Two cabins, one courtyard
The site in Nordmarka — the forested wilderness that begins at the northern edge of Oslo — already held a small 1930s cabin. Rever & Drage considered the obvious brief first: remake and enlarge the old building. The client declined. They wanted to keep the quality of the original, both in its expression and its material, so the remodel was abandoned and a second cabin of about the same size was built alongside it instead.
The decision shapes the whole project. The new 29 m² cabin carries the modern facilities — water and electricity — while the old one continues as extra room for living and sleeping in what the architects call “even more rudimentary conditions”. Set at an angle to one another, the two buildings form a courtyard that opens to the sun and to the main views in the south-west. The architecture is less an object than a pairing: an old bolthole and a new one, used in tandem.
“It contains the most necessary features, but not much more. It is easy to keep clean and easy to maintain. It is light and open, but also intimate and cosy.”
— Rever & Drage, project description
A façade that answers its neighbour
Two wishes from the client pulled in different directions. The first was to keep the old-fashioned 1930s charm of the main outdoor area. The second was an undisturbed view of the sunset over woods and lakes. Rever & Drage resolved the conflict by giving each a different face of the building.
Towards the courtyard, the new cabin has windows that relate to those of the old one, so the shared outdoor room still reads as a place of small, traditional openings. The sunset view is taken instead through an open glass corner. To keep that corner from dominating the courtyard, a built-in bench is placed in front of it, screening the glazing from the outdoor area. The bench also contains a steel support for the roof, which means there is no post in the glass corner itself — the view from inside is left as clear as possible.
Six holes in the bedrock
The environmental argument begins with size, but the foundation carries it further. Instead of a slab or a field of footings, the cabin is fixed to the bedrock with steel bolts, limiting the foundation to six small drilled holes. If the cabin is ever unwanted, it can be lifted off and the site restored with minimal effort.
Speaking to STIR, Tom Auger described what removal would involve: a large crane truck to lift the cabin from the rock onto a trailer. He was clear that portability is a side effect rather than the point — the main benefit of the technique is the minimal impact it has on the ground. For a cabin in Oslo’s protected forest, the gentlest possible contact with the site is the most persuasive sustainability move available.
Levels instead of walls
Inside, the plan avoids partitions almost entirely. The floor steps up and around a central area. From the roughest floor at the entrance, one step rises to the living area; two more lead to a recreational zone that doubles as the adults’ sleeping area; and a ladder at the top reaches a play and sleeping loft for the children. The bathroom and storage occupy the space left beneath the raised levels.
The section does the work a corridor and doors would otherwise do, separating activities by height while keeping the room open, bright and easy to clean. It is a compact strategy familiar from Japanese small houses, here applied to a Norwegian bolthole — and a useful reference for any brief where a family must share a very small volume without feeling stacked on top of each other.
Team and making
The project was designed by Tom Auger, Martin Beverfjord and Eirik Lilledrange of Rever & Drage, and built by Bjørn Vike and Jo Toftdahl. Product listings published on ArchDaily name Jatak, Jøtul, Schüco and Nordvestvinduet among the suppliers. Auger also photographed the completed cabin.
Sources
Research drawn from published project documentation. Photography credits are for attribution only — images on this page are placeholders until rights are cleared.
