Main Architecture and Design Troll’s Den in Snowy Mountains

Troll’s Den in Snowy Mountains

Mork-Ulnes Architects in January 2016 completed a warm, contemporary retreat in a ski village perched atop Lake Tahoe’s Donner Summit, in northern California. Troll Hus was commissioned by a retired couple as a second home for their three children and partners, and seven grandchildren. Detached from the terrain and attuned to its natural environment. A welcoming mountain haven for an extended family of fifteen, the home has a constant visual reference to nature.

Tucked away in the mountains and nestled into a high alpine forest, the design responds to the owners’ desire for a modernist, rather secluded refuge with a constant visual reference to nature. The site is, in this sense, rather atypical to a mountain setting in that it minimizes expansive lookouts, while in fact emphasizing views towards the glade intimacy of the adjacent landscape, thus allowing for the remote and sheltered retreat the clients were seeking.

His Norwegian origins very much influenced the way he conceived the house. Though definitely less small and basic, its simplicity recalls the log cabins of his childhood. It is Scandinavian practicality combined with Northern California’s ‘cando’ spirit of innovation that makes the house unique.

The building footprint was kept as compact as possible to settle quietly into the site, yet also capture filtered views of the surrounding landscape. The inspiring concept is that of a tree house that, as if suspended between treetops, seamlessly and ingeniously blends with its surroundings.

With a contemporary nod to the traditional mountain vernacular of the Arlberg Valley in Austria, that the architects had visited on more than one occasion and that has a wonderful tradition of modern alpine architecture, the essential diagram for the house is straightforward: take the alpine chalet building type and lift it onto a concrete plinth to protect it from the snow.

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