I think it's time, Caroline,to go and see how the other half live.
Talk about welcome to my humble abode!
Cor, that is a whole lot of house!
He's Piers Taylor,an award-winning architect.
I mean, the depth of this wall,it’s four foot thick.
After you, my Lord.
And she’s Caroline Quentin,
acclaimed actressand passionate property developer.
This house has the perfect ratioof bedrooms to swimming pools.
We’ve been given the keysto some of the most incredible houses
in the world.
If we were left alone here forany amount of time, I have a feeling--
-We would ruin this house.-[laughs]
[Piers] To discover the design innovation,passion, and endurance needed
to transform architectural visioninto an extraordinary home.
[Caroline] Look. I’m dumbstruck.
[Caroline] We’re travelling the globe.
[Piers] Meeting architects and owners
to explore how their daring homes
respond uniquelyto local landscape, climate, and culture.
I think this is probablythe greatest house I've ever been in.
Whether it’s battling the elementsto construct a dream home
on dramatic Scandinavian terrain...
The architect was nervousthat things would go wrong.
He couldn’t bear to look at it.
[Piers] Pushing the boundariesof European experimentation...
-I think that’s it.-I think it is.
When I looked at the proposal,in the beginning I was almost shocked.
[Caroline] Celebrating craftsmanshipand beauty in Asia...
We’ve likened this house
to dripping chocolate sauceover vanilla ice-cream.
[Piers] ...or going all outfor glamour in America...
You just do what you do best,is to create a masterpiece.
Piers! Is this too Miami?
[Piers]Sprawling fjords and glacial mountains
give Norway one of the most invigoratingand awe-inspiring landscapes
in the world.
[Caroline] Are you excited to be here?
I am. I like extreme places.I like places that are a long way away,
hard to get to,beautiful, dramatic, and different.
And this has all those things.
We’re up near the Arctic circle.
[Caroline] With a populationof little over five million,
much of Norway remainsremote and unspoiled.
What do you think makesthe architecture here
particularly relevantand interesting for us, Piers?
This is the top of Europe
and it has a cold climate,extreme climate.
And seeing buildings that respondto that type of environment
I think is really interesting.
On our journey, we'll be discoveringwhat it takes to design,build, and live
in this rugged wilderness.
[Caroline] It's quite one of the mostspectacular spots I’ve ever been to.
We’ll see how deep-seated traditionhas either been embraced
and updated…
This is for me, personally, perfect.
[Caroline] …or left behind altogether.
Hospital is a word that springs to mind.
Brutal hospital.
We’re taking a boat ride to Vega,
a remote island400 miles north of Oslo...
where since the stone age,
people have made their livingfrom the sea.
I’ll be interested to seehow much building there is on the coast,
because the weather isso violent and so extreme.
[Piers] Historically, I thinkonly fishermen built on the shore.
Nowadays peopleare moving back to the coast
because we can deal with that stuffin 21st-century building technology.
Vega island is one of around 6,000 islandsin an archipelago.
There are just over 1,200 peopleliving here.
It's quintessential Norway and very quiet.
[Caroline]We’re looking for a remote island retreat,
built to blend inwith the surrounding landscape.
Well, there it is,but you’d hardly notice it, would you?
[Piers] What's fantastic is thatthere isn’t a gate, a sign and a driveway.
Nothing’s been cleared.There’s just a cabin on a rock.
This is Vega Cottage.
This unassuming reinterpretationof a traditional fisherman’s hut
is in fact, a modern robust homeperched delicately in this landscape.
It's the epitomeof Norwegian understatement.
This is exciting, isn’t it?
The way that the houseis cut around the rock.
There is such a tradition of levelingthe ground, placing a building.
Whereas, this showsyou don’t need level ground.
You match your building to the landscape.
I love this,the way this is just cut round,
like a bit of carpet rounda piece of skirting board.
[Piers] To resist the extreme weather,
the construction calledfor complex engineering
and durable materials,including Larchwood cladding
and glass four centimeters thick.
