reiulf ramstad's 'favn hafjell' is a modern norwegian ski town

a new mountain town in norway

Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter unveils its Favn housing complex designed for Norway‘s mountain town of Hafjell. The community is designed to house up to one thousand people, and is ‘rooted in both tradition and innovation.’ The architects draw from the best of the area’s cultural landscape — especially its familiar historic architecture — while also contributing to the development of environmentally-minded design and the building of sustainable structures amongst the Norwegian mountains for the future.

The project is the winning entry in a larger design competition — with its first two stages completed it will become a new community for those winter sports-lovers drawn to the mountain landscape of the ski town.

images © Kristian Aalerud

the winning entry by reiulf ramstad arkitekter

With Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter’s Favn community, Hafjell will become an exciting all-year-round destination in Norway. ‘Low threshold — High quality!‘ write the architects. The place will accommodate a variety of outdoor activities and will be a welcoming environment for all. It is designed with a focus on security, accessibility, and a high level of environmental well-being. On the whole, the masterplan will be organized as a grouping of large structures that are broken down into smaller, village-scale areas. Both indoors and outdoors, these intimate spaces will create with a sense of closeness to nature and a sense of belonging to the environment.

high quality, site-specific architecture

Visitors to Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter’s ‘Favn Hafjell’ will experience Norwegian culture, landscape, and architecture — all translated with a more contemporary lens. ‘The project must maintain a very high architectural quality and at the same time be pragmatically organized and economically feasible,’ the design team comments. ‘The experience of the meeting between the place’s distinctive character, future focus on building in the mountain landscape will be clarified through well-functioning and site-adapted buildings.’