Elva Hotel (The River Hotel) is a small hotel in Voss, Norway. Voss is renowned for its spectacular landscape and as a popular destination for outdoor and extreme sports enthusiasts. The client’s main goal was to establish unique accommodation, connected to their existing activities center, for active guests to experience and explore the local nature. 

The site is an old industrial area in a relatively urban setting. One of the main focuses of the project was to transform the area by repairing the landscape. This involved cleaning up industrial waste, removing foreign plant species, and reestablishing the wetland habitat along the lakefront. The benefit of such a site is that project improves and repairs the natural landscape, rather than damaging virgin nature.

Despite the hotel’s location in a relatively built-up area, the experience from within the hotel is of private seclusion in nature.

One of the main challenges is that most of the site is two to four meters under the projected flood zone levels after factoring in future climate change. Also, consideration had to be taken for the protection of vulnerable wetland habitat along the water’s edge, especially throughout the construction period. 

The 14 room hotel consists of five freestanding small tower houses each with one to three hotel rooms, and a main building with four wheelchair accessible rooms, reception, conference room and restaurant which connects to an existing building with bar, café, kitchen and spa area. 

Where required the buildings are raised on stilts above the 200-year flood level. Only the restaurant which connects to the existing bar, kitchen and spa area is placed below the flood level and designed to withstand flooding through water resistant material use, with all technical installations placed a minimum of 1,4m above the floor. The raised buildings also create a variety of covered outdoor spaces for the guests, as Voss is renowned for its wet weather. This also allows visual transparency through the buildings towards the waterfront.

This meant that an unused industrial site that was considered unsuitable for use, was transformed into a unique hotel experience.

To reduce the carbon footprint of the building concrete is only used in the foundations and under the flood level. The rest of the construction is with precut timber which both saved time and waste materials during the building phase.

The buildings are formed to fit the landscape and compact site, and open for views both between and from inside each building.  Each room gives the private experience of contact with the surrounding landscape and views over the river and lake towards the mountains.  

The freestanding units are placed 1,5m lower than the adjacent parking area, and connected to the main building by a sunken covered wheelchair accessible walkway which creates a natural boundary towards the nature area surrounding the hotel. This height difference also reduces the visual height of the buildings from the neighbouring houses behind. 

Natural coloured fasade materials have been chosen so the buildings blend in better with the surrounding landscape. The outdoor areas are planted with local species of meadow grass and flowers to encourage local insect and birdlife.