of their exterior environment, separated only by those vast panes of glass. Office Inainn describe their work as "built on a dialogue between people, nature, and the environment, where each project becomes a response to the complex relationships between landscape, culture, and daily life” while “drawing from the simplicity and functionality of Scandinavian design”. Both are there in every part of this build, we’d say.
No costs are disclosed in this build, as you would perhaps expect. But the results of this adventurous client brief speak for themselves. So if you’re planning on a holiday home high above a fjord - or near to your local lake - why not give Office Inainn a call? In the meantime we’re still awaiting our invitation to this Valldal holiday home so that we can sample that view for real. With a cocktail, obviously.
Next up: The 24-hour Oslo itinerary.
