Photography courtesy of Gartnerfuglen Arkitekter and Mariana de Delás.
The Hideout is only reachable by boat in summer and skis in winter, when the mountain lake it overlooks is frozen.
media min width 0px div gpt ad remodelista_com medrectangle 3 0 asloaded max width 320px important max height 50px important Ole Astrid and Olav of Norwegian architecture studio Gartnerfuglen
collaborated with Spanish architect Mariana de Delás on this magical unassuming retreat in the Telemark region of southern Norway
Camouflaged behind a thicket of birch leaves, the Hideout looks like a lakeside Hobbit house with a picture window.
The owners keep a rowboat on the opposite shore that they use to get to the Hideout.
Rocks dug out by hand during the construction were placed in the water to “form a natural pier for docking the boat and access.” Delás applied a similar steel-framed bow window to her 12-Volt Retreat: A Transformed Shepherd’s Hut in Mallorca.
This way in—the retreat has a steel-frame Dutch door.
The structure has “a timber skeleton and is clad with birch twigs to give a camouflaging effect while keeping an insulating layer of air beneath the snow—imitating and learning from nature,” the architects write.
The hut is used by its owners as place to fish, nap, and “get in touch with the primal human condition of solitude surrounded by wild nature.” The main space with two platforms—just big enough for two people to lie down—is under a tower-shaped skylight.
When the structure was complete, the architects celebrated with a Viking-style bonfire on the water.
The architects’ model for the wood-framed Hideout.
They write:”When not in use, it sits quietly and modestly in nature as if it were one of its creatures, blending in with the forest and serving as a pitstop for thirsty birds on their way to the lake.”