On Norway’s northwestern coast, a 12-mile stretch of the Hustadvika shoreline faces the shallow waters of a fjord–dangerous for ships but home to many small, picturesque islands and reefs. It would be a shame to destroy the vantage with bulky garden outbuildings at the edge of your property.
Clients who own a a summerhouse property at water’s edge in Norway asked Oslo-based architects Rever & Drage to create three small garden outbuildings: a tool shed, a rain shelter, and a camping area. When the sheds’ doors roll open, they frame the view of a nearby narrow inlet with high cliffs.
Photography by Tom Auger courtesy of Rever & Drage.
The wooden buildings surround a wood deck at the edge of a client’s summerhouse property.
Design team Tom Auger, Martin Beverfjord, and Eirik Lilledrange created a clever solution to what Auger describes as “the clients’ need for a wind-and-rain shelter at their outdoor summer house-piazza, and as a combined toolshed and special-occasion-sleep-under-the-stars facility.”
The architects sprayed the wood with a coating of tar–traditionally used to waterproof boats–to protect it from the salt spray on the northwest coast of Norway. The buildings are built to withstand an onslaught of saltwater spray (a daily occurrence) and unpredictable weather.
Double doors on two sheds slide open.
The largest building has a retractable roof that can slide forward to create an awning for the patio.
The underside of the retractable roof, which is powered by an electric motor.
The doors on the main shed (R) fold back to open.
“In the end the building turned out looking both new and old,” says Auger.
Say the architects: “The final result is a Stonehenge-like place to be with its high and heavy features.”