Rever & Drage extends smallholding in Norway with stepped barn-like volume
Architecture studio Rever & Drage has expanded a cluster of rural buildings in Norway, adding a barn-like form that steps up a sloping, rocky site.
Named Smallholding at Nesjestranda, the site was already home to a group of three buildings: a red barn, a guest annexe and a white home, to which the new extension has been added.
Tasked with creating a new entrance area and additional bedrooms, Rever & Drage tucked the small extension at the back of the existing home, with a timber-clad form that steps up a rocky slope.
"The building had to remain subordinate where it connects to the old main house, even though the new building is much higher," Martin Beverfjord, one of the studio's founders, told Dezeen.
"There was also the desire to preserve the rocky terrain without excessive blasting and use of concrete."
"These physical limitations were what prompted the most important design move: a building that steps up," he added.
The existing home's kitchen and dining area steps down into the lowest volume of the extension, where a large entrance room is finished with a poured concrete floor and a fireplace.
A central axis steps up into an intermediate level with two bathrooms, and subsequently a short timber stair that leads to the uppermost volume, where a bedroom sits alongside an office space that can double as an additional sleeping area.
While the central bathroom area sits atop a poured concrete base, the other ends of the structure are supported by point foundations, creating the appearance of it being perched atop the site's boulders and allowing air to circulate underneath.
Large windows on the long sides of the extension are screened by planks of oiled pine, which were cut from the upper sections of the trunk so that they naturally taper and permit more daylight.
"The client wanted a lot of daylight in this building. At the same time, many of the rooms required some privacy, as the building mainly contains bathrooms and bedrooms," said Beverfjord.
"The chosen solution was to use wooden panels cut from the uppermost part of pine trees, where the trunk narrows considerably. This provides more shelter in the lower part of the windows and more daylight in the upper part."
"The interaction between the stepped roofs and the light gaps in the windows gave the building a certain accordion-like quality. It seems able to expand further up the slope – a sense of animation and potential energy," he added.
Internally, the materials prioritise simplicity and low maintenance, with wooden planks lining the walls and ceilings. Above, the extension is capped with a stepped series of aluzinc roofs.
Other recent projects by Rever & Drage include the extension of a traditional red-painted house in Raelingen and a boat-shaped annexe for a home in Asker that was informed by garden follies.
The photography is by Tom Auger.
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