It’s really discrete to havethe entrance tucked around the back.
I suppose protectedfrom the winter winds and the weather.
That's right.It’s in the most sheltered bit,
because otherwise, you open the doorand the gale takes it out of your hand.
[Caroline]The challenge for the architects
was to build on rough terrainwithout damaging the landscape.
Building on a tiny footprint,
they’ve squeezed a lot of homeinto only 140 square meters.
On one side are the bedrooms...
two on the ground floor and a thirdfor the kids tucked under the eaves.
KIDS BEDROOM
The other side of the cottage
is given overto a single vaulted family room,
divided by a chimney stack...
into zones for cooking,dining, and relaxing.
Piers, I really, really like this house!
And I love the fact that you’ve got--you walk straight in
and suddenly it's family.It’s all about family straight away.
And then you’ve gotthis wonderful stonking great…
-Hearth.-hearth.
Which does everything, cooking and warmth.
This is an extraordinarypiece of design,
but what I like about it isthat it’s also quite ordinary.
These are ordinary pieces of wood,
ordinary things that you can getpretty much from anywhere a--
-Nothing blingy is there?-it’s an ordinary form.
This is a very-- this isthe most ordinary shape of a building,
and yet the way you put them together,the way you place them in a landscape,
makes them into a piece of architecture.
-It’s very still, isn't it?-Yeah.
We're very cosseted. I mean,imagine being here in an ice storm.
The sound would be incredible,wouldn't it?
With the rain lashing against that window.
[Piers] The windows are perfectly placedto respond to key views.
But the house isn’t only about landscape.
And internally,every inch of space is maximized.
I’ve come across one of thesebefore on a boat. A space saver.
We have to walk like this.
Hi!
That's nice, isn't it?
I like the little what do you call it?A gangway?
-Bridge?-Bridge. Gangway.
-I like that a lot.-It’s nice, isn’t it?
-[Piers] There are kids' bedrooms up here.-How sweet.
Yeah, they’re lovely actually.They’re really under the eaves.
I think the adults' bedroomsmust be down here.
This has got the proper picture windowso that you can lie in bed
and gaze out at the seabirds.
What's nice in here, P, is thatyou’ve got this window that opens
so you’ve gotthe breeze coming into the bedroom.
[Piers] That is really nice.The flap that deals with the ventilation.
You can imagine on a hot eveninghaving the view and the sun setting
and then coming up again moments laterand the breeze.
[Piers] I’m meeting the Scandinavianarchitects, Erik and Victor,
whose passionfor working in natural landscapes
is what attracted the ownersto commission them.
Tell me about designing a housein this extraordinary landscape.
Well, we kind of very early on realizedthat we didn’t want to cut down any trees.
We didn’t want to blow awayany ground bedrock.
And we didn’t want to, let’s say,make a house
that would dominate the terrainand would kind of take over.
The biggest problem here with the house
was the wind coming fromthe big mountain over there,
and it’s actually the lifting forcethat is the main issue,
keeping the house down.
So how is this building anchored downto where it is?
Well, it sitson pretty big concrete columns, actually,
and they sit on reinforcement bars
that have been drilled into the bedrockfor one and a half meters.
What aboutphysically constructing a building
with that constraintof weather and climate?
The hardest part hereconstructing it, actually,
was getting the material herewithout destroying the landscape.
We had this small pathway leading up,
of course, but that was onlyfor carrying small things.
So we constructed a sort of lift,and that helped a lot.
[Piers] Besides this makeshift rampused to get materials up to the house,
the team, who couldonly build during the summer months,
also used specialist equipment,like this spider crane,
to leave a minimal impact on the land.
This looks like it’s always been here.
How do you feel about this building
and its relationship to its landscapeand its context?
If you thinkabout the roofscape of this house
and the sort of landscape around us,
there are small dents.
And what this actually does isjust a tiny little dent in the landscape.
It’s nothing more.
[Caroline]Silvered by time and the elements,
Vega Cottage sits comfortablyon its rocky outcrop.
