Eldhus

In a west-facing slope a hundred meters above the fjord lays a small, traditional apple farm. In the barn are rows of apple crates bearing the number “63” and ladders are stacked aloft. A few steps away stands the walls that once encircled one of the farm’s most important buildings, the smoke house, or Eldhuset in Norwegian. Once a common sight within the region of Hardanger, they are little more than a reminder of heydays gone by.

Within Eldhusets scarce twenty square meters there was full activity from spring to autumn. Baking “Krotakaker” and flatbread, smoking meat and brewing beer were only some of the activities hosted within. The days in the smokehouse were long and tedious but important as it’s production fed everyone on the farm. The smoke house’s cold stone walls and bare bedrock provided the family with a refuge during hot summer days and damp nights.

We want to revive the once so important smokehouse on the farm Tveit Nordre. Eldhuset has previously been a place where people met and worked together, something which has long since been forgotten. Today, with little or no necessities of food production it needs a new feature. Realizing that some adaptions had to be made to meet the social demands of today, we reinvented the smoke house.

Eldhuset can be a place where relatives and friends get to enjoy the late Norwegian summer sunset whilst the warmth of the hearth keeps the evening chill at bay. It can be a place where together we can safeguard our traditions. Somewhere the grandmother can teach her grandchildren to bake and where the father can brew the summer beer.

FACTS