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 actress and passionate property developer.
This house has the perfect ratio of bedrooms to swimming pools.
'We've been given the keys to some of the most incredible houses in the world.'
If we were left alone here for any amount of time, I have a feeling...
We would ruin this house. SHE LAUGHS
'..to discover the design innovation, passion,
'and endurance needed to transform architectural vision into an
'extraordinary home.'
Look! I'm dumbstruck.
'We're travelling the globe...'
Ho-ho!
'..meeting architects and owners to explore how their daring homes
'respond uniquely to local landscape, climate and culture.'
I think this is probably the greatest house I've ever been in.
'Whether it's battling the elements to construct a dream home on
'dramatic Scandinavian terrain...'
The architect was nervous that things would go wrong.
He couldn't bear to look at it.
'..pushing the boundaries of European experimentation...'
I think that's it.I think it is.
When I looked at the proposal, at the beginning I was almost shocked.
'..celebrating craftsmanship and beauty in Asia...'
We've likened this house to dripping chocolate sauce
over vanilla ice cream.
'..or going all-out for glamour in America.'
You just do what you do best, is to create a masterpiece.
MOCK AMERICAN ACCENT:Piers! Is this too Miami?
Sprawling fjords and glacial mountains give Norway one of the
most invigorating and awe-inspiring landscapes in the world.
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 of those things.
We're up near the Arctic Circle.
It's extraordinary to think that, isn't it?
With a population of little over five million,
much of Norway remains remote and unspoiled.
What do you think makes the architecture here particularly
relevant and interesting for us, Piers?
This is the top of Europe and it has a cold climate,
extreme climate, and seeing buildings that respond to that type
of environment, I think, is really interesting.
Architecture comes out of its place, out of its environment,
its context, and really, historically, the way we
built was to deal with weather, and this is a country that still has
to do that.
On our journey, we'll be discovering what it takes to design,
build and live in this rugged wilderness.
It's quite one of the most spectacular spots I've ever been to.
We'll see how deep-seated tradition
has either been embraced and updated...
This is, for me, personally, perfect.
..or left behind altogether.
Hospital is the word that springs to mind.
Brutal hospital.
We're taking a boat ride to Vega, a remote island 400 miles north of
Oslo, where, since the Stone Age, people have made their living from
the sea.
When I think of Norwegian houses, I think of, you know
Monopoly houses, those little red plastic houses.Red and green.
I'll be interested to see how much building there is on the coast.
Because the weather is so violent and so extreme.
Historically, I think only fishermen built on the shore.
Nowadays, people are moving back to the coast because we can deal with
that stuff in 21st century building technology.
Vega Island is one of around 6,000 islands in an archipelago.
There are just over 1,200 people living here.
It's quintessential Norway and very quiet.
This is Vega, and isn't it beautiful?
It's, erm, it's unspoiled. Properly unspoiled, isn't it?
Yeah.It's a proper fishing community, but tiny.
We're looking for a remote island retreat,
built to blend in with the surrounding landscape.
Well, there it is, but you'd hardly notice it, would you?
What's fantastic is that there isn't a gate and a sign and a driveway.
Nothing's been cleared, there's just a cabin on a rock.
This is Vega Cottage.
This unassuming reinterpretation of a traditional fishermen's hut is in
fact a modern robust home, perched delicately in this landscape.
It's the epitome of Norwegian understatement.
This is exciting, isn't it?
The way the house is cut around the rock.
There is such a tradition of levelling the ground and placing a
building, whereas this shows you you 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
around a piece of skirting board.
To resist the extreme weather,
the construction called for complex engineering and durable materials,
including larch wood cladding and glass four centimetres thick.
It's really discreet to have the entrance tucked around the back,
I suppose protected from the winter winds and the weather.
That's right, of course it's in the most sheltered bit, because
otherwise you open the door and a gale takes it out of your hand.
I could stay out here all day but I'm really keen to know what happens
inside.Come on, then.
Come by.
The challenge for the architects was to build on rough terrain without
damaging the landscape.
Building on a tiny footprint,
they've squeezed a lot of home into only 140 square metres.
On one side are the bedrooms -
two on the ground floor
and a third, for the kids, tucked under the eaves.
The other side of the cottage is given over to a single-vaulted
family room, divided by a chimney stack into zones for cooking,
dining, and relaxing.
SHE GASPS
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 straightaway.
And then you've got this wonderful, stonking great.. Hearth...hearth.
Which does everything - cooking and warmth.
