Sammendrag
Half of the population of Norway are said to have some connection to a holiday-home, known as a Hytte. Hytter (pl) became increasingly popular through the second half of the twentieth century with early self-built hytter giving way to mass-produced hytte-developments. Being ‘at the hytte’ has become a cultural phenomenon, involving a range of socio-material practices, traditions and emotional connections. This article starts from the premise that the hytte is more than a stage on which families play out their social relations, but has a role in shaping and curating relationships. Because hytter may remain in a family over generations, the biography of a hytte and its changing physical form offer insight into family relations. While many hytte owners imagine, and try to facilitate the passing-on of their hytte to the next generation, ,new family constellations throw up questions about what makes a family, how far a family can or should extend, and how the buildings and their surroundings adapt to changing dreams, resources and demands. This paper considers the latter in particular through a focus on the ‘annex’, an addition to the hytte that makes space for an expanded family, whether that is parents making way for adult children who are taking over the main hytte, or whether it is for additional children or for guests to visit. The annex may be a new building or an extension of the original building; it may mimic the original style of the hytte or introduce a new architectural form. The hytte itself has been referred to as an annex of everyday life (Klepp; Garvey), but the hytte’s own annex can tell us a great deal about contemporary imaginaries and practices of kinship in Norway.
Vis fullstendig beskrivelse
