Four winners of the Houen Foundation Award for 2019!
Stormen Cultural Centre in Bodø, Holmenkollen ski jump, Dalaker/Galta farmhouse on Rennesøy Island and D36 – Green House in Oslo have all been awarded one of Norway's foremost awards in architecture.
Dalaker/Galta farmhouse
On an island in Western Norway there is a little farmhouse with a big personality. The small detached house is built partly on the remains of an old pigsty and is elevated on piles to have a minimal impact on the ground underneath. The well-proportioned and distinctive house can be regarded as a sculpture in the landscape.
The floor plan is efficient, simple and user-friendly. The rooms are spacious and flexible to use. The house is built using the best of Norwegian building traditions. It is a robust house with simple materials and a modest use of elements.
The house is both poetic and playful, and built with a very limited budget, proving that outstanding architecture does not have to be expensive.
The Dalaker/Galta farmhouse is located on the island of Rennesøy outside Stavanger, was completed in 2005 (extension in 2013), and is designed by Knut Hjeltnes Civil Architects.
Read more: Dalaker/Galta farmhouse on the Knut Hjeltnes Civil Architects website
D36 – Green House
One of the most pressing architectural challenges of our time is to design excellent homes in dense urban locations. In a park area in Oslo there is an impressive building that rises to this challenge. It is designed as a reminder of the trees that had to be cut down before it could be built.
Despite their small size, the flats seem spacious and airy. Each flat has a seamless transition between indoors and outdoors.
The roof is utilised for a beautiful and lush communal garden. Private allotment gardens allow the residents to grow their own vegetables.
The architects have spared no effort to create homes that express architectonic care and thoughtfulness. The project shows that densification can be achieved with ingenuity, quality and character, and with excellent quality of life as a result.
D36 – Green House in Oslo was completed in 2013 and is designed by Element Architects.
Read more: Green House on the Element Architects website
Holmenkollen ski jump
High up in Oslo's rising landscape, serving as a gateway to the Nordmarka forest, lies a landmark that you cannot help but notice. The new ski jump is a rebuilt and reinforced icon, not only for ski sport and Oslo, but for all of Norway.
The ski jump's dynamic form captures the large outdoor space from a distance and from close by, and embraces both visitors and athletes. The shape combines all the elements of a ski jump facility into a single architectonic entity. The judges' boxes, the VIP area and the wind screens, as well as the facilities for commentators, coaches and the royal family, are assembled in one unified expression.
That unifying form, together with high architectonic quality in its execution, has been a factor in the jury defining the facility as outstanding architecture.
Holmenkollen ski jump was completed in 2010 and is designed by JDS Architects.
Read more: Holmenkollen ski jump on the JDS Architects website
Stormen Cultural Centre
The new cultural centre in Bodø is impressive. It includes a concert hall and a library, designed as two separate buildings, integrated into the existing urban landscape in an exemplary fashion.
The execution and detail are outstanding. Despite a unified feel, the architects have succeeded in giving the concert hall and the library their own distinctive characters.
The library is organised around an indoor street connecting the city and the harbour. The large main library space has a stunning view of the harbour and the sea.
The concert hall consists of three stages with associated audience areas.
The cultural centre has helped to redefine Bodø and given the city a new vitality. The centre is well used and can boast of a record number of visitors. This work is one of the finest examples of public architecture in Norway.
The centre was completed in 2014 and is designed by DRDH Architects.
Read more: Concert house and library on the DRDH architects website.