This is an extraordinary piece of design, but what I like about it is
that it's also quite ordinary.
Yeah.These are ordinary pieces of wood -
ordinary things that you can get pretty much from anywhere.
Nothing blingy, is there?And it's in ordinary form. Yeah, yeah.This is very, this is the most ordinary
shape of a building. Yeah.And yet, the way you put them together,
the way you place them in a landscape makes them into a piece of
architecture.
CAROLINE EXHALES SLOWLY It's very still.
Isn't it? Yeah.We're very cosseted.
I mean, imagine being here in an ice storm.The trees would be blowing in a crazy way.
The sea would be raging, the sky would change colour.
The sound would be incredible, wouldn't it, with the rain lashing
against that window.
Is there anything you'd change about this room?
I yearn, here, to know what the sunset is like.
And if I was sitting here with the sun setting behind the mountains, I
would feel as if I was being denied that.Would you put a little window in there, then?
Maybe at eye level, when you're sitting,
a slot window, to be able to see the view.
But I wonder whether it's again the architect is playing, to deny you
that view, to show you a different view over there that is the rock.
Spectacular that, actually, isn't it?Very different view and very lovely.
Actually, you'd probably always choose to sit at this end of the table, cos then you've got that
and you've got that.This would be my spot. I'm actually not moving.
This is my spot.It would not be your spot. It would be MY spot.
LAUGHTER We're fighting for it!
No, I'd say, "Darling, pass the salt." LAUGHTER
The windows are perfectly placed to respond to key views, but the house
isn't only about landscape.
And, internally, every inch of space is maximised.
I've come across one of these before on a boat.
Space saver.Yeah, space saver.
Not mad keen on them, actually. I'm never quite sure how they function.
Oops. Hang on, how do you use this?What are you doing?
Well, how do you do it?I'll show you. You have to walk like this.
Who wants to walk like that? Any sensible, sane person.
Oh, hi!
That's nice, isn't it? I like the little, sort of,
what do you call it, a gangway? Bridge?Bridge.
Gangway, I like that a lot. It's nice, isn't it? Really nice.
There are kids' bedrooms up here. How sweet.Yeah, they're lovely,
actually, they're really under the eaves.
It's a romantic little set-up, actually, isn't it?
Very romantic. Really informal as well.
I think the adults' bedrooms must be down here.
This has got the proper picture windows, so you can lie in bed and
gaze out at the sea birds.
What's nice in here, P, is that you've got this window that opens,
so you've got the breeze coming into the bedroom.
I've got no idea what the problem is with these stairs.
Unless you're Caroline Quentin.
Actually that's really nice - the flap that deals with the ventilation.
You can imagine, on a hot evening, having the view and the sun setting,
and then coming up again moments later and the breeze.
It really feels like you're on holiday all the time.
This is neat, isn't it? It a neat little, little bedroom.
Oh, it's comfortable. Oh, is it bedtime already?
Of course, you know the eiderdown is from Norway originally, and I think
you could tell this one's got plenty of feathers in it.
I think this house is so well insulated that actually you could
probably just sleep in the middle of winter in a howling gale with a sheet or two.
CAROLINE MOCK SNORES I think I bored you to sleep.
Aren't you interested in U-values and insulation thicknesses?
Clearly not.
Heathen.
I know when to take a hint.
I'm meeting the Scandinavian architects, Erik and Victor, whose
passion for working in natural landscapes is what attracted the
owners to commission them.
Tell me about designing a house in this extraordinary landscape.
Well, we kind of very early on realised that we did not want to cut
down any trees. We didn't want to blow away any ground, bedrock, and
we didn't want to, let's says make a house that would dominate the
terrain and would kind of take over.
We had to find a way of sort of landing the building on the ground,
and the traditional way of doing that,
you put it on pillars and you see, sort of, the construction below,
and it's very inelegant.
So we tried to do something else.
The biggest problem here with the house was the wind coming from the
big mountain over there, and it's actually the lifting force that is
the main issue, keeping the house down.
So how is this building anchored down to where it is?
Well, it sits on pretty big concrete columns, actually.
And they sit on reinforcement bars that have been drilled into the
bedrock for 1.5 metres.
What about physically constructing a building with that constraint of
weather and climate?
The hardest part here, constructing it, actually, was getting the
material here without destroying the landscape.
We had this small pathway leading up, of course, but that was only for
carrying small things.
So we constructed a sort of lift and that helped a lot.