It’s owned by theater directorAlex Mork-Eden
who built it with his siblings,as a place to meet and, well,
hang out.
I’ve just spotted somethingout of this window.
They are the two architects and Alex,the owner of this house,
and they’re naked over there,standing on the rocks
and I thinkthey’re about to go into the water.
If that doesn’t explainwhat life in Norway is about,
then I don’t know what does.
As if he hadn’t revealed enough already,
I caught up with Alex after his dip
to find out what led him to build herein the middle of nowhere
with his brother and sister.
My father was born here.
So, and my grandfatherand grandmother lived here,
all their lives.
My father moved away,but we were here every summer.
It was my childhood paradise.
Was your sort of desire to come here,was it about
reliving your childhood
or was it about creatingan escape from adult life?
I think it’s a need to be alone sometimes.
And to be really alone.
And to get some quiet and calmyou don’t really get in the city life.
Alex and his siblings now havetheir very own fabulous family escape
to gather inand share with future generations.
[C] It's quite one of the most spectacularspots I’ve ever been to.
Look at the view,and look at the fishing huts there.
And then looking back at the cottage thereand in hundreds of years
this architecture hasn't really movedvery far, has it?
[Piers] But I like that sense of usingthousands of years of knowledge
and doing somethingthat just builds on that.
In this landscape,
I think that this utilitarian wayof building really works.
[Caroline] I think it’s utterly charmingand discreet and just a little treasure.
The second stop on our Nordic adventure
takes us to a homethat couldn’t be more different
than the traditional houses of Norway.
[Piers] We’re heading for Valldal
to a mountainside overlookingthe stunning Norwegian fjord lands.
[Caroline] The landscape may be typical,
but the house we’re headed foris anything but.
This one breaks all the rules.
[Piers] Almost like an eagle’s nestbuilt on a precipitous cliff,
this house is the workof renowned Norwegian architects
who have a reputation for innovation.
This is Summer House.
[Caroline] Oh!It really is quite incredible actually.
-It’s great.-It's brilliant, isn’t it?
It’s like a grown-ups' tree house really,isn’t it?
I mean, I think a complex site,steeply sloping, with a view in the trees,
for me, personally... is perfect.
I want to go and find outhow it actually stands up here.
[Piers laughs]
[Caroline] I’m going in.
[Caroline] There’s no road access here.
But, hopefully, the housewill be worth the hike.
This is something else.
I’ve seen houses built into rock,
but this is the first rockI’ve ever seen that’s built into a house.
This has got to be one ofthe most exciting rooms I’ve ever been in
and not at all what I expected.
Just look at that.
And the fact that it just slidesinto that concrete fireplace...
This is incredible.
This rock, you can seethe strata all the way through,
and it acts as a backplatehere on the fire,
so the heat will bounce off into the room.
This is so thrilling to be in.
It’s really...
It’s a work of art.
[Piers] By shaping the housearound the cliff face,
the architecthas created a series of volumes
that redefineour notion of what rooms are.
This isn’t simply one big housesubdivided by internal walls.
This is more a series of interlinkedspaces and pods built around the rock.
The entrance leads you intoa huge double-height main living space
with its striking exposed rock face.
Then, traversing the mountain,is a dining area
and an open plan kitchenthat flow out onto a deck
and an infinity poolthat overhangs the cliff face.
And, of course, there’s a sauna.
A level up, held up on timber columns
are five bedroomswith their own balconies,
a green roof,
and those incredible viewsacross the fjord.
Look at this!
I think this is probablythe greatest house I’ve ever been in
and I’ve only been here for a few moments.
And what have we here?
I don’t know.
Yes, I do know!
It’s a sauna.
It’s ludicrously good, this house.
[Piers] The man responsiblefor this design is Jan Jensen,
whose award-winning projects haveearned him an international reputation.
His work draws on Norwegian modernism
while connecting deeplywith the landscape.
This is a steep slopewith masses of trees,
a dense tree canopy, limited access.
Tell me about beginningto fit the building to this?
