Following last week’s visit to Los Angeles-based Walker Workshop, we are keeping our Meet Your Next Employer series in California this week, where we find San Francisco-based Mork-Ulnes Architects.

Founded in 2005 by Casper Mork-Ulnes, the nimble 10-person practice operates in both San Francisco and Oslo, Norway, resulting in a portfolio that blends a “Scandinavian practicality and a Californian can-do spirit of innovation.”

The firm’s ethos and culture was further explored back in late 2020 when we sat down with Casper Mork-Ulnes as part of our Studio Snapshot series. Describing the practice as “pared-back, resourceful, and playful,” Mork-Ulnes reflected on the importance of striking a positive life-work balance in architecture.

“We encourage everyone to take time to recharge their batteries, prioritize their private lives, and spend time with their friends and families,” Mork-Ulnes told us. “This stands in contrast to the culture of many US firms, but I think there is a lot to be learned from the Scandinavian work culture. Happy and healthy architects are a lot more productive than overworked ones.”

Over on Archinect Jobs, the firm is currently hiring for a Lead Architect/Designer. For candidates interested in applying for the position, or those interested in learning more about the firm’s work, we have rounded up five rural retreat projects by Mork-Ulnes Architects that reflect the studio's attention to wellness and a positive work-life balance.

Moose Road

The house at Moose Road was driven by two principles: framing views of three notable land formations, and the preservation of all existing oak trees on the site. The resulting scheme manifests as three ‘fingers’ carefully extending through the trees, each orientated towards a land formation.

Elevated on steel stilts to avoid severing tree roots, the building was designed using standard sized, off-the-shelf building materials in order to minimize waste. The resulting palette, including unfinished plywood and OSB, allowed the building to be delivered on a budget of under $190 per square foot.

Mylla Hytte

The 940-square-foot Mylla Hytte cabin is located within a towering pine forest outside of Oslo, Norway. Designed as a retreat for a geologist and his family, the home is composed of four shed roofs radiating in a pinwheel configuration, along with two sheltered outdoor spaces.

Externally, the home is clad in simple untreated heart pine planks intended to weather and grey over time. Inside, plywood-finished spaces are unified by a continuous roof canopy. The compact interior, which still holds three bedrooms and two full bathrooms, is completed by custom plywood bed frames, bunk beds, tables, benches, and shelves.

Skigard Hytte

Like Mylla Hytte, the cabin at Skigard Hytte is located atop a rural mountain in Norway. Organized along a regular grid of 45 wooden columns, the scheme is lifted five feet off the ground to allow sheep and cows to graze on the native grasses underneath. Above, the roof of the cabin is overgrown with the same native grasses in a nod to historic rural Norwegian architecture.

Inside, the cabin is divided along its length into four smaller spaces, each housed under a pitched ceiling capped with a skylight. The team describes the interior spaces as “scaled intimately but open visually and physically to the landscape below,” including a small grove of trees surrounding the cabin.

Meier Road 1

For the Meier Road studio in Sonoma County, California, Mork-Ulnes were tasked with creating a series of large flexible spaces that could store farm equipment, workspaces, collectables, and an art studio. The firm responded with a barn typology to assimilate with adjacent existing buildings.

Inside, the traditional gable barn roof is inverted in order to give the art studio a more dramatic ceiling height, and to fill the space with indirect northern light. The 2,500 square foot building also seeks to encourage a seamless indoor/outdoor experience, with bamboo, aloes, and exotic plants populating the barn’s sweeping concrete floors.

Troll Hus

Like its Norwegian counterparts, the Troll Hus at Norden, California was shaped in response to its elevated site, inspired by the architecture of alpine chalets. Lifted on concrete legs to protect it from the region’s heavy snow, the building’s orientation shields it from prevailing winds while allowing living spaces to open onto glazed south-facing balconies.

The home’s external façade is clad in pine tar-treated wood, reflecting the cladding found on 1000-year-old Norwegian barns. Inside, the main living space is laid out as an open plan configuration below two vaulted ceilings, gently dividing the space into two inferred volumes.

Meet Your Next Employer is one of a number of ongoing weekly series showcasing the opportunities available on our industry-leading job board. Our Job Highlights series looks at intriguing and topical employment opportunities currently available on Archinect Jobs, while our weekly roundups curate job opportunities by location, career level, and job description.