Tag Archives: architecture

Architectural Digest: follow up (where we live)

I probably should have included it in the original architecture post (HERE). But for those who might be curious about what our house looks like, here’s a picture of it taken last year.As I mentioned before, we have been told that it was built around 1897.

The house is divided into two separate homes/apartment, and we live in the second floor apartment.
Just today I ran across a website with a few photos of our city (here). The fourth picture down was taken on our street, just a little south of our house.
And for those of you who are history buffs, we’ve also discovered something on YouTube. It is a chronological slideshow of Sandefjord, dating from 1870 – 2012. It is about 15 minutes long, so if you aren’t familiar with our city, it might be a little boring. But I found it quite interesting to see the city grow and change over the years!

Architectural Digest: Sandefjord Edition

We’ve had a number of people ask us what houses look like here in Norway. So on Sunday, we went for a walking tour of our neighborhood to show you a little of what we see around us.Architectural style can vary from fylke (county) to fylke. And of course, styles and methods change with time as well.

We live in Vestfold fylke, and while most of the homes around us have a similar style (more akin to the home where we live, a 2-story built around 1897), it is not hard to find some variety as well. And it doesn’t take more than a stroll to the next street north of us to see what we’re talking about. Go up the hill and take a left, and you just might feel like you’re walking through a very random issue of an architecture magazine.

This is the first we come to as we begin to turn off our street. An interesting house – very large – and a mix of stone and mortar. It looks impressive at night!

This style of home is fairly ordinary here: particularly the white with black roof combo. It must be nice to have that garage in the back!

When my mom and step-dad visited last year, they couldn’t get over the fact that much of Norway is rock. And what do you do when you want to build and there are rocks in the way? Just work around them, as was the case with this home.

Here is another angle of the house built on the rock. Reminds me of a parable in the Bible (you can read it HERE),

While most areas remain consistent in architectural style, this particular street really does exhibit a wide range of eras and materials. This structure appears to be at least two apartments (not at all uncommon: many homes here are multi-family homes), and was obviously built more recently than many of their neighbors.

Every time Zack and I walk past this house, it reminds us of Doc Brown’s house in Back to the Future. Great Scott!

It’s hard to see here, but I really like this modern home built on the hill.

Here, you can see how the houses are built regardless of elevation. They keep going up!

In another month or two, you won’t be able to see this one for all of the trees.

Zack and I like this one a lot. It has a bit of a German/alpine feel to me.

And the green roof here is fun.

You can occasionally spots a house with a grass roof. We don’t see them often in our area, but did see a little playhouse with one.

Finally, this one is on a different street. But we think the dragons are interesting – definitely has an Asian feel to it!

Do you see anything similar to homes where you live? Which one is your favorite?