Besides this makeshift ramp used to get materials up to the house,
the team, who could only 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 landscape and its context?
If you think about the roofscape of this house
and the, sort of, landscape around us,
there are small dents and what this actually does is just a tiny little
dent in the landscape.
It's nothing more.
Silvered by time and the elements,
Vega Cottage sits comfortably on the rocky outcrop.
It's owned by theatre director Alex Mork-Eidem, who built it
with his siblings as a place to meet and, well, hang out.
I just spotted something out 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,
I think they're about to go into the water.
If that doesn't explain what 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 here in the middle of nowhere
with his brother and sister.
My father was born here, and my grandfather and 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 creating an escape from adult life?
I think it's a need to be alone sometimes.
To be really alone and to get some quiet and calm
you don't really get in the city life.
Is that part of the Nordic nature, that you actually want
to get away from everybody else?
Yeah, you don't really want to lie on a beach with everybody else,
you want to have your own beach,
or to find your own mountain to walk up on.
# I would like to leave this city
# This old town don't smell too pretty. #
Alex and his siblings now have their very own fabulous family escape
to gather in, and share with future generations.
What I really love about the house is how completely unobtrusive it is.
Most important for us that it feels like it was part of nature.
It's very nice to be around, I have to say.
It's really... I mean, in all senses.
It's not a show-offy house is it?
It's a very Norwegian house.
# You're half the world away
# You're half the world away. #
It's quite one of the most spectacular spots I've ever been to.
Look at the view.
And look at the fishing huts there.
And then looking back at the cottage there and in hundreds of years,
this architecture hasn't really moved very far, has it?
But I like that sense of using thousands of years of knowledge,
and doing something that builds on that, doesn't have to try
and be clever for the sake of it.
It's a very modest building.
For a very modest client, actually.
I'm wondering as we go forward on our travels in Norway,
whether we are going to find any different sorts of architecture?
I think we're in for some surprises.
There is still a place for not doing this.
For actually breaking out of the mould, but in this landscape,
I think that this utilitarian way of building really works.
I think it's utterly charming and discreet,
and just a little treasure.
The second stop on our Nordic adventure takes us to a home
that couldn't be more different than the traditional houses of Norway.
We're heading for Valldal, to a mountainside
overlooking the stunning Norwegian fjord lands.
It's so lovely to look up and see these trees
just cladding the hillsides, but it's even nicer
to be in amongst the trees.
It is and this is the Norway that I think of, these pine forests,
interspersed with the silver birches but with the fjords below.
The landscape may be typical,
the house we're headed for is anything but.
This one breaks all the rules.
Almost like an eagle's nest built on a precipitous cliff,
this house is the work of renowned Norwegian architects who have a
reputation for innovation.
# Born to be wild. #
This is Summer House.
# Born to be wild. #
Woo-hoo! It's quite incredible, actually!
It's great. It's brilliant, isn't it?
It's like a grown-ups' treehouse, 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 out how it actually stands up here.
I'm going in.
There's no road access here.
But hopefully the house will be worth the hike.
This is something else.
I've seen houses built into rock but this is the first rock
I've ever seen that's built into a house.
It's got to be one of the most exciting rooms I've ever been in.
And not at all what I expected.
Just look at that!
The fact that it just slides into that concrete fireplace.
But this is incredible.
This rock, you can see the strata all the way through
and it acts as a back plate here on the fire
so the heat will bounce off, into the room.
This is so thrilling to be in.
It's really, erm... it's a work of art.
By shaping the house around the cliff face,
the architect has created a series of volumes that redefine our notion
of what rooms are.
This isn't simply one big house subdivided by internal walls,
this is more a series of interlinked spaces and pods
built around the rock.
The entrance leads you to a huge double-height main living space
with its striking exposed rock face.
Then, traversing the mountain is a dining area and an open-plan kitchen
that flow out onto a deck and an infinity pool
that overhang the cliff face.
And, of course, there's a sauna.
A level up, held up on timber columns,
are five bedrooms with their own balconies.
A green roof, and those incredible views across the fjord.
Look at this.
I think this is probably the greatest house I've ever been in
and I've only been here for a few moments.
This place is like a seven-year-old has been given a massive uplift
in their pocket money and they have been allowed to build
whatever they want in their treehouse.
I like that seven-year-old.
I am that seven-year-old! I love it.
And what have we here?
I don't know.
Yes, I do know.
It's a sauna.
It's ludicrously good, this house.
The man responsible for this design is Jan Jensen, whose award-winning
projects have earned him an international reputation.
