“What a beautiful house!” you might be thinking to yourself, “Wouldn’t it be lovely to live there!”  Nestled into the hills of Gullesfjord Norway, this modern structure is a spectacular architectural feat, but you’ll be surprised to learn it’s actually a weigh station for trucks.

That’s right, this is what passes for a weigh station in Norway. Here in the United States, weigh stations look like featureless cubes or on occasion, large featureless cubes and are usually staffed by the cast of the Kurt Russel thriller Breakdown. Not so in Norway! At the Gullesfjord Weight Station, the architectural firm Jarmund/Vigsnaes Arkitekter chose to build the structure into the side of a hill and use a grass roof to minimize the visual impact on the surrounding National Park. The new state of the art facility has been built with accommodation for 3-4 specialists.

Instead of contracting work out to the lowest bidder, Norway has a history of working with innovative architects and designers for public projects. This approach yields aesthetically unique structures that enhance the natural beauty of the country’s landscape and helps drive tourism. It’s a type of situational awareness we could use a little more of here in the states.

[via Design Boom]