This Elusive Green Home Was Designed to Fit Perfectly in the Icelandic Hillside

This Green Home Was Designed to Fit Perfectly in the Icelandic Hillside

Nestled in the hills overlooking the Icelandic lake of Þingvallavatn sits a camouflaged home called Thingvallavatn House. This modern abode was designed by architecture firm KRADS as a holiday home for musicians Tina Dickow and Helgi Hrafn Jónsson. To help blend the building into the natural site, the architects designed green roofs for each of the three built volumes and completed the facades in black wood panels.

In order for the home to really become a part of the landscape, it required more than simply picking natural materials and textures. The placement of the structure and the levels within had to be carefully designed in conjunction with existing topography. “In dialogue with the terrain, the concrete foundation of the wooden house lies in three staggered planes that follow the movement of the landscape,” describes KRADS. “In a similar manner, the roof surface, overgrown with local grass and moss slopes partly towards and partly with the hill.”

As areas of function in the home were determined, the designers carefully planned the orientation of each of these spaces to preserve views of the incredible natural world around them. Most obviously, the entire building is lifted to allow for a better vantage point of Þingvallavatn, the Icelandic lake, as well as the mountains beyond it. Large glass panels facing southwest give the house breathtaking glimpses of the Jórutindur and Hátindur mountains.

Even if you don’t know the names of these Icelandic mountains, it is hard not to appreciate a home that is so carefully designed for its context. The owners can look over this pristine hillside from the freely growing green roofs or the wooden dick visible from the aerial photos below.

If you love green roofs and the way this home blends seamlessly into the world around it, be sure to check out other similar projects on My Modern Met like NCaved House, This Camouflaged Nordic Hotel, and Black Villa.