His work draws on Norwegian modernism while connecting deeply
with the landscape.
This is a steep slope with masses of trees, a dense tree canopy,
limited access. Tell me about beginning to fit
the building to this.We tried, as much as possible,
to adjust the building to the site, not the opposite way,
which is the usual way in architecture.
What about the experience of being in this forest?
I think, for me and the client, one important aspect was the memory
of play when they were a small boy,
they built small houses up in the trees.
It is kind of this dream of this extreme freedom you had
to do anything up there.
This site came with real difficulties - and translating
a complex set of ideas into a built structure was a huge challenge.
With such limited access, the largest components
had to be airlifted in.
With an 800kg limit on what could be carried,
it took 17 separate flights.
And just getting the scaffold up in 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 house three or four metres away from this
and have the concrete walls here, for instance.
I think, probably, you would have a lot of the same qualities,
but not the wall. We try to make all our buildings in the way
that they could not be repeated.
It's more like a painting, an original,
than something you can duplicate.
Allowing the cliff face to flow into the living room
meant cutting a perfectly straight channel
before making wooden templates and individual glass panels to fit.
So that all you can see is either glass, or rock, and no frame.
There's very little that's concealed here.
There are no finishes that I can see anywhere, that stops a material
reading as the material itself.
That's quite unusual.
It's not finished in the conventional way
that most architecture is finished.
Fairly basic materials like plywood are all on display
with steel and glass.
Even the staircase is cold, exposed mild steel,
but with a leather binding that adds warmth.
I think it is beautiful that you have individual steps.
All of them are different if you look at them.
If you paint them, that individuality will disappear.
For me, it has a kind of poetry in it, that you do not conceal
the history of everything.
I think it gives the architecture a richness that you cannot get
when you conceal everything.
The entire experience of this house is a revelation.
Even usually mundane spaces, like the kitchen,
are adventurous and dramatic.
I can imagine myself having dinner here with the family.
There's a brilliant inset of slate here to put your hot pot on,
your casserole, your coq au vin.
And I love this.
All it is, is a series of LEDs into a steel and wooden frame.
It's truly beautiful.
In fact, I wouldn't have supper here with my family,
I'd have supper here with George Clooney.
George, pass the cider.
Much of this building's vitality is in the materials,
whether refined or raw.
Like the thousands of split shingles which add to the tree house feel,
and connect you directly to the forest outside.
And you've used cedar shingles on the outside?
It's the core of the pine trees.
It keeps for a long time, much longer than the outer part
of the wood. It's cut by an axe, that's why it is kind of rugged.
The reason is that it will keep for a much longer time
because we don't cut the fibres.
This is a super old tradition in Norway, and actually,
the Vikings did the same thing.
It's in the bedroom pods where you really feel the sensation
of living in the tree canopy,
and with no curtains one could easily spot the Vikings coming up
the fjords 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, just sitting up in the treetops.
I'd love to wake up here,
hear the early morning birdsong and the sunlight filtering
through the pines.
BIRDS SINGING
Just the peace.
I don't really think you can ask for much more from a bedroom
than be in your own little nest, a little aerie,
on top of a pine tree.
Looking down on everything.
What you haven't got, which I've got, is the brilliant smell of pine.
Utterly enchanting.
This close relationship to nature was an essential aspect
to Jan's design, who resisted suggestions to dynamite the bedrock
to make the construction simpler.
If you took this building away in five years, ten years, 50 years,
what would the site be like? Almost as it was.
I think, for us, it is a great ideal to do something
and then you can reverse it, just like when you pitch a tent
in the forest.
That's the way we think about architecture.
The house may sit here as lightly as a tent
but it's a lot more comfortable.
This place connects one so dynamically to nature.
It's both visceral and invigorating.
Everything here is out of the ordinary.
I've discovered the coolest box of matches have ever seen in my life.
That is a firelighter and a match all rolled up in one
in a beautiful box. That's all I want for Christmas forever.
What you do with that is light it and then that is your firelighter.
You put it in your woodpile.
And there, in a minute, will be a beautiful fire.
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 redefines
what a house and a room can be.
We're so fixated of what a room is,
my living room, it's got four walls, and a door into it.
This doesn't have four walls or a door into it,
it's a completely different sort of space.
I mean, it's saying a lot, this house,
but what does this house say about Norwegian architecture?
It says that you don't always have to hark back to an idea
about the past and a vernacular.
