Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), one of the western world’s most influential philosophers, once visited a quiet little village in Norway named Skjolden. It was situated by a lake a couple of kilometres from the end of the Sognefjord, Norway’s longest fjord, which runs east-west and half the distance from Norway’s west coast to the Swedish border due east.

Thirty metres above the lake on a very inaccessible shelf he began the construction of his wooden 59sq m house. Materials were transported over the frozen lake during the winter 1913/14. Local craftsmen completed the house in 1915, while he participated in the First World War.