Client
Agder County Municipality
Function
Day trip cabin, prototype
In 2021, Agder County Municipality, in collaboration with Sparebankstiftelsen SR-Bank, launched a limited planning and design competition for a day-use cabin. Seven architectural firms took part.
The project aims to create attractive local destinations that encourage outdoor activity, promote physical well-being, and support public health. While the cabins were designed to meet a simple standard, they were also intended to be destinations in their own right. The goal is to build day-use cabins in each of the county’s 25 municipalities by the end of 2024.
The competition required a prototype that could adapt to a wide variety of sites—from coastal areas to forests and mountains. Size, cost, and transport were key considerations: the cabins needed to be prefabricated in sections small enough for helicopter transport.
Our proposal presents a day-use cabin with a distinctive, tangible form that reflects its purpose: providing shelter and comfort for day-trippers. The design works on all types of sites and stands as a symbol of an important public health initiative in Agder.
The cabin tells a story of arrival, entry, and presence, being inside, on the terrace, and in the outdoor spaces it creates in harmony with the landscape, vegetation, and surrounding views. Its walls lean inward to shelter the entrance, then tilt outward in the living area to open up the view of the terrain.
Designed to be prefabricated in three sections, the cabin features a timber frame clad externally with wood shingles and internally with veneered panels. The sections can be transported by helicopter and assembled on site on a pile foundation.