It says, to be specific and rooted in one context,
you can respond to the actual fabric of the geography
and there you have a truly Norwegian house
because it couldn't be anywhere else.
From a home born of the Norwegian natural landscape to one
that strays furthest from many Norwegian norms and traditions.
Next, we are going to Ottestad,
a picturesque, charming lakeside community.
And with such typically Norwegian surroundings,
we could only arrive in the traditional way.
I have never done Nordic Pole walking before.
You couldn't tell, you handle it beautifully.
But then you wouldn't know if I was doing it wrong.
You don't know, I might be a Nordic Pole expert, for all you know.
This is the biggest lake in Norway, Piers.
It's quite extraordinarily beautiful and yet, somehow,
really quite suburban.I quite like it that, even in the suburbs,
you have the wilderness right here.
These elegant homes are exactly what we'd expect to find in Norway.
But we're here to visit a family who dared to be different.
Not at all what I was expecting in this environment.
Solid and resolute, Concrete House stands proudly over the lake,
with its facade of seemingly random openings sitting defiantly
in cold, grey concrete among its neighbours.
OK, what's the first adjective that springs to mind?
Harsh.I think quirky.
Quirky, OK.
Hospital is another word that springs to mind.
Quirky hospital.Brutal hospital.
Why hospital?Well, it just reminds me of all the hospitals
I've ever visited, really.It would be great if they were this good.
Mm, I'm not bowled over.
For me, the clinical exterior isn't very inviting
but if Piers has taught me anything about architecture,
it's not to judge a book by its cover.
Oh!
This is lovely in here.
I'm really surprised because it wasn't love at first sight,
for me, at all.
# I am beautiful no matter what they say. #
From outside, I couldn't understand what was going on in here.
But it makes sense, and it's beautiful.
# I am beautiful, in every single way
# Yes, words can't bring me down
# Oh, oh, no
# So don't you bring me down today. #
It's quite church-like in here.
I'm surprised because the dimensions and proportions,
are normal domestic proportions. Except for the height.
Maybe it's that. There's a sort of cathedral-like quality.
It's very peaceful.
Isn't it?
So quiet.I've never experienced this type of quiet in my house.
I quite like it.Too many children.
Not enough doors!There's something about the masonry,
the heaviness of this concrete that gives you a sense of that silence.
I love the turn of the stairs,
they make me want to quietly go upstairs, and explore upstairs.
I'm going to check out these ones... OK...see where we end up.
Yeah, give me a shout.
You'd never guess from the outside, but, internally,
the house has a simple three-storey layout.
Dug into a sloping site, the ground floor is a large guest suite
with enclosed terrace and storage.
The main family spaces are raised up on the first floor
with an open-plan kitchen, dining, living room and library
that face the lake.
There's also a TV room, a family wardrobe and garage.
Above, along with the laundry room,
are three bedrooms organised around an open landing that looks down
onto the living spaces below, and to the lake outside.
This actually made my heart beat a little faster,
because we're not just double height here,
it's a very, very long distance between this balcony
and then the drop into the atrium,
into the kitchen downstairs and then there's another floor,
I can see, downstairs.
It is quite exciting, actually.
I've just seen what I think is going to be my favourite window,
in the whole house. And in it, I've just got a perfect golden section
of land, boats, little bit of sky.
And then that wonderful lake.
I think I've found my favourite place in the house.
But the windows here do so much more than selectively framing views.
Often, you might think a window is just a window
and you stick it in the middle of a wall, and you're done.
But, here, that is an eccentric window which is just about bringing
a very diffused light into the bedroom - allows you,
when you are in bed, to see the sky. There is a ventilation panel,
there's a few down to where the boats are.
Then there is a composed view,
a beautiful picture of the headland opposite.
And, then, of course, when you're lying in bed,
there is this south-facing window which is the solar gain you get,
to heat the room up.
It's a perfect study in how to make a series of openings
that bring a room to life.
There's very little colour used here.
Like a gallery, walls are predominantly white.
But whether it's the main living spaces or 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 colour, 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 bedroom and a little girl's bedroom.
What have you got?I've just been enjoying the multiple ways
you can get around this building.
You don't need all these staircases but they're great.
I love the theatre of them popping out and,
you know, being able to say, "Hello."
Is it more fun than you thought it was going to be?
Yeah, much more fun.
I mean, it looks like quite an austere house but, actually,
on top of that, there's also this layer of playfulness and whimsy,
which I think is really quite unexpected in Norway.
