Lysefjorden, Norway

The Bolder

A night in the clouds

Six off-grid cabins float high above Norway’s Lysefjord. In these fully equipped, compact accommodations known as The Bolder Sky Lodges and Star Lodges you are as close to sleeping in the clouds as you will ever get. To draw the serenity of nature inside the cabins, a minimalistic design ethos with Vipp furniture and kitchen in natural and durable materials in earthy colors and organic textures welcomes the guests for an out of the ordinary experience.

Tom Norland, entrepeneur and owner

'My intention was to give visitors a front row view to one of the best-known fjords in the world. The border between inside and outside had to be blurred to convey the feeling of floating in nature.'

https://vipp.com/sites/default/files/the_bolder_lysefjorden_22-02.mov_1080p.mp4

video/mp4

Architecture on the edge

In 2010, Tom Norland bought 170 hectares of untouched land with unspoiled view. Initially, his plan was to build a series of smaller hermit huts, but he realized that this nature plot deserved something better. Something daring. With this brief, architect John Birger Grytdal from Norgeshus imagined a two-floor cube with floor to ceiling glazing wrapped in Canadian cedar wood balancing on one steel pillar drilled 3.5 meters into ground. Collectively the first two cabins are known as the Sky Lodges.

Ten years later, Tom embarked on the second chapter of The Bolder project by commissioning Norwegian architecture practice Snøhetta to draw four new one-room cabins. Four Star Lodges with the given names Stylten, Myra, Stjerna and Eldhuset are gently placed on the edge of Lysefjorden, built to blend in with the landscape.

At one with nature

To reflect the nature of the building site, dominated by granite and slow growing pine trees, Snøhetta chose to work with wood and concrete with aggregate from the actual site as the main materials for the project. The trees that had to be taken down during the construction have been set aside to be re-used for other parts of the projects, and the granite that has been cut out of the ground has been used to make the concrete for the construction.

Book at The Bolder

Cooking with a view

The Sky Lodges measure 22 square meters of living space and include kitchen and dining space, two double bedrooms and a bathroom. The interior is carefully curated to harmonise with the view: dark oak ceiling and walls, concrete flooring and a dark-toned décor dominates the space. Tom Norland chose the Danish design company Vipp for its timeless and functional design. The shop, Element Studio in Norway has provided the interior from Vipp ranging from kitchen, furniture and lighting to tableware and accessories.