Modern

Remarkable for its walls of triple-glazed glass, Snorre Stinessen Architecture’s Ejford Cabin straddles two stone ridges on northern Norway’s Hallvardøy Island. Perched on a concrete slab, it intentionally capitalizes upon passive solar conditions and features thick insulation to minimize energy output.

Built on a tight budget of $120,000, a retirement home in the mountains delivers unexpected contemporary design to a rural township.

Conceived as an escape from city living, this 2,580-square-foot prefab comprises two primary and 11 secondary modules, while the 290-square-foot guest cabins consist of single modules craned into place atop concrete piers.

For Gabriel Ramirez and his partner Sarah Mason Williams, following the Sea Ranch rules—local covenants guide new designs—didn’t mean slipping into Sea Ranch clichés. The architects love Cor-Ten steel, with its ruddy and almost organic surface, and they made it the main exterior material, along with board-formed concrete and ipe wood. The Cor-Ten, which quickly turned an autumnal rust in the sea air, and the concrete, with its grain and crannies, mean the house isn’t a pristine box, Ramirez says. His Neutra house “was very crisp and clean,” he says. “This house is more distressed, more wabi-sabi.”

The home is located far from the road on the northwest corner of the property and oriented toward views of the water.

City Cabin | Olson Kundig

The exterior combines charred cedar siding, cedar beams, and black cement board siding. “Black may seem like an extreme choice sometimes,” says Howe. “It would be hard to imagine any other color though. It sits lovely in the woods. It falls into the shadows in the summer, under the canopy, and it blends with the dark tree trunks in the winter.”