It's wonderful that the windows are set so far forward
that you get so much reflection.
You do. All of these windows just become mirrors for the landscape.
I'll see you downstairs.
OK. See you in a bit.
In a place like this,
it's obvious that the main living spaces should face the view
and the light, making the spaces at the back harder to resolve.
SHE WHOOPS WITH EXCITMENT
I never knew a simple TV room could be so pleasing.
This is so cool.
Just when I was being fooled into thinking this is quite a domestic,
quite, you know, homely, in a way sort of ordinary home,
you've suddenly got a little telly room like this.
Tucked away.And it's comfy.
It's so comfy.
This carpet, of course,
which wraps up and makes somewhere comfortable to sit on,
also is there because it's good acoustically.
Deadens the sound.And there's obviously some acoustic thing
happening with the ceiling. I quite like the way the telly
doesn't dominate the house. You just go into a glorified cupboard.
Yeah.Covered in carpet to go and watch telly.
Yeah. Shut the door.
Children out there, adults in here.
A pint.
Gin and tonic. A pint of gin and tonic?
OK.
This hard exterior hides an interior that is human, relaxed and informal.
But, back in 2005, all that was here was a dilapidated house for sale.
For Tom Olaf and his wife, Urda, this was the opportunity
of a lifetime, to be able to live by the lake,
but their new house would not only dwarf what was there originally,
it would also raise a few eyebrows.
This is a house that is not like its neighbours, and totally unlike
traditional, Norwegian, suburban architecture.
What do your neighbours think of this house?
Well, I guess some of them like it and some don't.
The worst thing we have heard is maybe that someone asks,
"What is this? Is this a prison?"
So, the people are not so used to concrete, I guess.
We have always liked concrete.
The architect here said we 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 begin in your own mind?
When I was a small boy, I was always interested in minimalistic houses,
minimalistic design. So, this is my dream.
The architect entrusted to deliver that dream was Carl-Viggo Holmebakk,
who was clearly not afraid to challenge convention.
When I first approached the house this morning,
I was surprised at how austere it was, how almost...
..uninviting.
I think the exterior of the house has a sculptural quality
to it and we worked a lot to almost try to erase the traditional image
of a building, of storeys, all the windows floating in the facade.
It does something also with the scale, because you can't understand
how many floors it is.
We're used to saying, "Oh, that must be a bathroom
"because it's a small window. That must be a bedroom."
This house plays with your sense of space 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, again, this idea started to come that maybe it would be
even 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 really very well thought about.
It's not just a random composition of funny windows.
In a country with such a strong tradition of timber construction,
building with concrete was always going to be a risk.
The contractors were effectively learning during the process,
casting huge slabs, more typical of building car parks than homes.
These lessons proved expensive for Tom and Urda,
doubling their budget, and tripling the duration
of the building process.
How long did it take from start to finish?
Um... Five years, I think.
It was, you know, at times quite frustrating
but now we are satisfied, at least.
What do you think your favourite place in this house is?
What we love most about the house, I guess,
is the ability to look at nature
and also watch the different seasons change.
These kind of big windows were supposed to be like paintings,
new picture on every wall, kind of like art.
Concrete House is a home and a gallery,
where the architect has curated some of nature's finest work.
Spending the day here, it's easy to see how living
amongst these masterpieces is an endless joy.
But then, this house is a bit of a masterpiece in itself.
I don't feel the same about it now.
You feel a bit friendlier towards it?Yeah, I do.
It's very interesting, you know, your,
or one's perception of something can change, I mean,
so dramatically, really.
It's austere on the outside, but on the inside it is rather lovely.
A bit like you, Piers.
Are you saying I'm not lovely on the outside?
No, you are, you're lovely but you can be quite austere,
and a bit unnerving. What do you mean?I know on the inside,
you're as soft as anything, you know? But, actually,
you just take a bit of getting used to.
I've had enough of these.
What is Nordic walking anyway?
I don't know. I don't want anything to do with it.No idea.
Sick of it. Let's do English walking.
Unfortunately, walking, Nordic or otherwise,
won't help us get to our final home.
We're heading for the wild, western coast, to Fosnavog,
a region renowned for outdoor living and, of course, fjords.
So, if I was to envisage my perfect little harbour in Norway,
this would be it.Hard to beat.
And it's here that we've arranged to meet Peter,
the owner of our final home.
He's giving us a lift, as the house is only accessible by boat.
Thank you very much. Does this work for you?
Yeah, I think so. As long as I don't have to do the splits
to get on it, I'll be all right.
