AJ Takes Us to Split View Mountain Lodge in Norway

Adventure Journal must be bookmarked. The site, blog and magazine are gorgeous. Whoever is doing the layout knows how to make the content pop. Another thing that pops is its coverage of this fantastic lodge. For the original piece and more photos, visit here. 

The Split View Mountain Lodge, in Norway, is pretty much the antithesis of the stereotypical mountain lodge. Large, sweeping spaces and oversized timbers are replaced with intimate – even small – rooms and blonde, standard-issue lumber. The only similarities between this private mountain home and our image of the quintessential mountain lodge are the enormous, peaked windows aimed smack at the mountains in the distance.

While the continuity of the wood (knotty pine exterior, birch and pine interior) and the clean lines are quintessentially Norwegian, this design is not just another Scandinavian ode to minimalism. The home was designed by Reiulf Ramstad Architects (Arkitekter), who were awarded the highest Norwegian honor for design and architecture – the Jacob Award. Every square inch is intentional for the play of light, the livability and the feeling it evokes.

In order to accommodate for the gentle slope of the land underneath, the home is composed of three, rectangular structures starfishing away from the largest structure that ground the home – both literally and figuratively. The result is nothing you’d expect, but everything you’d want in a mountain retreat: a series of cozy enclaves to return to after a day of skiing the Norwegian peaks.