At home and work with an enterprising family in a picturesque Norwegian fjord town
February is possibly not the best month to experience Norway’s epic scenery in all its glory but, then again, is there ever a time of year when one fails to be bowled over by a landscape of fjords, islands, mountains and sea? As Knut and Line Flakk assure me, as we watch constantly shifting weather patterns through a window at Hotel Union Oye, you never know what to expect. Torrential rain, howling wind, driving snow, watery sunshine – all are possible in a single winter’s day and that is exactly what we get.
The weather is, however, connected – if a little circuitously – to almost everything that the Flakks are about, especially the businesses in which they are involved along with their two daughters, Maria Lilly and Erika June. Both Knut and Line were born and bred – and are still based – in Alesund, a small city (more of a town by UK standards) on Norway’s western seaboard, 300 or so miles north west of Oslo at a latitude of 62°North (the significance of which will become clear later). Alesund is the biggest export centre of fish in Norway – cod mainly, but a bit of herring and salmon, too. It is also the gateway to the high peaks of the Sunnmore Alps and that exquisite coastline serrated by deep fjords. The region is widely considered to be the most spectacular in all of Norway.
In Knut’s top-floor office, where a picture window frames a twilight glimpse of Alesund’s Art Nouveau waterfront, the multi-faceted Flakk Group is explained to me. Each strand of the business is linked to the next, with ideas and opportunities evolving with time and circumstance.
This is a story, broadly speaking, of knitting, hydrogen and tourism all rolled into one. It begins at the Devold Factory, across the water from the city centre, which was bought by the Flakks in the late 1980s, shortly after Knut joined what is still a multi-generational family business.
Knitting – primarily warm, weather-resistant under- garments and thick, often elaborately patterned jumpers – has been Devold’s mainstay since the mid 19th century. Over the past three decades, however, the Flakks have expanded this to include a wide range of merino base layers, now sold to bikers and hikers across the globe, as well as a more luxurious collection of knitwear under the label O.A.D, which is steered by Maria Lilly.
From knitting with wool came knitting with technical textiles to create a revolutionary, lightweight composite material that is used, among other things, to make wind turbine blades and storage cylinders for high-pressure gases like hydrogen. And thus, one branch of the family business has segued neatly into renewables. Knut’s latest project – or one of them, I should say, as his vision seems boundless – is a new hydrogen hub in the port town of Hellesylt. This is designed to provide zero-emission fuel solutions to the ferries and cruise ships that currently pollute the sparkling waters of Norway’s fjords.
But back to Devold, where the story took another turn two decades ago. After a cost-saving exercise saw the production side of the knitting business relocated to Lithuania, a hole was left in Alesund. ‘If labour can be outsourced, landscape can’t,’ says Knut of the beguiling wilderness right on Alesund’s doorstep. ‘There was huge potential for exploration and enjoyment.’ So was born the high-end, experiential adventure company 62°Nord, offering visitors the thrills and spills of discovering the region by helicopter, by boat, by bike, on foot, on skis and on water.
Into the fold came three hotels: Brosundet, in a former fish-packing warehouse on the waterfront in Alesund; Storfjord, described as a ‘slow life hideaway’, overlooking its namesake fjord, a 40-minute drive from the city; and Union Oye, a grande dame of Victorian splendour and high-octane adventure in the Sunnmore Alps, which has emerged from an extensive and well executed makeover.
As a collective force, the family seem more deeply woven into the hotels than any other part of the business. Line, with a background in brand and design, has her eye firmly on all aesthetic elements, running a team responsible for the look of each property. Maria Lilly, 31, is involved in strategy and marketing, and Erika June, 28, is tackling an exciting hotel project in Oslo. Then there is Knut who, when not masterminding plans to conquer climate change, feels like the overall arbiter for the vision of 62°Nord.
On hearing all the plans in the pipeline – not least a new brand of less luxurious base-camp-style hotels – I wonder secretly if the pipe might burst. Yet, at their home on a hillside above Alesund, with breathtaking views of the city below and the sea beyond, there is a reassuring sense that this is their refuge. Or at least one of them. ‘We have another house that is an hour or so’s drive from here in the countryside,’ Line tells me, explaining that the family gathers together as often as possible. ‘Work never stops,’ she says with a smile. ‘There’s always a project to discuss or some new grand plan, but we love being together.’
Line points out a painting by her great friend Ørnulf Opdahl, who also happens to be Norway’s most famous contemporary artist and whose studio is a short drive away. ‘Let’s go and see him,’ she says, as we jump in the car and head west via a series of bridges and tunnels to the outer island of Godoy, and Ørnulf ’s picturesque assemblage of sheds and outhouses on the edge of the ocean.
His work is prolific, his studios bursting with canvases – dark, atmospheric, elemental renditions of the landscape, hovering between abstraction and reality. ‘I do not paint images,’ he tells me. ‘I paint the feeling, the expression of landscape.’ I understand what he means, awed in equal measure by his majestic painting of sea, mountains and sky, and the brooding backdrop outside the window.
On our return to the city, we stop by the Devold Factory to explore the shops and the artisans’ studios that now occupy much of the warehouse. Almost by way of an aside, Line points to a proposal displayed on one wall, for a new hydro-electric gondola lift to carry visitors straight from Devold to a hilltop and to what will be a state-of- the-art restaurant with sublime views of the city and coastline. It is visionary, for sure – and possibly a bit radical. But these are the Flakks, exemplary champions of that old adage ‘nothing ventured, nothing gained’.
Paul Massey1/11Line and Knut
Paul Massey2/11Knut in the kitchen of their Alesund house.
Paul Massey3/11In their striking sitting room in Alesund, a wall of windows offers far-reaching views of the city and the sea beyond.
Paul Massey4/11Erika June and Line wearing mohair jumpers from the O.A.D collection.
Paul Massey5/11An intricately patterned design from the range.
Paul Massey6/11O.A.D brand manager Karoline Aase.
Paul Massey7/11Union Oye manager Mariann Oye, whose father once co-owned the hotel.
Paul Massey8/11An antique Gobelins tapestry introduces a sense of history to the new King’s Suite at Union Oye.
Paul Massey9/11One of the elegant refurbished rooms at Hotel Union Oye.
Paul Massey10/11Its garden suites combine rustic charm with modern comfort.
Paul Massey11/11Glassblower Cornelia Skuggen is one of the artisans based at the Devold Factory.
