My Creative Cup of Tea

October 17, 2023

#MCCOTArchitecture {7}

SALTVIGA HOUSE

Grimstad

Norway

Sustainability is a real priority for our society and for the future of our beloved planet Earth. That is why it is, more than ever, the duty of each human being to preserve the environment by embracing an eco-friendly way of life. Starting to reduce, reuse and recycle on a daily basis. At home but also at work. Architects from all around the world are already busy designing and building eco-friendly cities and private houses. Erik Kolman Janouch and his business partner Victor Boye, who have founded the Kolman Boye Architects studio in 2013 and designed The Vega Cottage, are on it. Since day one, the creative duo has distinguished itself for its aesthetic, environmental and culturally sustainable approaches in the art of construction. Slow architecture is what they do best. Located in Grimstad, on the south-eastern coast of Norway and completed in 2022, the wooden 140-square-meter SALTVIGA House, which is facing the sea of Skagerrak, is an architectural masterpiece of sustainability and circular economy. This recreational home was built out of 12.000 pre-cut, pre-drilled and pre-treated individual oak and Douglas off-cuts from Dinesen’s floor production. 20 000 stainless steel screws were used for fastening, reinforcing the robust, assembled and layered character of the cladding. Meticulously adapted to the north-east sloping ground, the innovative and committed-to-the environment house, which is nestled on a bluff, off-the-grid, in the middle of a landscape of rocks, lichen, ferns, conifers and deciduous trees, is composed of three volumes situated on five different levels: two distinct spaces separated by an openable wind-barrier and a courtyard towards the forest, that is protected from the wind and an open deck towards the sea, which holds views through an existing pruned “window-band” in the conifers. Recycling and offering a second life to off-cuts is resolutely a good idea. An inspirational model to follow.