There is a small wooden cabin perched on the edge of the forest on Mount Fløyen, above the rooftops of Bergen, Norway, and it will cost you absolutely nothing to spend the night in it. The catch? You have to have a child under 12, you can only stay once a year, and you need to bring your own firewood. That's pretty much it.
Tubakuba - the name translates to "Tuba Cube" - is a 14-square-meter cabin built not by a developer or a tourism board but by architecture students. It has no running water, no electricity, and no mattresses. What it does have is a wood-burning stove, sleeping bunks stacked at three different heights, and what is quite possibly one of the finest views of any city in Northern Europe framed directly through its windows.
The name is also a nod to the tuba, the low-brass instrument whose wide, flared bell the entrance of the building deliberately echoes - a curved, organic portal that draws you in before opening into the cube-shaped interior.
The whole thing is available to borrow, free of charge, through Bergen Municipality.
Getting There
Tubakuba sits on Fløyen, the mountain that rises directly behind Bergen's city center and has been drawing people uphill for centuries. If the idea of hiking with kids and gear sounds daunting, it isn't - not here. The Fløibanen funicular runs from the center of the city to the top of the mountain, and from the upper station, the cabin is only a few minutes' walk into the forest. You're not bushwhacking. You're not navigating a trail map in the rain. You follow a path, and then you're there.
The cabin sits at the forest's edge, which means you get the trees behind you and the city sprawling below you. Bergen is a compact, walkable place hemmed in by seven mountains and the Byfjord, and from Fløyen the whole geography of it becomes legible in a way it never quite does from street level. On a clear evening, the harbor, the old Hanseatic wharf of Bryggen, the surrounding peaks - all of it is laid out in front of the cabin like something from a picture book.
The Story Behind It
Tubakuba was built in the spring of 2014 by second-year students at BAS - the Bergen School of Architecture - as part of an assignment to design a climate-appropriate overnight structure for Mount Fløyen. It was not a concept project. The students actually built it, with supervision from professors specializing in both architecture and carpentry, and with funding from the GC Rieber Funds. The cabin opened on June 24, 2014.
The design makes a point of being structurally interesting rather than just functional. The form is a simple cube, but the entrance is an organic portal that curves inward, and the wooden strips used throughout the build were bent and shaped in ways that push against what timber is usually asked to do. It reads as a student project in the best sense - ambitious in its thinking, honest about its materials, unpretentious about its purpose.
Since opening, Tubakuba has been managed by Bymiljøetaten, Bergen Municipality's Department of Climate, Environment and Urban Development, which handles the bookings, holds the key, and keeps the whole thing running as a genuine public amenity rather than a novelty.
The rules are exactly what you'd expect from a municipal lending system with a light touch. You can stay for one night. Up to five people - two adults and three children - can sleep inside. You pick up the key in person from the citizen services office at Kaigaten 4, show your ID, and return it on the first working day after your stay. The office is open Monday through Friday, 8am to 3pm. If you're staying on a weekend, you collect the key by 3pm on Friday.
Inside, you'll find the bare essentials: a handle for the wood stove, a smoke detector, a dustpan and brush, an ash bucket, a guest book, and a hiking map. That's the inventory. Everything else - sleeping bags, sleeping mats, food, cooking equipment, water containers, firewood, toilet paper, a flashlight - you bring yourself. Candles are not allowed, and neither is alcohol. Cooking happens outside on the paved area in front of the cabin, where you can set up a camping stove or a disposable barbecue under the partial shelter of the roof.
Toilet access is handled practically: the cabin comes with a key to the bathrooms at the nearby Radiostasjonen Kindergarten. Water can be filled from the tap there, or in summer from a faucet on the corner of the Fløyen restaurant building.
To book, you fill out a reservation form through Aktiv kommune, Bergen's public activity portal. The municipality processes applications up to three months ahead. One night per family per year. No exceptions, no workarounds - and honestly, that's part of what makes it feel like something worth protecting.
There's Also an Egg
The Egget
If Tubakuba is booked out, or if you'd prefer something closer to the south of Bergen, there is a second free overnight cabin operated under the same model.
Egget - "The Egg" - opened in 2021 and sits in the Krohnegården outdoor recreation area in Fyllingsdalen, beside Lake Storavatnet. It was also built by BAS students, this time Cohort 33, as part of an area revitalization initiative in Upper Laksevåg. The design is exactly what the name suggests: an egg-shaped wooden structure that appears to grow out of the ground, set into a small natural depression so that the surrounding vegetation partially conceals it from the main path.
At 11 square meters it's slightly smaller than Tubakuba, but the rules and setup are identical - free, families with children under 12, maximum five people, bring your own everything, key from Kaigaten 4. The outdoor area around Egget has a bench and a designated campfire and barbecue area, and the Krohnegården swimming area is only a few minutes' walk away, with toilet facilities on site. It's more tucked-in than Fløyen, less dramatic in terms of views, but idyllically situated by the lake and surrounded by greenery in a way that has its own quiet appeal.
Fløyfjellet 1, 5014 Bergen, Norway
