Passing by those homes that are sculpted into natural mountainsides, I can’t help but imagine what it must feel like waking up there, with miles of views and endless sky. Mountain homes really are marvels to look at and inside, they’re as cozy as it gets– the ideal holiday home. KRADS, an architectural studio based in Denmark and Iceland recently finished work on a client’s very own holiday home nestled away somewhere in the mountains of southwestern Iceland, perched above Lake Þingvallavatn.
Being the second-largest natural lake in Iceland, the views overlooking Lake Þingvallavatn are sweeping, especially from the vantage point of Tina Dickow’s and Helgi Jónsson’s holiday home. The pair of performing artists worked with KRADS to creatively integrate their holiday home into the lake’s surrounding mountainous terrain, forming intentional views of the natural, dense landscape and nearby Lake Þingvallavatn. To integrate the holiday home into this part of southwestern Iceland’s mountainous region, KRADS built concrete foundations in three staggered planes that follow the topography of the hilly landscape, building on the rest of the home’s frame from there.
Following the movement of the natural landform, KRADS planned the holiday home’s location and structure according to the changing slopes and leafy wooded area that surrounds it. By adapting to the natural landform, the holiday home’s views are endless when taken in from the accessible rooftop. Further embedding the holiday home into its encompassing woodland, the rooftops of each staggered plane are overgrown with moss, shrubbery, and local grasses, sloping partly towards and partly with the bordering hillside. Preserving the natural landscape was a top priority for KRADS and the home’s residents, exhibited through the home’s boundless green rooftop and KRADS’s seamless staggered approach to the home’s construction.
Designer: KRADS
From all sides, this holiday home is harmonious with the surrounding landscape.
Natural wood accents subdue and warm-up the brightness of the home’s optic white interior.
Throughout the home, separate rooms are delineated through the integration of furniture and natural sunlight.
“Towards North, the house rises above the low scrub to give an unobstructed view over Þingvallavatn and the mountain Skjaldbreið from the main room of the house.”
Expansive windows punctuate most corners of the holiday home to offer unobstructed views of Iceland’s second-largest natural lake.
A sunken living area enhances the holiday home’s coziness and brings the view of nearby Þingvallavatn feel even closer.
Outside, the holiday home is coated with a stealthy black exterior that fully dissolves into the mountainside come dark.
The holiday home was built on three staggered concrete planes.
“In the opposite direction [of the lake], the main room opens onto a south-west-facing terrace that is closely surrounded by trees.”
From an aerial viewpoint, the holiday home melds with the forest that surrounds it.
“Apart from the terrace, the immediate surroundings of the building are so densely vegetated that they are close to impenetrable.”
