House on Pillars

The Oslo office Sanden+Hodnekvam’s Long House on Pillars, completed in 2022 and designed for a ceramist and a scientist, sits on pillars lodged between rock and trees. The house preserves the topography of the plot in the residential area Bomansvik on the east side of the Nesodden peninsula outside of Oslo, some 250 meters from the fjord, 60 meters above sea level. The wooden construction is visible in the interior as well as the exterior of the house, with large wooden beams left exposed. Walls and floors are covered in pine, with recycled brick floors in the winter garden and the sunken living room.

In his essay “Legs” Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk takes the opportunity to contemplate the ways in which the words idea and concept work in architectural culture, stating that the project manifests an unusually clear architectural concept with its distinct situation plan, explicit relation to the terrain, and simple geometry. “Despite its conceptual clarity, the House on Pillars is an unassuming and not at all self-important project,” he claims, while its clear approach places it in a series of elite projects, here unpacked through his associations to Danish works such as Erik Korshagen's own summer house outside Copenhagen (1960) and Gehrdt Bornebusch’ summerhouse at Skjælland (1967).

Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk is partner in Hølmebakk Øymo Architects.