Artists’ Houses, Sørvær, Norway

Architect: Sami Rintala
Text and photos: Anett Mizsei

Near the Arctic Circle, the northernmost line of the Norwegian railway network also comes to an end. The last station is a town called Bodø,from where one can travel only by plane or ship. This is where Sami Rintala, a Finnish-born architect settled down. He walks on the periphery of architecture and fine arts as a rule with his small-scale projects realized all over the world. The architectural programme was to build a summer resort suited to creation, relaxation, communal activities, and personal needs as well as to host guests. Sami Rintala placed a total of nine small objects on the hillside which here and there turns into a rocky gap Thanks to their positioning, as they clasp onto the slope to people the area, their view strikes us as an organically grown village or a group of bird houses placed into nature: this association is evoked by four independent bedrooms, a sauna, a bath house, a kitchen and a community-creative area. Apart from the steel-structure cabin which is seated on a pillar, every unit received timber struts and wooden facework, and the parts most exposed to the weather slats cut in a pointed shape facilitate channeling and dripping down the rain. Three narrow and tall laterally positioned bedrooms await guests here on the hillside. Their orientation was defined by the view, the natural terrain and the direction of prevailing winds. The fourth one standing at the highest point of the site is the „lookout” or „birds’ house”. The bath-house and the sauna have been built alone the pier and the entrance pier, whilst the areas of the living-room and the kitchen are housed in a twin block connected with a terrace, on a slightly inclined slope on the hillside.

Architecture: TYIN Tegnestue, Rintala Eggertsson Architects
Leading architect: Sami Rintala
Manufacturers: Kebony, Livos Naturmaling, Norsk Spon
Engineer: Harboe Leganger
Client: Håvard Lund