Even with tunnels moling under fjords, it takes a long time to get anywhere in northern Norway. Imagine being an ant navigating from the base of your thumb to your pinky via the inside of each finger – that’s a little what it’s like, magnified by scenery that constantly pulls your vision from the road and multiplied by a kajillion. It makes for a meandering, slow journey – that kind that when you get there, you don’t want to leave for a while, if ever.

Hamran Johansen Architects in Oslo built Cabin Laksvatn with the travel in mind – it’s a place where the owners can bunk their whole family (there are nine beds) in a very small space (just 538 square feet), while still allowing openness and privacy, and never have to go very far for mountains, fjords, or trails. It’s located on the Lyngen Peninsula, whose name means quiet, still, or calm, and the overall feeling at the cabin is one of soothing, meditative lightness.

Photos by Ivan Brody and AndrÃ© Severin Johansen

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Weekend Cabin isn’t necessarily about the weekend, or cabins. It’s about the longing for a sense of place, for shelter set in a landscape…for something that speaks to refuge and distance from the everyday. Nostalgic and wistful, it’s about how people create structure in ways to consider the earth and sky and their place in them. It’s not concerned with ownership or real estate, but what people build to fulfill their dreams of escape. The very time-shortened notion of “weekend” reminds that it’s a temporary respite.