LITNØY FYR - ROAM

RESEARCH ORIENTED ADAPTIVE MODELS

“The Ridge” was developed in order to situate researchers and provide a homebase for the ROAM. In which the researchers can have the capabilities to traverse a multitudes of areas on the coast to collect data and preserve coastal conditions.

The “LITLØY FYR” Lighthouse serves as a crucial locational node for coastal research and action-oriented topical interests. The coast of Norway begins to lose its natural vibrancy, the coastal kelp forest has diminished, and geological life is next…

In order to maintain the coastal properties a unique solution that traverses all environmental factors was established.

Set on the outer edge of the Vesterålen archipelago, Litløy Fyr occupies a small, exposed island where land, sea, and sky meet with unusual intensity. Litløya is a rugged Atlantic outcrop – rocky, sparsely vegetated, and shaped by wind, salt, and weather – rising gently toward its interior peak while breaking sharply against the Norwegian Sea. From the lighthouse, the horizon opens westward to uninterrupted ocean and distant silhouettes of Lofoten, while eastward views reconnect the island to the broader archipelago and the mainland beyond. The site is defined by constant environmental flux: rapidly shifting weather systems, powerful winds, and dramatic variations in light, from the perpetual glow of the midnight sun to the extended twilight and winter darkness, often animated by the aurora borealis. Access itself is a threshold experience, marked by a boat crossing and a short ascent from shore that compresses the transition from sea to structure. Surrounding the lighthouse are traces of long human presence – remnants of former fishing settlements, ancient cairns, and archaeological sites – embedded within a landscape now largely reclaimed by nature.

Today, the lighthouse is privately operated as a high-cost short-term rental, marketed as an exclusive and isolated retreat. While this use capitalizes on the site’s remoteness and dramatic atmosphere, it frames the lighthouse primarily as a commodity rather than a shared cultural artifact, limiting public access and reducing a historically collective maritime landmark to an individual, transactional experience.

The Ridge

At the island’s topographic crest, the PODs converge at “The Ridge,” a mass-timber structure anchored into the highest and most stable terrain on Litløya. Conceived as both infrastructural core and architectural mediator, the Ridge functions as the collective home base for the mobile research network. Here, the PODs dock and recharge, drawing power from energy-collection systems adapted and expanded from the lighthouse itself, while transferring data samples and personnel between field and base.

The Ridge houses all permanent and sensitive research tools and technologies, spaces that require environmental control, precision, and long-term stability. Its mass-timber construction establishes a tactile and structural continuity with the island’s material logic, offering resilience against wind and weather while maintaining a measured, grounded presence within the landscape. Spatially and operationally, the Ridge remains in constant dialogue with the lighthouse: networked and responsive to its systems, yet distinct in function.

Through this relationship, the lighthouse is no longer a relic or a privatized retreat. It is reactivated as a working instrument – once again a beacon, not for navigation alone, but for research, experimentation, and collective inquiry – reclaiming its role as a functional center of innovation embedded within the life of the island.

Linear and proportionally thin, the plan cuts through the Ridge’s primary occupiable level, revealing a continuous infrastructural spine that houses generators, charging interfaces, and semi-permanent research technologies supporting island-wide operations.

Section through the lighthouse showing the integration of wind-capture technology, where a sail mounted atop the existing structure harvests prevailing winds to generate power for the broader research campus.

The POD’s terrestrial mobility is enabled by an array of independently actuated, omnidirectional legs. Each leg is composed of multiple articulated joints—allowing rotation, extension, and controlled flexion—driven by electric actuators and guided by real-time terrain sensing. This system enables the legs to adapt continuously to changes in slope, surface texture, and load distribution, maintaining a stable body orientation even on fractured rock or steep inclines. Load-balancing algorithms coordinate the legs as a collective system rather than as isolated supports, allowing the POD to step, brace, or anchor itself with precision while minimizing point pressure on the ground.

WAVE HARNESSING

For aquatic operation, the POD employs a modular flotation base composed of multiple sealed inflatable pontoons rather than a single buoyant chamber. Each pontoon is independently pressurized and compartmentalized, providing redundancy and stability in rough water conditions. This distributed buoyancy allows the POD to remain afloat even if individual chambers are compromised, while dynamic pressure control enables it to adjust its center of buoyancy in response to wave action. The inflatable elements are fabricated from abrasion-resistant, marine-grade membranes, allowing the POD to absorb impact, dampen motion, and maintain equilibrium as it drifts or stations itself in open coastal waters.