Project Name: 21-24 Nikkakjøkken Restaurant

Location: Sylte, Norway

Design Team: OFFICE INAINN

Total Floor Area: 127 m²

Completion: 2025

Lead Architect: Maksymilian Sawicki

Design Features:

Project - 21-24 Nikkakjøkken Restaurant, designed by OFFICE INAINN, stands as a demonstration of how contemporary intervention can honor architectural heritage while creating a refined dining environment, located in Sylte, Norway. This 127-square-metre project operates as a masterclass in reversible design, where a freestanding timber insert breathes new life into a historic Norwegian barn while maintaining complete integrity of its original structure.

The project's most compelling design achievement lies in its innovative insertion philosophy. Rather than opting for reconstruction or extensive renovation, the architect created a self-contained timber core that operates independently within the existing shell and delivers the complete restaurant program. This lightweight module is designed for future disassembly without damage to the heritage fabric, demonstrating profound understanding of architectural conservation and sustainability. Services, storage, and back-of-house functions are cleverly consolidated within the insert, preserving the clarity of the original truss structure and maintaining uninterrupted spatial flow, allowing the rhythm and proportions of the historic framework to remain the spatial protagonists.

The architectural narrative unfolds through a sophisticated material restraint strategy, responding to the unity of heritage preservation and contemporary functional requirements. The external silhouette remains faithful to the landscape, with existing openings carefully calibrated rather than expanded. All new interventions read as a secondary layer, employing dry, discreet fixings that respect the building's historical narrative. All new construction utilizes timber, establishing material continuity while significantly reducing environmental impact. This material selection not only embodies Scandinavian design tradition but also demonstrates pure response to site characteristics and sustainable construction.

Detail treatment demonstrates intimate relationship between creative execution and historical sensitivity. The new flooring precisely echoes the irregular widths of existing planks, creating a seamless field where old and new interlock, where history and contemporary coexist in visual harmony. Thresholds and ventilation grilles are resolved as fine lines, ensuring the exposed structural framework and rhythmic proportions beneath the truss remain clearly legible. This exceptional attention to detail represents not only technical achievement but also an expression of respect for the building's historical value.

Spatial treatment demonstrates deep integration of economic strategy and environmental responsibility. As a refurbishment project, the architect significantly reduces embodied carbon through reuse of existing fabric. The demountable construction approach, limited wet trades, and phased implementation strategy preserve the building's identity while ensuring maintenance aligns with local capacity. This design method transcends purely aesthetic pursuits, deeply integrating sustainability principles into every level of design decision-making.

The project's defining feature is its orchestrated conservation strategy and spatial experiential value. 21-24 Nikkakjøkken Restaurant is located in Sylte, transforming a historic barn into a refined contemporary dining space while completely preserving its agricultural heritage characteristics. The architect precisely responds to the complex relationship between heritage conservation and functional renewal through the strategy of insertion rather than reconstruction. This is architecture designed to enhance the dining experience, proving that in historic built environments, architecture can create rich spatial experiences and sustainable value through thoughtful design. The bond between architecture and landscape seamlessly integrates in a refined and balanced dialogue, creating meaningful spaces that respect the past while embracing the future. This project stands as an exemplar of reversible design and cultural heritage conservation, demonstrating how contemporary functional requirements can be achieved without compromising historic structures.

Design Team - OFFICE INAINN, founded in 2020 by architect Maksymilian Sawicki, is a distinctive architectural practice based in Ålesund, Norway, operating at the intersection of design, research, and environmental sensitivity. Today, under the leadership of founder and principal architect Sawicki, the firm maintains a rigorous yet focused team structure, operating from its Ålesund base to deliver context-sensitive interventions rooted in Scandinavian design philosophy.

Under Sawicki's creative direction, the 21-24 Nikkakjøkken Restaurant project embodies the firm's core design principles and methodology. Sawicki approaches architecture as an expanded discipline that encompasses artistic exploration and practice-based research, with methodology involving rigorous analysis of spatial relationships, decomposing architectural elements to understand their fundamental influences on human experience and natural surroundings. This theoretical framework translates into built work characterized by meticulous detailing and material precision, demonstrating design control across all scales from strategic planning to material detailing.

The firm's design philosophy centers on contextual sensitivity and environmental responsibility, emphasizing simplicity, functionality, and profound respect for natural environments. Their design methodology is built on dialogue between people, nature, and environment, with each project becoming a response to complex relationships between landscape, culture, and daily life. The practice emphasizes longevity and responsibility, creating not merely functional structures but thoughtful interventions that transform their surroundings in considered and respectful manners. The firm's scope of services encompasses design at all scales from strategic planning to material detailing, collaborating with municipalities and private clients across Norway, working at the intersection of architecture, research, and artistic practice.

Notable achievements include work published on internationally prominent platforms including Wallpaper, Architectural Digest, and Dezeen among professional media. The firm has established collaborative relationships with public institutions including Ålesund Kommune and Fjord Kommune as well as multiple private enterprises, demonstrating deep understanding of material essence, continuous pursuit of spatial quality, and steadfast commitment to sustainable design. Sawicki's design approach, built on research, long-term collaboration, and precise understanding of context, ensures each project is rooted in its unique site conditions and cultural background.

OFFICE INAINN has established a distinctive position in contemporary Scandinavian architecture through a diverse portfolio spanning architectural design, practice-based research, and theoretical exploration, demonstrating a design approach that combines environmental sensitivity with design excellence, exploring how architecture can create durable and harmonious spaces with minimal environmental impact, and committed to creating architectural interventions that both respond to context and respect nature.