Whoops!
I'll try not to push you here.Good.
Is it a very long journey, Peter? No, it's not long, 100 metres.
100 metres.Could have swum.
It's there.
It's very mysterious, Peter.
It's very closed off.
It's like it's got its eyes shut.
Not welcoming at all.
Our destination for the night is a home on its own island,
designed as the ultimate weatherproof bolthole.
# Sail away with me, honey
# Hold my heart in your hands. #
It's only a short boat trip across the water,
but it feels a million miles away from the rest of the world.
I'm not entirely sure I believe you it is a house. I think we're
going to end up going in, there will be a load of sardines in there.
I think we're about to be abandoned for the night here, aren't we?
Thank you. I think we are.
So, Caroline, the keys. Thank you very much.
Is there anything we need to know about the house?
You open it up.Open it up, OK.
And maybe the fact that the last house that was here blew away
in a stormy night.The last house that was here blew away?!
Bye-bye. Enjoy.
The weather's looking a bit peaky as well, isn't it?
See the clouds coming in?
Storm clouds are gathering.
I don't care how handsome you are,
it's a rude way to leave a lady on an island.
I think this looks like a pretty robust house, though, Caroline,
even if there is a storm coming.
You don't have any idea how we're meant to actually open it up?
This is a front door, I think.
This one's not going to get blown away in a storm. It's really heavy.
This gives battening down the hatches a new level of meaning,
doesn't it?
I thought it was just going to be a window but actually you go straight
into the house. It's extraordinary so far, isn't it?
The owners wanted to be able to use their holiday home all year round,
so it needed to cope with extreme weather.
The architect designed a building that totally transforms
as soon as it's opened up.
You've got to be happy with this.
This is one of the best entrances to a house.
I don't know whether it's because of where we come from
but we are trained to going up a 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,
it's so... I don't know. Let me think.
It's so like Peter.
It's a very handsome building.
The architects faced two challenges.
Not only did the house have to sit directly on the existing footprint
of the boathouse that blew away,
it also had to pack in everything an inaccessible house would need.
They designed a three-storey packing case of steel, glass and timber.
The form is straightforward.
On the ground floor is an open-plan kitchen, dining and living room.
Above, divided by two floating staircases, are the bedrooms
for family and guests. And, on top, an open-plan attic space.
The remarkable part, beside its position, is the heavy-duty outer
shell, protecting the whole structure with 17 timber shutters
that can be opened and closed, depending on the weather.
There's nothing lightweight about this place, is there?
Nothing at all.It's really beefy.
Every aspect of it.
Everything weighs a lot.
Everything's heavy and extremely well made.
More things to move... 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 is completely assaulted as you come in.
It's fantastic.
The robust shell is in stark contrast to the soft,
honey hued interior.
It's breathtaking.
The minute you come inside, you feel safe, you're out of the elements.
This is a good space, isn't it?
It's quite a modest space at the same time.
It isn't huge. And it's interesting how this staircase structures this
space. So, this is the device by which these areas are zoned.
This staircase is magically floating in the air.
I don't imagine that's just because it looks great.
I think it's also because, presumably,
this concrete floor could take a huge amount of water washing in
and 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 like I'm on this fantastic ferry, sailing out to sea.
Yes, it is. It's like being on board ship.
All the colours are so subtle.
This kind of pinkish, beautiful leather.
I like the fact that the warehouse roughness can co-exist with this...
Luxury. A luxurious item in the room.
It brings a whole new feel to the place, doesn't it?
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 design is, 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 is so beautifully made and everything is
bespoke. Even things like the shower screen.
This is a purpose-made shower screen that also doubles up as a light.
And things like the doors.
The doors are beautifully made sheets of plywood,
laminated together.
And things like the door catch is this lovely piece of leather
that takes this little stainless steel fitting at the end of it.
And that's the door lock.
It's beautiful, beautiful.
Time to choose my bedroom.
I think I'm going to go in...
Yeah, this one. Ooh!
And I'd like to be able to see the sea.
Um... how does this work?
METAL CLANKING
Sounds like a ship, doesn't it?
There's no need for a gym up here.
You could have biceps like Fatima Whitbread.
From the bedrooms to the attic space, everything is so substantial,
yet cosy.
It almost makes the idea of sleeping on a rock
in the middle of the sea seem sensible.
CORK POPS
Ah, that's for me.
Have some glasses.Yes, please.
Big ones?Yeah, I think I will.
