Luxury Wilderness Yurts, Norway
Luxury wilderness yurts, traditionally designed and carefully adapted to withstand arctic conditions
THE CLIENT
Canvas Telemark is one of the world’s coolest wilderness hotels.
THE BRIEF
Canvas Telemark is not like other hotels, it is one of the world’s coolest wilderness hotels. Their goal is for their guests to get the feelings of nature, adrenaline, the silence, warmth, cold and a sense of enjoyment.
Thousands of guests have already experienced Canvas Hotel in Telemark since it opened in 2010. Their brief was “luxury wilderness yurts”, able to withstand a harsh nordic environment to sit on wooden decks.
Their specification included:
– Hotel room en-suite yurts to accommodate two guests
– A communal lounge yurt to entertain and provide a relaxation space for approximately 32 guests
– An upgraded sauna yurt to withstand the weather
– Tailor-made canvas covers for kitchen, dining room and staff camp
THE DESIGN
Our team of yurt makers redesigned the frames to arctic specification to support the weight of the winter snow. A decision made with the client to over-engineer the structures to survive further North means we are ready for future Arctic projects as required. The modular component design of our yurts made them easy to install on the wooden decks that stretch out into the lake.
Winter covers and thermal linings meant the yurts would withstand the subzero temperatures without even breaking a sweat! To date, we have supplied 18 yurts to the Canvas Hotel and we continue to enjoy the creative collaboration.
In 2018, the camp got a big upgrade with new covers for the older yurts (up for 8 years in all weathers), a huge 24ft lounge-yurt (7.5m diameter), 5 meters up to the roof with hanging fireplace, “Loo Pods” in all yurts (pictured left) to provide en-suite facilities and the addition of new accommodation yurts.
THE INSTALLATION
Canvas Hotel is situated in a secret lake location, 15km off-road from the main road, so the logistics of getting the yurts from our workshop in Devon to Norway was a challenge. The yurts first arrived in Norway by boat shipment. Met by our team, the yurts were then split between an under-slung helicopter and pick-up truck to be transported to the lake first, then followed by a small boat trip to the island.
With the yurts components in place, it was then time to build. A combination of our master carpenters, expert sewers, a scuba-diver and half the yurt hire team, together supported the local platform builders to create the upgraded Canvas Hotel. Our roaming designer-machinist was there to measure, cut, sew and install on site as required, to make the bespoke covers for the kitchen and dining room.
CLIENT QUOTE
“Yurts for Life provided us with the whole works! A complete service from working together on the design and build specifications, negotiating the challenging logistics to deliver the yurts to us (no mean feat) and a great professional installation team. Top Notch!”
Espen Bierud, Canvas Hotel