We tried as much as possibleto adjust the building to the site,
not opposite way,
which is the usual way in our nature.
[Piers] What about the experienceof being in this forest?
[Jan] I think for me and for the client,
one important aspect wasthe memory of play.
When you were a small boy,you built small houses up in the trees,
so it’s kind of this dream
of this extreme freedomyou had to do anything up there.
[Piers]This site came with real difficulties
and translating a complex set of ideasinto a built structure
was a huge challenge.
[Caroline] With such limited access,
the largest componentshad to be airlifted in.
With an 800-kilogram limiton what could be carried,
it took 17 separate flights.
And just getting the scaffold upin this tricky terrain
was an achievement in itself.
This is the most extraordinary piece of...bedrock that becomes the house.
We could have pushed the housethree or four meters away from this
and have the concrete wall here,for instance.
And I think, probably,
you would have a lotof the same qualities, but not all.
We tried to make all our buildings
in a way that they could not be repeated.
It's more like a painting, an original,
than something that you can duplicate.
[Piers] Allowing the cliff face to flowinto the living room
meant cutting a perfectly straight channelbefore making wooden templates
and individual glass panels to fit
so that all you can seeis either glass or rock and no frame.
Fairly basic materials, like plywood,are all on display with steel and glass.
Even the staircase iscold exposed mild steel,
but with a leather bindingthat adds warmth.
I think it’s beautifulthat you have, like, individual steps.
All of them are different.
I think it givesthe architecture a richness
that you cannot getwhen you conceal everything.
[Caroline] The entire experienceof this house is a revelation.
Even usually mundane spaces,
like the kitchen,are adventurous and dramatic.
I can imagine myself having dinner herewith the family.
It's a brilliant inset of slate here
to put your hotpot on,your casserole, your coq-au-vin.
And I love this.
And all it is is a series of LEDs
into a steel and wooden frame.
And it's truly beautiful.
[Piers] Much of this building's vitalityis in the materials,
whether refined or raw.
Like the thousands of split shingles,which add to the tree-house feel
and connect you directlyto the forest outside.
[Piers] And you’ve usedcedar shingles on the outside?
It’s the core of the pine tree,
and it keeps for a long time, much longerthan the outer part of the wood,
and it's cut by an axe.
That’s why it's kind of rugged,
and the reason is that it will keepfor a much longer time
because you don’t cut the fibers.
This is a super old traditionin Norway, and it’s,
actually, the Viking’s did the same thing.
[Caroline] It’s in the bedroom pods
where you really feel the sensationof living in the tree canopy,
and with no curtains,
one could easily spot the Vikingscoming up the fjord in their longboats.
Not so much a bedroom, more a nest.
Look at my nest in the trees.
I could be a little bird in here.
[window slides open]
Just the peace.
I don't really think you could askfor much more from a bedroom
and be in your own little nest,
little aerie, top of a pine tree.
[Piers] This close relationship to naturewas an essential aspect to Jan’s design,
who resisted suggestionsto dynamite the bedrock
to make the construction simpler.
If you took this building away,
in five years, ten years, fifty years...
what would the site be like?
Almost as it was.
I think, for us, it’s a great ideal to dosomething and then you can reverse it,
just like you pitch a tent in the forest.
That’s the way we thinkabout architecture.
[Piers]Summer House is a really elemental home.
The site is very natural and untamed.
The architect has used basic materials
including glass,concrete, and steel, very delicately
and in a way that redefineswhat a house can be.
It's saying a lot this house,
but what does this house sayabout Norwegian architecture?
It says that you don't always have to harkback to an idea about the past
and a vernacular.
It says you can just respondto the actual fabric of the geography
and there you have a truly Norwegian housebecause it couldn’t be anywhere else.
[Piers] From a home bornof the Norwegian natural landscape
to one that strays furthestfrom many Norwegian norms and traditions.
[Caroline] Next we’re going to Ottestad;
a picturesque,charming lakeside community.
[Piers] And with such typicallyNorwegian surroundings,
we could only arrivein the traditional way.
I have never doneNordic pole walking before.
