House at Nøtterøy by KOHT Arkitekter
House at Nøtterøy sits on a small hilltop in Norway, its compact house form tuned to a tight plot and a family budget. Designed by KOHT Arkitekter, the two-level home shares a dialogue with an adjacent main house while carving its own clear plan. A reserved exterior gives way to a generous, open upper level arranged for daily life and long views.
Morning light washes the green timber cladding, catching the edges of six square openings. A quiet hilltop plot sets the scene for a compact, carefully sequenced home.
This is a two-level house in Norway by KOHT Arkitekter, planned for a family of four on a subdivided island plot. The throughline is movement and order: a tight lower level and a fluid, circular upper level connected by a double-height void that gathers circulation, work, and living into one legible core.
Climb and Arrival
Entry lands within a tall, daylit volume. An oak stair rises through the center, pulling the eye to a large skylight that pours light into the heart of the plan and down to the lower rooms. This vertical void absorbs multiple roles—entrance, stair, corridor, and workspace—so movement and program braid together without dead ends.
Fissure as Heart
The double-height zone acts as the house’s hinge. It channels people between levels while holding a generous landing where everyday tasks spill into conversation and pause. Here the architecture nods to the idea of “fissure space,” letting circulation carry value beyond transit, with daylight animating walls and floors over the course of the day.
Circular Daily Loop
Below, the embedded level is efficient and calm. Three bedrooms, a family room, a bathroom, and a fitness area loop off the stair, kept quiet by the earth’s embrace and a polished concrete floor. Above, the main floor works as a single open room for cooking, lounging, working, and sleeping, set by four full-height sliding oak doors that register a 2.65-meter (8.69-foot) ceiling line. Those doors set subtle thresholds, so the plan reads as a continuous loop rather than a string of closed rooms.
Edges and Outlook
Six large square windows cut clean frames toward town and the Slottsfjellet hill. Views also turn inward to shifting tree canopies, layering near and far to balance intimacy with reach. Outdoor access lands on both levels, and a later spiral stair climbs to a rooftop terrace with expansive sightlines, extending the internal circuit vertically.
Quiet Material Cues
Materials steady the sequence without noise. Oak boards run across the main level (limestone in the bathroom), with white-painted walls and oak-trimmed openings guiding movement by tone rather than walls. Downstairs, locally aggregated polished concrete sets a tougher register for bedrooms and family time, while vertical painted timber, aluminum-framed windows, and solid-oak exterior doors keep the outside measured.
By late afternoon, the skylight thins its beam across the stair. The route from ground to roof reads as one clear line of steps, rooms, and vistas—roof terrace included—where circulation shapes daily life.
Photography by Ruben Ratkusic
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