Description

According to the architect, the colour of the ‘Red House’ reflects “the temperament of the client”. It makes this wooden house near dense forest on the outskirts of Oslo stand out from a distance; it is particularly impressive in the winter landscape. Thus the building signals the occupants’ individuality, but also the courage to do something unconventional. Timber is an obvious material to use in a Scandinavian country, and it also takes up an important feature of the surrounding buildings.

The simple, two-storey rectangular block braces itself against the slope and has large apertures facing the natural space around it, but it also has a continuous south-facing window façade on the upper entrance floor. The building is entered at the top via a small porch leading into a corridor axis that contains the stairs down, but is considerably more than a mere access zone. For the window façade the necessary construction is provided by set-back timber columns, but the space opens up to the external area via a continuous run of windows free of profiles, with a broad bench below them. The parents’ bedroom area, kitchen and dining/living space are all together on this level. They have a generous balcony as their high and final point, with its roof combined with the body of the building.

The red block seems to ‘sit on top’ of the lower, slightly recessed floor containing the children’s rooms. Here a band of windows separates the material and the function of the levels at the same time. A second living room at the end of the bedroom section is a surprising feature, best suited to looking inwards, as it has no connection with the world outside, and is lit only from a skylight.

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Originally published in: Klaus-Peter Gast, Living Plans: New Concepts for Advanced Housing, Birkhäuser, 2005.