Given the northern climate of Norway, and the challenging conditions experienced along the coast, the notion of ‘shelter’ has particular resonance here. There are the dramatic extremes of the winter, but also the winds from the north and the constant chance of rain any month of the year. One of the key challenges in the design of the island retreat of Villa Austevoll was how to balance the necessity of shelter with the need to make the most of this extraordinary coastal landscape all year round.
The house is situated on the island of Selbjørn, which sits within a picturesque archipelago to the south of Bergen. Accessible only by boat and ferry, Selbjørn is a place that Fagerbakke has known since childhood, when her grandparents lived here and she would come and spend time on the island during the summer months and weekends. The land where Gundersen and Fagerbakke (an engineer and a civil engineer) wanted to build a new escape for themselves and their grown up children has been in the family for many years.
The couple approached Todd Saunders to design their new retreat knowing that he would give them a highly original design. They wanted a cabin that would give them shelter as well as an observatory for appreciating the beauty of both land and sea, but at the same time they wanted the house to be unusual, modern and sculptural. Trond Gundersen had already built the family’s main home in Bergen and wanted to be involved in the construction process for Villa Austevoll. He took a trip to Fogo Island to see the hotel and studios designed by Saunders and was struck by the similarities between Newfoundland and Norway in terms of both the landscape and the climate.
Like Fogo, the design of Villa Austevoll adopts the principal of making the lightest
possible impact upon the natural setting and surroundings. Saunders decided to lift
the house above the landscape, both to protect it and take advantage of the hillside
site and the views that it offered in all directions. He developed the idea of a crosslike form for the main body of the building sitting on top of a recessed plinth.
Instead of a square supporting plinth, Saunders decided on a triangular slice made
of concrete, which recesses into the hillside while allowing the main body of the
floating house above to dominate with its coat of white timber and glass. Slim
steel pillars complement the structural, supportive function of the plinth, which
contains the entrance to the house. The triangular plinth holds the entrance hall,
utility spaces and a sculptural, spiral staircase, crafted in oak, which leads up to
the principal level above. Experientially, the journey upwards from a relatively
enclosed, darker entry space to a space full of light offering open views of a framed
landscape.
The stairway emerges at the central point an open and welcoming living space arranged on an axial line running from north to south, forming two spokes of the cross. One wing holds the sitting room, including a library wall to one side, while the other hosts the dining area and a fitted galley kitchen. Both of these spaces spill out onto terraces, sheltered by the overhang of the roof. The master bedroom suite in the third spoke and the two bedrooms in the fourth, similarly, connect with terraces facing east and west, so that every point of the cross connects with a key vista. Wind and weather patterns, along with sight lines, influenced the decision to erode the geometry of the cross at crucial points, softening the overall form with more angular elements.
The steel-framed, larch-clad house was built relatively slowly, taking careful account of the needs of the family and the quality of the detailing and finishes. The couple wanted a house that would balance a cabin-like degree of simplicity within the layout and interiors with relatively low-maintenance materials, taking into account the coastal conditions and the building’s hillside position. Given the successful form of the house and its flexibility, the family have found themselves spending more and more time at their 21st Century cabin through all four seasons.
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