Thank you.
All this stuff you could just bolt together from stuff
you could buy in your hardware store in Devon.
This house isn't afraid to take things that anyone can get
and make something really special out of them.
It knows where to spend its money, doesn't it?
The mood of this place has altered since the sunset, hasn't it?
Looking out there I can see the twinkling lights of houses,
on the mainland, and still hear the water.
The character of the building has altered dramatically.
Whereas in most houses, you shut the blinds, shut the curtains,
and that would be it. You carry on as if it was daytime.
Can you imagine this in midsummer,
where there's only three hours of twilight?
What an extraordinary place that would be to be in!
And the equivalent in winter, with just three hours of daylight.
Again, those are the rhythms that give this place its light.
It feels such a privilege to be here, doesn't it?
I am really pleased that Caroline likes it.
The best architecture often needs a bit of time to appreciate.
And, after a good night's sleep,
I can totally see the attraction of living on a rock.
There's not a lot to do, which, for me, is just perfect.
But, for action man...
You can't be by the sea and not go in for a swim.
Are you going in?
I'm not sure how crazy this is.
I think I'm going to have to go straight in.
It's gorgeous. It's truly gorgeous.
I do recommend it, Caroline.
Hmm, I prefer the Mediterranean.
You look like a little seal pup.
I'm going to struggle to get out now.
He's a funny little dude, isn't he?
And, if a dip in the chilly waters of the Norwegian Sea doesn't appeal,
the other pastime here is fishing.
Hi. Morning.While Piers defrosts,
owners Peter and Marianna drop by to share their catch of the day.
Very good. Hello.
You must be Marianna.
Good morning. Lovely to meet you two.
Thank you so much for bringing our lunch with you.
Do you want to pick them out?
How do I do that?Just take the lobster there out the bag.
Let's take him first.
OK, so that's so it doesn't...
That's good.
He's a big 'un.
The island has belonged to Peter's family for generations.
It used to be a boathouse for a fishing boat.
The foundation was here and eight, nine... nine years ago,
I got the idea, maybe we should build something here.
It wasn't built here. It was built off-site, wasn't it?
Yeah, and that was difficult to find something to build it, actually.
It was a challenge.
After a while, we finally found a local entrepreneur who said,
I'll take the challenge.
Building on the tiny island was always going to be
a logistical nightmare.
Concrete to strengthen the foundations had to be airlifted in.
Meanwhile, the entire house was being constructed in the shipyard
on the mainland, a few miles down the coast.
Then came the difficulty of getting the house to the island.
We used an offshore vessel crane to lift it.
They lifted it by crane...
Yeah. Onto a barge.
Onto a barge, OK.And then it was tugged out here.
It's must have been so exciting. It was.
Weather here is unpredictable and the team had to wait six weeks
for a day calm enough to make their move.
Were you nervous it could go wrong?
I'm sure some of the people here were 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.
As they lowered the 70 tonnes of house onto its foundations,
the weather broke.
Welders had to weld it in place during a storm.
It wouldn't be the last time the 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...I lost one boat.
Yes, we lost one boat actually. The small boat went down.
Must have been a serious storm. It was hurricane strength.
I'm glad you've tested it at full strength.
It's a fortress really here, isn't it?
It is.It really has the feeling of a fortress.
You feel it can take anything the weather throws at it.
You're both typically Norwegian people.
You're fantastically good-looking.
Was there any point when you thought,
let's make the whole thing out of mirrors,
so we can look at ourselves?
No, we didn't.
I shall be sad to say goodbye to this house.
It's just a joy from beginning to end.
I think what's special about this house is the way
that it solves problems in the most practical and straightforward way,
just like the Vikings did.
They're a seafaring nation and you can tell by this build, can't you?
You really can.What are we taking away from this extraordinary
environment and these wonderful houses?
I think Norway is a really unusual country in that landscape, weather,
climate, culture, geography, geology,
is under all of their skin, all of the time, in everything they do.
And that's so evident in all of the buildings.
These four buildings have been very different from one another,
but something binds them together.
And I think it's an appreciation of landscape.
We've seen the evolution of that wonderful little Norwegian cottage
into some of the most extraordinary 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.
Next time, we're in Israel, where inventive,
modern homes play with culture and tradition.
From a stunning city house carved out of the hillside...
This is clearly what it's all about.
It's all about the rock. It's all about the rock.
To luxury living by the Med...
This is one seriously glamorous boudoir.
..as we go in search of the world's extraordinary homes.
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