BP11: IAR 221

Hardranger Retreat Summer House
    Located in Kjepsø, Hardanger Fjord, Norway, this summer retreat was built with relaxation and minimalism in mind.  The project was designed and built by Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen and was personally financed.  The two young architects bought the piece of land with intentions to build experimental architecture, too gain experience and learn a few things along the way.   After choosing the perfect spot along the lake side, the two built a beautiful piece of organic architecture.  The flat roof, very different from a typical cabin in the wood's tin roof, is a change seeming to blossom among young and rising architects today, but not without thought.  This retreat is made so that the roof is included in the use and is actually used as a terrace.  The retreat is efficient in design, as it houses people, gives them a place to relax, doesn't create eye pollution on the hillside, and is a fun weekend get away.  It is modern in its sleek design, it's minimal use of differing materials, and its attention to the flow of the architecture syncing with the flow of the nature around it.
     By the beginning of the twentieth century, people were working so hard to be modern because the availability of resources made it easier and more pliable to create things that would last for longer periods of time and were worth investing money into.  With the introduction of steel, buildings could now be built with stronger supports, ones that would not wear over time.  Once people realized that they could build things that lasted longer periods of time they also realized they should make the most efficient use of those materials.  Things began to be built with more purpose.  People wanted versatility with a guarantee.  Since then we have interpreted modern as being up to date, sleeker, slimmer, more minimal.  The rise of modernism in architecture is especially apparent in this rendition of a weekend get away; what we once knew as a cabin in the woods, is now a sleek villa on the hillside.

http://architecturelab.net/hardanger-retreat-summer-house-norway-by-saunders-architecture-15103/