You couldn’t tell.You handled it beautifully.
This is the biggest lake in Norway, Piers.
It’s quite extraordinarily beautifuland yet somehow really quite suburban.
[C] These elegant homes are exactlywhat we would expect to find in Norway.
But we're here to visit a familywho dared to be different.
[Caroline] Not at all what I was expectingin this environment.
[Piers] Solid and resolute, Concrete Housestands proudly over the lake
with its facadeof seemingly random openings
sitting defiantly in cold grey concreteamong its neighbors.
[Piers] Okay, what's the first adjectivethat springs to mind?
[Caroline] Harsh.
[Piers] 'Cause I think quirky.
[Caroline] Quirky, okay.
Hospital is another wordthat springs to mind.
-Quirky hospital.-Brutal hospital.
[door clicks open]
[Caroline] Oh! This is lovely in here.
I’m really surprised
because it wasn’t loveat first sight for me at all.
From outside, I couldn’t understandwhat was going on in here.
[Piers] But it makes sense,
and it's beautiful.
[Caroline] It's quite church-like in here.
I’m surprised because the dimensionsand the proportions
-are normal domestic proportions.-Yeah, except for height.
Maybe it’s that. It's a sort of,yeah, cathedral-like quality.
It’s very peaceful... isn’t it?
So quiet.
There’s something about the masonry,the heaviness of this concrete,
that gives you a sense of that silence.
[Caroline]I love the turn of those stairs.
They make me want to quietly go upstairsand explore upstairs.
[Piers]You’d never guess from the outside,
but internallythe house has a simple three-story layout.
Dug into the sloping site,the ground floor is a large guest suite
with an enclosed terrace and storage.
The main family spacesare raised up on the first floor
with an open plan kitchen, dining, livingroom, and library that face the lake.
There’s also a TV room,a family wardrobe, and a garage.
Above, along with a laundry room,
are three bedroomsorganized around an open landing
that looks down onto the living spacesbelow and to the lake outside.
This has actually mademy heart beat a little faster,
because we’renot just double height here.
It’s a very, very long distance
between this balcony
and then the drop into the atriumto the kitchen, down the stairs,
and then there’s another floorI can see downstairs,
and it is quite exciting actually.
And I’ve just seen
what I think is going to bemy favorite window in the whole house.
And in it, I’ve just gota perfect golden section of land,
boats, little bit of sky,
and then that wonderful lake.
I think I’ve foundmy favorite place in the house.
[P] But the windows here do so much morethan just selectively framing views.
[door clicks shut]
Often you might thinka window is just a window,
you stick it in the middle of the walland you’re done.
But here there’sa really eccentric window,
which is just about bringinga very diffused light into the bedroom.
It allows you,when you’re in bed, to see the sky.
There’s a ventilation panel.
There’s a view downto where the boats are.
And then there’s a view, a composed view,
a beautiful pictureof the headland opposite.
And then, of course,when you’re lying in bed,
there’s this south-facing window,
which is the solar gain you getto heat the room up.
It's a perfect studyin how to make a series of openings
that bring a room to life.
[Piers]There’s very little color used here.
Like a gallery,walls are predominantly white,
but whether it’s the main living spacesor just a bathroom,
there’s never a lack of interest.
You shower under the light.
You bathe in the view.
But also, it’s a very textured room,which I hadn’t expected.
No color, all texture.
On one hand,this is a white painted concrete box
but it’s also full of joy and delight.
Piers?
Hi, Caroline.
What have you discovered?
I’ve got bedrooms up here.
I’ve got a little chap's bedroomand a little girl’s bedroom.
What have you got?
I’ve just been enjoying the multiple waysyou can get around this building.
You don’t needall these staircases, but they’re great.
I love the theater of them popping outand, you know, being able to say, "Hello!"
Is it more funthan you thought it was going to be?
Yeah, much more fun.
[Piers] In a place like this,
it’s obvious that the main living spacesshould face the view and the light,
making the spaces at the backharder to resolve.
