# Outside in: the extraordinary home inside a giant greenhouse in Norway

An architect has designed a sustainable home inside a glass box, where fruit and veg grow, and their family can thrive

Situated on the family farmstead, surrounded by trees and pasture, stands the extraordinary glasshouse where architect Margit Klev and her young family have made their home. Here, Klev has created a house within a house, placing her bespoke building inside a vast glass barn, delivered as a kit from Denmark and erected on site in just two weeks. This glass shell not only protects the family home inside it, but also shelters an indoor garden and garden rooms, where Klev can nurture plants and trees that would never usually survive a Norwegian winter.






The open-plan kitchen and dining room on the ground floor.

Photograph: Richard Powers/Inside Living

Having inherited a parcel of land on the farm, one of Klev and Norheim’s greatest wishes was to be able to enjoy the feeling of being outside and immersed in the natural world all year round – including even the harsh Norwegian winters. The solution was the super-sized greenhouse, manufactured by Drivadan in Denmark, and delivered to the site as a vast kit of parts, ready for assembly on a pre-prepared concrete pad. The resulting glass shed is 38ft tall with an integrated ventilation system providing natural cooling via roof vents during the warmer months. This glass shell provided a secure and stable environment, beneath which Klev was able to create her own unique home, the indoor garden and a collection of garden rooms.






The bedrooms have windows that open to outside the greenhouse allowing fresh air in.

Photograph: Richard Powers/Inside Living

Also we have no lights or streetlights on the farm, so it gets completely dark, and we can see the stars through the glass ceiling.






Social spaces, like the dining room and library, open out into the garden zone.

Photograph: Richard Powers/Inside Living

Sustainability is a key concern, and the farmstead is close to functioning off-grid with its own biomass plant, water source and, most recently, a micro hydroelectricity station installed by Klev’s father, as well as solar arrays. There is also an element of self-sufficiency to the family’s way of living, with Klev growing fruit and vegetables, while sourcing other food and livestock as locally as possible, including rearing their own sheep.

“I spend most of my spare time growing vegetables and, for me, sustainability is part of a bigger picture,” she says. “The biomass plant uses wood from the forests around here, which my sister owns. It heats the houses and brings us hot water. My brother’s wife has horses, so we use the manure on the vegetable garden. It’s all connected. There are big changes in how we experience the house and the garden during the year, but the glasshouse does help to make it possible for us to carry on growing things and keep using these garden spaces all through the winter.”

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