For hikers journeying into the Arctic Circle, this small mountain cabin in Norway provides much needed warmth and shelter. The project is the first of two warming huts designed to promote hiking in the town of Hammerfest. The brief called for a small mountaintop structure that aligned with the existing landscape. The cabin includes a wood burning stove, simple seating, and views of the arctic terrain below.

The project was commissioned by the Hammerfest chapter of the Norwegian Trekking Association (DNT), who tasked Norwegian firm SPINN Arkitekter with designing the cabin. To translate their sketches of an organic wooden shell into reality, the architects at SPINN contacted FORMAT engineers to help them produce a structure that could be manufactured precisely enough to be built on top of a mountain by a group of local volunteers.
The shelter is a wooden cross-laminated timber shell with 77 unique panels that fit together like a 3D puzzle. The design was then tested against simulated wind conditions to make sure that it would withstand winter arctic storms and extreme wind conditions, while remaining snow-free.

The volunteers spent over 1,500 hours on the construction of one cabin, plus the outer cladding for both. The only professional work on the project was the two-layer bitumen waterproofing of the shell, and the pouring of the foundation on site. Split into two pieces, the first cabin was loaded onto a flat ...