This entry in the 'House' category for the World Architecture Awards couldn't get more idylic if it tried.

Designed by Norwegian architecture firm JVA, this is a small house (around 150 square metres) for two historians and their children, overlooking lake Mjøsa in Toten, Norway.

The site is an abandoned farm which was inherited by the client. Sadly the existing barn had to be torn down because the main load bearing construction was rotten, but the cladding of the barn, more than 100 years old, was still of good quality and was re-used for the exterior cladding and terraces of the new house.

The spatial complexity, exposed construction, and material simplicity of the barn also inspired and informed the new architecture. From the main entrance to the south, the interior organisation has a dual focus, both opening the whole facade towards the lake to the north, and at the same time stepping the central space downwards to the terrace at the west side of the house. The series of common spaces at these sloping axes are visually connected, opening the full length of the house.

Above, there is a children’s loft, below the parent’s part of the house. The main section rises towards the south to allow for the low winter sun to enter the building. The glazed and lofty winter garden works as a heat collector at winter time, and heat buffer for the rest of the house at summer time. And to keep the inhabitants cosy, 40 cm of rock wool insulation was placed in the roof construction, 20 cm in the walls and water based underfloor heating combined with a wood burning stove was installed for added snug value.

Photography: Nils Petter Dale