[Caroline gasps in delight]
[laughs in delight]
[Piers] I never knew a simple TV roomcould be so pleasing.
This is so cool.
Just when I was being fooled into thinkingthis is a sort of quite domestic,
quite, you know, homely,in a way, sort of, ordinary home.
You suddenly gota little telly room like this.
Tucked away.
-And it's comfy. It's so comfy.-Yeah.
But there’s carpet, of course,
which wraps up and makessomewhere comfortable to sit on.
Also, it's therebecause it’s good acoustically.
Deadens the sound.
And there's obviously some acoustic thinghappening with the ceiling.
But I like the way the telly doesn'tdominate the house.
-You just go into a glorified cupboard.-Yeah.
Covered in carpet, to go and watch telly.
Yeah.
[P] This hard exterior hides an interiorthat is human, relaxed, and informal.
But back in 2005,
all that was here wasa dilapidated house for sale.
For Tom Olav and his wife Erder,this was the opportunity of a lifetime;
to be able to live by the lake.
But their new house would not only dwarfwhat was there originally,
it would also raise a few eyebrows.
[Piers] This is a house that is notlike its neighbors
and totally unlike traditionalNorwegian suburban architecture.
Mm.
What do your neighborsthink of this house?
Well, I guess some of them, they like it,and some don’t.
The worst thing we have heard
is maybe that someone asked,"Well, what is this? Is it a prison?"
So the people are not so used to concreteI guess.
We have always liked concrete.
The architect, he saidwe could use some bricks, you know.
We like concrete better.
There’s been quite a journey to a place,which is an extraordinary modern building.
Where did that journey beginin your own mind?
When I was a small boy,
I always interested in minimalistic houses
and minimalistic design.
So, this is my dream.
[C] The architect entrusted to deliverthat dream was Carl-Viggo Holmebakk,
who was clearly not afraidto challenge convention.
When I first approachedthe house this morning,
I was surprisedat how austere it was, how almost...
uninviting.
I think the exterior of the househas a sculptural quality to it,
and we worked a lotto almost try to erase
the traditional image of a building,of stories,
-all the windows floating in the facade.-Yes.
It does something, also, with the scale
because you can’t understandhow many floors it is.
We are used to saying,"Well, that must be a bathroom
because it’s a small window.That must be a bedroom."
But this house plays with your sense ofspace and scale all the time, doesn’t it?
From outside. It’s quite,
It's disconcerting.
You know,we built a platform here at the site
before we started to draw;
and then this idea started to come
that maybe it would beeven more interesting
to... mask out some different views,
not to have everything all the time.
So, when you are inside the house,
each opening is reallyvery well thought about.
It’s not just a random compositionof funny windows.
What do you think your favorite placein this house is?
What I love most about the house,I guess,
is the ability to look at the nature
and also watchthe different season change.
This kind of big windowwere supposed to be like paintings.
New picture on every wall.
Kind of like art.
[Caroline]Concrete House is a home and a gallery,
where the architect has curatedsome of nature’s finest work.
Spending the day here, it’s easy to see
how living amongst these masterpiecesis an endless joy.
But then this house isa bit of a masterpiece in itself.
For our final house,
we’re headingfor the wild western coast,
to Fosnavag,a region renowned for outdoor living
and, of course, fjords.
[Piers] And it’s herethat we’ve arranged to meet owner, Peter.
He’s giving us a lift,as the house is only accessible by boat.
[Caroline] It’s there! Ha ha!
It’s very mysterious, Peter.
It’s very closed off.It’s like it’s got its eyes shut.
Not welcoming at all.
[Piers] Our destination for the nightis a home on its own island,
designed asthe ultimate weatherproof bolthole.
-So here, Caroline, the keys.-Thank you very much.
Anything we need to knowabout the house?
-It opens up.-Open it up, okay.
And maybe the factthat the last house that was here
blew away in a storm at night.
The last house that was here blew away?
Bye-bye. Enjoy.
Weather's looking a bit peaky as well,isn’t it? Some clouds coming in.
