A house made of wooden off-cuts from floor production

Called Saltviga House, located in southeast Norway, the recreational home by Swedish architectural firm Kolman Boye Architects is built using oak and Douglas off-cuts from Danish flooring company Dinesen.

In earlier projects and research, Kolman Boye Architects came across Dinesen, their floors and the leftover material. The floor off-cuts are commonly used as firewood.

The off-cuts were first sorted to size, quantity and quality. The architects then build several 1:1 mock-ups and researched stacking and layering combinations, along with technical properties.

The material differs from traditional split wooden shingles used in Norway. With the collective knowledge of carpenters, joiners, and suppliers, the over 12.000 pieces of wood were pre-cut to size with minimal waste, pre-drilled and pre-treated with tar before being transported to site. The oak pieces were then fastened to the façade using more than 20.000 stainless steel screws, while the Douglas pieces are used in the interior.

The building is adapted to the sloping ground as not to reshape the surrounding terrain, forming three volume that are situated on five different levels. Outside, the volumes create two spaces separated by an openable wind barrier. The oak wood on the exterior will turn slivery-grey over time. The Douglas keeps a warm whitish hue.

Photos: Johan Dehlin / Kolman Boye Architects