In these architecturally diverse latter days, the cottage truly is a special snowflake, a tabula rasa upon which designers can project all kinds of magnificent nonsense. Some can disappear or change color, some find themselves perched atop Soviet-era high-rises, while an unlucky few come into this world as real-life Portlandia sketches. While the modestly titled Mountain Cottage doesn't reach for this well-established level of sublime gimmickry, it does balance the romantic idea of "roughing it" with all kinds of modern charms. The interior, for example, is an expanse of burly heartwood pine that fits right in with the setting—a copse of trees on a hillside near Norway's Rondane Mountains—but the unfinished wood ceiling is rather delightfully interrupted by the occasional colored panel. Because a traditional foundation would "to a great extent have ruined the vegetation around the building," Norwegian architect Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk used short concrete columns and a wooden structure that cantilevers above the ground to support the place while keeping its footprint to a minimum. Hølmebakk has spent much of his career bringing unexpectedly forms into the wilds, and this one hits the sweet spot between rustic and chic quite nicely. Do have a look:
· Mountain Cottage [Architizer]