With a large integrated garden house in the courtyard, residents of Meierihagen in Askim can cultivate community outdoors – year-round.

Whether it’s bitterly cold or raining everywhere, nothing stops the residents of Meierihagen from coming together and enjoying even the most blustery autumn day in close contact with nature. In the communal living space of Meierihagen, an 80-square-meter garden house will pulsate like a green heart in the courtyard of the community. Surrounded by glass walls covered with green vegetation, residents can gather around the long table for an outdoor experience inside the warmth.

Applied for and granted permission to build a garden house for the community

However, obtaining permission to build such a garden house near the newly constructed building in the old city center of Askim was far from certain. Like in most Norwegian cities, there are strict regulations in Askim regarding the amount of communal outdoor space that must be built and provided per housing unit when new apartment buildings are constructed. Typically, the 80 square meters where the garden house will be located in Meierihagen would have been reserved for communal outdoor recreation areas. Architect Kaja Melbye of Hille Melbye has been granted permission to take an unusual approach by incorporating parts of what would normally have been designated outdoor space.

“We have been allowed to erect a communal house that is included in what is known as the minimum outdoor recreation area, because the house is intended to foster community among residents, enhance the utility value of the outdoor areas, and extend the outdoor season,” Melbye explains.

Wants to build more outdoor space indoors

Meierihagen, with its three apartment buildings comprising 111 units located right next to the train and bus station, will complete and enhance the square in the old part of Askim. The goal is to create a new and diverse residential offering with high architectural quality in the area that once housed a dairy.

“At Hille Melbye, we believe that architecture should facilitate good social meeting places. In this regard, I can’t think of anything that hits the mark better than the garden house in Meierihagen. We hope that it will be possible to create such communal indoor ‘outdoor areas’ that extend the outdoor season in our weather-exposed country in more cities,” says Melbye.