Villa Borgen/Nilsen, Trondheim

The villa was designed for a young couple with two small children, who wanted wood and glass to be the main materials of their new house. The site is in the middle of a housing development on the outskirts of Trondheim, and was less expensive than many of the neighbouring properties since it lacks a direct view of the Trondheim Fjord. Three sides of the site border on neighbouring houses, while the fourth side faces a pretty little copse with brushwood and large trees.

The house is divided horizontally into three parts of very different character: the ground floor, private floor and roof terrace. The ground floor is open and accessible, consisting of a single large, open room, partly set into the ground. This room contains the main entrance, the entrance from the garden, the kitchen, living room, dining room and a small WC. The family can easily regulate the inward and outward views with curtains and a flexible lighting system, but they prefer as a rule to keep the façade open. The compact second floor with its relatively low ceilings has a closed and private character. It contains bedrooms, rooms for work and recreation and bathrooms. Windows are evenly distributed as openings in the façade.

Thorough studies of the topography showed that a roof terrace would allow this client to enjoy a splendid view of the landscape from all sides, not least towards the Trondheim Fjord. In this way, a relatively inexpensive site was turned into a first class location.

The railing around the roof terrace contains storage space, a refrigerator, a stereo system, a grill, water supply and power points.

The top half of the house is constructed as a stiff “box” of solid wooden elements. It stands on six slender steel pillars, triangulated so as to take wind stresses. The house has balanced ventilation with air-to-air heat recovery, a geothermal heat pump for heating rooms and water and a wood stove.