[Caroline] Storm clouds are gathering.
[Piers] I think this looks likea pretty robust house through, Caroline.
Even if there's a storm coming.
You don’t have any ideahow we’re meant to actually open it up?
[Piers]Well, this is a front door, I think.
This one's not gonna get blown awayin a storm. It’s really heavy.
This gives battening down the hatches...
a new level of meaning, doesn’t it?
I thought this was gonna be a window,
but it's actuallyyou go straight into the house.
[Caroline]It's extraordinary so far, isn't it?
The owners wanted to be able to usetheir holiday home all year around.
So it needed to copewith extreme weather.
The architect designed a building
that totally transformsas soon as it's opened up.
You’ve got to be happy with this.
This is one of the best entrancesto a house.
I don’t know if it's'cause of where we come from,
but we are trained to going upa small path and opening a front door,
and this couldn’t be more different.
And yet, somehow,it couldn’t be more Norwegian.
It’s so rugged. It’s so strong.
[Piers]The architects faced two challenges.
Not only did the househave to sit directly
on the existing footprintof the boathouse that blew away,
it also had to pack in everythingan inaccessible house would need.
They designed a three-story packing caseof steel, glass, and timber.
The form is straightforward.
On the ground floor is an open-plankitchen, dining, and living room.
Above, dividedby two floating staircases,
are the bedrooms for family and guests.
And on top, an open-plan attic space.
The remarkable part, besides its position,
is the heavy-duty outer shellprotecting the whole structure
with 17 timber shutters that can be openedand closed depending on the weather.
There’s nothing lightweightabout this place, is there?
Nothing at all.
It’s really beefy, every aspect of it.Everything weighs a lot.
Everything’s heavyand extremely well made.
More things to move and adjust.
It’s the sound as well.
I like the noise of all the metal,the doors.
Yeah. It’s very tactile, isn't it?
Completely. Every sense iscompletely assaulted as you come in.
It’s fantastic.
[C] The robust shell is in stark contrastto the soft honey-hued interior.
It's breathtaking.
The minute you come inside, you feel safe,you’re out of the elements,
and this is a good space, isn’t it?
It's quite a modest spaceat the same time. It isn't huge.
and it's interesting how this staircasestructures this space.
So this is the deviceby which these areas are zoned.
[Caroline] This staircase issort of magically floating in the air,
and I don’t imagine that’sjust because it looks great.
I think it’s also because, presumably,this concrete floor could take
a huge amount of water washing inand no harm would come to this.
You’re totally right.It's really practical.
This is a bit like being on a boat though,isn't it?
I feel a little bit likeI’m on this fantastic ferry,
you know, sailing out to sea.
[Caroline]Yes, it is, it’s like being on board ship.
And all the colors are so subtle.
This kind of pinkish beautiful leather.
I like the fact that the warehouseroughness can coexist with this…
-Luxury?-Yeah.
You know, a luxurious item in the room,
it brings a whole new feel to the place,doesn't it?
[Piers]And it's not just the odd single item.
Every element of this house,
both large and small,has been meticulously considered.
Many people think that designis really going shopping for things,
standard things,kitchens, bathrooms,
windows, doors, all of those things
and just arranging them into a building.
In this house, everything isso beautifully made
and everything is bespoke.
Even things like the shower screen.
This is a purpose-made shower screenthat also doubles up as a light.
And things like the doors.
The doors are beautifully-madesheets of plywood, laminated together.
And things like the door catch
is this lovely piece of leather
that takes this littlestainless-steel fitting at the end of it.
And that’s the door locked.It’s beautiful. Beautiful.
Time to choose my bedroom.
I think I’m gonna go in. Yeah, this one.
And I’d like to be able to see the sea.
How does this work?
[shutter creaks open]
Sounds like a ship, doesn’t it?
[Caroline]From the bedrooms to the attic space,
everything is so substantial,
yet cosy.
It almost makesthe idea of sleeping on a rock
in the middle of the sea seem sensible.
[cork popping]
That's for me.
-[Piers] Want some glasses?-Yes, please.
