It isn’t hard to understand why the Scandinavian architecture’s simple design interests many. The lines are often simple and fitting, to allow space for light, nature and people. We will take a closer look at three Scandinavian masterpieces that inspire us, and that we think everyone should know about.

Noma, Copenhagen - BIG

Other than EL Bulli, Noma is perhaps one of the world’s most fabled restaurants, which has been named the world’s best restaurant four times. When the restaurant owner and Chef René Redzepi informed that Noma was going to shut, the whole food world was in shock. But Noma was soon launched again, and this time Redzepi acquired help from the world leading Danish architect: Bjarke Ingels, who runs Bjarke Ingels Group. The three star restaurant is even a type of urban farm, where Noma have chosen to grow everything that they serve at the restaurant. The style is stripped down, where wood and bricks meet in harmony with water and the surrounding natural environment.

Villa Sundin, Hudiksvall - Greta Magnusson Grossman

Greta Magnusson Grossman is the Swedish designer and architect that is best known for the Grasshopper lamp which she designed in 1947. Since then the lamp has gained an iconic status around the world, and it is sometimes easy to forget that Magnusson Grossman was also an architect. In the 1940s, she moved to Los Angeles, where she quickly became influential and known for her ability to design houses on remote land plots with steep slopes. The only house she designed outside of the USA is a Villa Sundin in Hudiksvall, where the light floods in through the large windows, and where the house is nearly completely open plan.

Writers House Vega, Norway - Kolman Boye Architects

The Stockholm based architect duo: Erik Kolman Janouch and Victor Boye Julebäk, who run Kolman Boye Architects received an odd request from someone in Oslo, to design a house in one of the most remote places in the Scandinavia. The Writers House Vega is located on the island of Vega, which is approximately 100km from the polar circle, and very far from Oslo. The wooden house, if one can call it that, was finished in 2014 and melts seamlessly into the surrounding mountains, with its grey toned wood. The man who requested the house was born and raised on the island, which is surrounded by an archipelago that is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. To allow the house to blend in to the surroundings, Kolman Boye Architects gathered inspiration from the islands many boathouses.



Read more: Three Architectural Masterpieces Everyone Should Know & Three Architectural Masterpieces Everyone Should Know, part II