Norwegian Bathhouse
Architect: Handegård Arkitektur as
Location: Norway
Type: Bathhouse
Year: 2022
Images: Carlos Rollan
Modern in a traditional way
The following description is courtesy of the architects. The bathhouse looks like a traditional Norwegian small boathouse with red-painted cladding, tin roofs and rest on granite columns into the water. This is the first impression – especially when coming from the road at the back – where the building seems closed and modest. At the same time as it blends well into the cultural-historical diversity, it gives an assumptions
about a twist. If you look closer, you notice that several of the cladding boards are angled. They close the building towards the back and open it towards the front. When you enter, you experience the purpose – you are sheltered at the same time as you have a view of the entire sea.
The building is designed with the thought of fitting into the environment and at the same time having a modern design expression. This is done by working with the building as a volume with scarce details instead of plain surfaces such as roof and walls. The materials are treated with the same colour to strengthen the experience of the volume.
The materials consist of solid wooden floors and ceilings and a restroom at the back with solid wooden walls that support the construction. In the main room, the traditional studwork has been removed and replaced by thicker wooden cladding angled 45 ° that support the roof. Narrow transparent acrylic panels are mounted between each wooden panel. The doors are made in the same way, both with and without acrylic panels. The bathhouse rests on a galvanized steel frame that stands on two granite columns and a concrete plinth at the rear.