[Piers] Big ones?
[Caroline]Yeah, I think I will. Thank you.
You know, all this stuff,you could just bolt together
from stuff you could buyin your hardware store in Devon.
This house isn’t afraidto take things that anyone can get
and make somethingreally special out of them.
It knows where to spend its money,doesn't it?
The mood of this place has alteredsince the sunset, hasn't it?
Looking out there, I can seethe twinkling lights of houses
on the mainland,
and still hear the water.
The character of the buildinghas altered dramatically.
Whereas in most houses,
you'd shut the blinds,shut the curtains, and that would be it.
You'd carry on as if it was daytime.
Imagine this in midsummer
when there’s only 3 hours of twilight.
What an extraordinary placethat would be to be in.
And equivalently in winterwith just three hours of daylight.
Again, those are the rhythmsthat give this place its life.
[Caroline] It feels such a privilegeto be here, isn't it?
And after a good night’s sleep,
I can totally seethe attraction of living on a rock.
You going in?
I'm not sure how crazy this is,
I think I’m just gonna have to gostraight in.
[splash]
[Piers] Woah![Caroline laughing]
It's gorgeous.
It’s truly gorgeous.
[C] And if a dip in the chilly watersof the Norwegian sea doesn’t appeal,
the other pastime here is fishing.
Hi, morning.
While Piers defrosts,
owners Peter and Marianna drop byto share their catch of the day.
Very good.
Hello, you must be Marianna?
Good morning. Lovely...
[Caroline] The island has belonged toPeter’s family for generations.
[Peter] It used to be a boathousefor a fishing boat.
The foundation was here
and eight, nine,No, nine years ago, I got the idea
maybe we should build something here.
It wasn't built here, was it?Was it built off site?
Yeah and that was difficultto find someone to build it, actually.
It was a challenge.
And then after a while,we finally found a local entrepreneur
that said, "I'll take the challenge."
[C] Building on the tiny island was alwaysgoing to be a logistical nightmare.
Concrete to strengthen the foundationshad to be airlifted in.
[Piers] Meanwhile the entire housewas being constructed in the shipyard
on the mainlanda few miles down the coast.
Then came the difficultyof getting the house to the island.
We used a offshore vessel,crane to lift it.
-So, they they lifted it by crane?-Yeah.
-Onto a barge.-Onto a barge, okay.
And then it was tugged out here.
-That must have been so exciting.-It was.
[Caroline] Weather here is unpredictable,
and the team had to wait six weeksfor a day calm enough to make their move.
Were you nervous that it could go wrong?
I’m sure some of the peoplewere nervous, yeah.
The architect, actually, he wasn't here.
He couldn't bear to look at it.He was nervous that things would go wrong.
[C] As they lowered the 70 tons of houseonto its foundations,
the weather broke.
The workers had to weld it in placeduring a storm.
It wouldn’t be the last timethe house had to contend with
the worst of Norway’s weather.
We spent last Christmas here.
It was our first Christmas on the island.
We had a storm. It was amazing to be here.
Not being able to go ashore
because the sea was too rough,and the boat was…
Yes, we lost one boat actually.
-[Caroline] You lost a boat?-[Peter] Yes, small boat went down.
-[C] It was a serious storm?-[Peter] It was a hurricane strength.
[C] I’m glad you've tested itat full strength.
It's a fortress really here, isn't it?
I mean it really hasthe feeling of a fortress.
You feel, it can take anythingthat the weather throws at it.
I shall be sadto say goodbye to this house.
It’s just a joy from beginning to end.
I think Norway is a really unusual countryin that
landscape, weather, climate,culture, geography, geology
is under all of their skin all of the timein everything they do.
And that’s so evidentin all of the buildings.
[Caroline] We’ve seen the evolution
of that wonderful little Norwegian cottage
into some of the mostextraordinary buildings
that just like the Norwegians themselves,
not only know how to deal with weather,but absolutely love it.
Come on, sweetie, let’s do it.
Subtitle translation by Metia Bethell