Hasta La Ideas

Zig-zagging pathways lead to viewing platforms perched high in the Norwegian mountains in this visitor facility designed by Reiulf Ramstad Architects (+ slideshow).

An angled concrete block at the entrance to the site contains waterside restaurant and gallery, while Corten steel pavilions are set in the ground alongside.

From here a footpath crosses the mountain river and leads to the lookout points, which are made of concrete, steel and glass.

The facility, which opened last month, is one of five architectural projects along the Geiranger-Trollstigen tourist route, a 66-mile scenic road across the Trollstigen Mountain Plateau in western Norway.

Trollstigen – or “troll’s ladder” – is regarded as one of Norway’s most spectacularly beautiful areas and the tourist route across it is one of the country’s most popular attractions.

At the foot of the wall is a jagged glass restaurant, which Reiulf Ramstad Architects completed last summer.

See also our recent story about the architects’ beachside walkway on the Havøysund trail, which is another of the 18 national tourist routes in Norway.

Stops on some of the other tourist routes that we’ve written about include public toilets in a rusty steel cabin and a memorial commemorating suspected witches.

See all our stories about the Norwegian National Tourist Routes »

Photography is by the architects.

Here’s some text from Reiulf Ramstad Architects:

Trollstigen National Tourist Route Project

Located on Norway’s west coast, Trollstigen is perched within a dramatic pass between the deep fjords that characterize the region.

This panoramic site can only be visited and constructed in summer, due to severe winter weather.

Despite—or perhaps because of—the inaccessible nature of the site, the project entails designing an entire visitor environment ranging from a mountain lodge with restaurant and gallery to flood barriers, water cascades, bridges, and paths to outdoor furniture and pavilions and platforms meant for viewing the scenery.

All of these elements are molded into the landscape so that the visitor’s experience of place seems even more intimate.

The architectural intervention is respectfully delicate, and was conceived as a thin thread that guides visitors from one stunning overlook to another.

The RRA project will enhance the experience of the Trollstigen plateau’s location and nature.

Thoughtfulness regarding features and materials will underscore the site’s temper and character, and well-adapted, functional facilities will augment the visitor’s experience.

The architecture is to be characterised by clear and precise transitions between planned zones and the natural landscape.

Through the notion of water as a dynamic element – from snow, to running and then falling water- and rock as a static element, the project creates a series of prepositional relations that describe and magnify the unique spatiality of the site.

Location: Romsdalen – Geiranger Fjord, Norway
Program: National tourist routes project
Client: The Norwegian public roads administration
Commision type: Invited Competition 1st prize in cooperation with Multiconsult 13.3 landscaping (2004)

Architects: Reiulf Ramstad Architects, Oslo Norway (RRA)
Reiulf Ramstad, Christian Skram Fuglset, Espen Surnevik, Anja Strandskogen, Nok Nimakorn,
Atle Leira, (Christian Dahle, Lasse Halvorsen, Helge Lunder, Karen Selmer, Tia Ginard Adover)

Civil Engineer: Structural Engineer: Dr Techn. Kristoffer Apeland AS, Oslo Norway
Design year: 2004-2011
Construction year: 2005-2012/ Official Opening 2012

Building area: 800 m2 (Mountain Lodge with restaurant and gallery), 950 m2 (Flood Barrier House)
Site: Building Site 600,000 m2
Time to build: 6 years
Type of construction: Corten steel and poured-in-place concrete

The post Trollstigen Tourist Route Project
by Reiulf Ramstad Architects appeared first on Dezeen.

The jagged glass edges of this restaurant by Norwegian studio Reiulf Ramstad Architects point up towards a sheer cliff face.

Named the Troll Wall Restaurant, the building is located at the foot of the tallest vertical rock face in Europe, in Norway’s Romsdal Valley.

Full-height glazing gives diners a view of the landscape, behind a criss-crossing pattern of structural beams.

Charred timber clads the elevations at the rear of the building, where additional rooms provide a local service and information centre.

Reiulf Ramstad Architects also completed a timber-clad nursery in Oslo this year – see our earlier story here.

Photography is by the architects.

Here’s some more text from Reiulf Ramstad Architects:

Trollwall Restaurant

It’s a new cursor at the foot of the Troll Wall; The architecture of the new visitors`center next to E139 is an outcome of the sites` close connection to the impressive mountain wall, Europe’s tallest vertical, overhanging rock face in The Romsdal Valley.

The Romsdal valley has some of the tallest, sheerest cliffs in Europe and is a popular place for BASE jumping including “birdmen” jumping off cliffs in Wingsuits!

This location allows for an exciting setting for the new service- and information center.

RRAs proposal is carefully planned in relation to the Troll Wall.

At the same time it is building a character and identity which in itself will be an attraction in the region.

The building has a simple, though flexible plan, with a characteristic roof that has its character from the majestetic surrounding landscape.

Geometry of the roof is also generated from the view to the mountains from the restaurant inside the building.

These simple ways of design gives the building its character and identity that makes the Service center an eye-catcher and an architectural attraction in the region.

Reiulf Ramstad Architects: Reiulf Ramstad, Sunniva Neuenkirchen Rosenberg and Espen Surnevik
Location: Trollveggen, Møre og Romsdal, Norway

Program: New restaurant and service building
Client: Private

Size: 700m2
Commission type: 1st price, Invited competition (2009)

Status: Under construction
Year: Completed summer 2011