Norwegian Wood: A Folding Ice Cabin

From Norway (of course), a tiny cabin designed for a solitary winter expedition has a chicken wire frame in which blocks of ice freeze into wind-buffering walls. Designed by Norwegian architects Gartnerfuglen, the portable hut folds up (in about 30 seconds). Don’t forget to bring a Thermos.

Photographs courtesy of Gartnerfuglen.

Above: The fisherman’s hut, made of Scottish pine and birch veneers, looks at home against a natural landscape.

Above: The hut, christened “Unavailability” by its designers, is meant to be a solitary refuge from the pressures of modern life–and from the otherwise constant connectivity of a technological age.

Above: Step by step, it takes about 30 seconds to unfold (or pack up) the portable ice hut. We’d like to see this hut in action in the summertime, when the chicken wire panels are meant to serve as trellises for vines such as sweetpeas, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

For more Norwegian architecture, see The Once and Future Boathouse and Into the Field: Dinner in an Oslo Greenhouse.