Looking for an escape from your apartment and dive into nature? The Øyna Cultural Landscape Hotel in Norway is your destination. This hotel is wrapped in a lush green carpet and is hidden away on a hill with the sweeping views of the Trondheim fjord – a Nordic landscape with a long, narrow, deep inlet of the sea between high cliffs formed by submergence of a glaciated valley. Øyna’s location is right out of an enchanted forest storybook.
Designed by Green Advisers AS, the hotel’s unique layout maximizes the guests’ connection with nature. All 18 rooms are built inside an existing sloping terrain with a cantilevered design so every person staying gets an unobstructed view of the cultural landscape. The rooms are primarily crafted from timber which is the regional raw material and a nod to the Nordic building heritage. The light timber interiors are a contrast to the exterior’s dark wooden cladding. The overall aesthetic and colors are contemporary yet cozy – a balance between the cabin feeling and the luxury of a hotel room. They are covered with green roofs so the hotel, as well as the guests, are immersed in the scenic setting of the Golden Road, Fosen Alps, and the Trondheim fjord. There is plenty of indoor and outdoor shared spaces and each has a breathtaking view. The hotel is naturally ventilated and lit due to its height and the waterfront location.
The property is owned and operated by the Sakshaug family and it originally served as a restaurant + events venue, but given the location, there was an increasing demand for overnight stays which led to the expansion of the site into a hotel. Since the restaurant was the conception point of the hotel, it was imperative to preserve panoramic views for the loyal patrons, therefore the reception, conference area, and the hotel rooms were placed on a lower level of the slope – a win-win for everyone. The lower levels can be accessed using an elevator and are interconnected via an underground corridor that conforms to the shape of the hill. “Although the extension of the facility was carefully adapted to the topography, it creates new landscape accents through its formal language and fits in well with the owner’s overall concept,” said the architects. Green Advisors AS did an exemplary job of giving us absolute Pinterest cabin feels on modern hotel property and burying all of it under a green carpet like a secret gem!
Designer: Green Advisors AS
For Coats, Not Zapping!
Our ol’ pal Michael Sholk is back, this time with something so simple, something so neat you wish you’d thought of it, that we’ll go ahead and call it Pop Art. That’s what Pop Art is, right? Something amazing, simple enough you could have done it yourself, but woops, you didn’t, so the person who made it gets all the genius points? That’s right! Michael Sholk’s a smart fellow. Once he put 2 and 2 together on this power-lines to coat-hanger idea, he got to hackin away at it, and poof! Here it is!
So simple, so fantastical. Michael Sholk you’ve done it again.
Material: Black lacquered wood Size: 1843x813x680 mm
Designer: Michael Sholk
Floating City ala Haiti
So when you think of Haiti, what do you think about? Probably some sort of… disaster area? Well how about this instead – Tangram 3DS collaborating with Boston Architect / Designer E Kevin Schopfer together creating a floating agricultural / light industrial city right off the shores of Haiti. What’s it called? Harvest City. Behold a 2 miles in diameter complex of tethered floating modules. Holy goodness gracious!
There are four zones in this project, communities interconnected by a linear canal system. Each of the four major canals are focused on building neighborhoods that consist of four story housing complexes. All along the outer perimeter are “one acre” crop circles with secondary feeder canals. The inside “harbor” is a city center with schools, administrative buildings, community activities, and a general marketplace. The whole entire complex floats and will be cable secured down to the sea bed.
The low profile of the entire system, low draft, dead weight capacity, and perimeter wave attenuators, hurricanes and typhoons will have little effect besides their collection of “much needed water harvesting.” Helpful! A breakwater will be in place to add to the city’s stability. AND AND AND since they know that that silly earthquake is still fresh in everyone’s minds, (especially those directly affected by it,) the project includes using all of the concrete rubble debris crushed down by the disaster as breakwater filler. Excellent!
Designer: Tangram 3DS and E. Kevin Schopfer
