helen & hard revives viking boatbuilding with whole-tree cabin on norway’s atlantic coast

18 spruce trees become the structural frame

On a rocky headland in Randaberg, Norway, 18 whole spruce trees rise through Helen & Hard’s Cabin Sande, their root systems branching across the ceiling where columns meet beams. Studio founders Reinhard Kropf and Siv Helene Stangeland built the 112-square-meter retreat as their own cabin after twelve years of sketching and refinement. It replaces a 1970s cabin on the same site, where local planning restrictions required the replacement to stay within the earlier footprint and height. From outside, the low form sits close to the rock. Inside, the trees give the home its structure and much of its character.

Helen & Hard looked to Norwegian boatbuilding traditions dating back to the Viking Age for those junctions. Shipbuilders used naturally curved sections where trunk meets root to strengthen the ribs of wooden vessels. For Cabin Sande, each spruce was excavated with its roots intact, cleaned and air-dried for eight months before being scanned. Digital models mapped the irregular forms, then robots milled fitted joints directly from the roots so each tree could work within the column-and-beam system.

images © Sindre Ellingsen (unless otherwise stated)

a fan-shaped plan opens toward the atlantic

Four rows of columns spread across Helen & Hard’s Cabin Sande in a fan-shaped formation, which opens the main room toward the western horizon. Cantilevered roof beams meet in pairs above the space and span a horizontal opening more than nine meters wide toward the Atlantic, leaving the sea view uninterrupted. At the opposite end, the plan narrows toward an entrance facing the garden and morning sun. A long sightline runs straight through the cabin, with vegetation at one end and open water at the other.

The roof projects beyond the glazing to shelter the interior from the Atlantic weather, while concealed tension cables and springs help support the cantilever. Continuous glass wraps much of the perimeter, so changing light and coastal conditions stay visible from across the room. Below, a stone plinth uses rock found on the site, while the planted roof follows the surrounding topography and keeps the building low against the headland.

Cabin Sande sits on a rocky headland overlooking Norway’s Atlantic coast

the timber frame becomes the interior

The main living area occupies the broad center of the plan, with the kitchen along one side and two workspaces along the other. One workspace rises half a level above the bathroom, giving the compact interior a shift in section without breaking up the larger room. The spruce structure continues into bookshelves and benches, then into room dividers and window frames. Columns and built-ins share the same timber language, so the cabin reads as one continuous piece of construction instead of a frame filled later with separate furniture.

Closer to the sea, the broad glass opening pulls the horizon deep into the room. Along the side zones, branching timber creates smaller places for sitting and working while the central space stays open toward the water. The root forms remain visibly irregular after robotic milling, keeping each tree legible in the finished cabin. Digital fabrication works here by accepting those irregularities: the scans make each joint precise while the structure still reads as eighteen individual trees.

eighteen whole spruce trees form the cabin’s branching timber structure

the spruce trees were excavated with their roots intact before digital scanning

a broad opening extends across the living space toward the western sea horizon

robotic milling shaped bespoke joints directly from each irregular root system | image © Ivar Kvaal

project info:

name: Cabin Sande

architect: Helen & Hard Architects | @helenhardarchitects

location: Randaberg, Norway
area: 112 square meters
year: 2025

photography: © Sindre Ellingsen, Ivar Kvaal

lead architects: Reinhard Kropf, Siv Helene Stangeland
design team: Reinhard Kropf, Siv Helene Stangeland, Njål Undheim, Håvard Auklend
structural engineering: Aanesland Treindustri

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