by Laura Feinstein Nordic countries aren’t known for their mild climates. Whether it’s the near-mythic winter darkness of the Scandinavian “polar night,” or the periods of 24-hour light that characterize the Midnight Sun, this is a region of stark contrasts. “Darkness & Light:…
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London studio Haptic references eroded granite rock formations commonly found around the Norwegian coastline with the curving form of this layered timber staircase, created for an office interior in Oslo.
Strategy and corporate finance firm Arkwright asked Haptic to design the interior of its new offices, which are located in a converted harbour warehouse in Oslo’s Aker Brygge area.
Upon entering the offices on the upper floor, staff and visitors are confronted with a monolithic reception desk made from stained black timber slats.
Behind the desk, the wooden strips become more spaced out, creating curving walls that surround a back office and transition into the wall behind the staircase.
“The design is inspired by svabergs – large granite stone formations that are typical for the area – rounded and polished by icebergs thousands of years ago,” the architects described.
The staircase descends to a lounge area and incorporates widened treads that offer spaces for casual seating.
Furniture scattered around this space includes tables with organically shaped surfaces and sofas with layered backrests that echo the form of the stairs.
Skylights and an original arched window overlooking the harbour fill the white-walled lounge with natural light.
Haptic created a variety of different environments for working and relaxing throughout the offices, including a James Bond-themed executive lounge.
Located in a windowless space in the middle of the lower level, the room features wood-panelled walls and leather furniture intended to create an intimate and sophisticated feel.
A bookcase built into one of the walls is also a secret door that pivots to connect the room with the corridor outside.
Televisions built into two of the walls can be viewed from the sofa in the lounge space or from a long conference table, while one of the other walls contains a bar and fridge.
Photography is by Inger Marie Grini.
The following details were provided by Haptic:
Arkwright offices, Oslo
Arkwright is a European consultancy that specialise in strategic advice. A new office space has been created for 40-50 employees, including workspaces, reception and back office, kitchen canteen, meeting rooms, breakout space and a “James Bond” room. The office is located in the prime harbour front location of Aker Brygge in Oslo, Norway, in an old converted warehouse building with a large arched window as its centrepiece.
The office is entered on the top floor. A new reception “sculpture” incorporates back offices, reception desk and a large stair/amphitheatre that straddles a double height space. The design is inspired by “svabergs”, large granite stone formations that are typical for the area, rounded and polished by icebergs thousands of years ago.
Special effort has been made to create a variety of spaces within the offices, incorporating green walls, double height spaces, and a special “James Bond” room.
The “James Bond” room is a windowless bunker-like space, sitting deep in the building – a difficult space to work with. This seemingly unpromising space has been transformed into an executive lounge for quiet contemplation, creating a private, intimate and calming atmosphere.
Project: Arkwright – Aker Brygge, Oslo
Typology: Office Fit out
Client: Arkwright/NPRO
Year of Construction: 2013-2014
Architect: Haptic Architects
Team: Nikki Butenschøn, Anthony Williams
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staircase emulating rock formations appeared first on Dezeen.
A suspended steel staircase is completed by a piece of wooden furniture in this renovated Oslo loft by London studio Haptic (+ slideshow).
Haptic created the split-level Idunsgate apartment in the upper levels of a nineteenth-century apartment block. The new staircase connects living spaces on the lower storey with a mezzanine above, but also creates a subtle divide between the kitchen and lounge.
Made from powder-coated white steel, the staircase hangs down from a ceiling beam and wall overhead. Its narrow vertical supports form a balustrade, while open risers allow views through from below.
As the stairs descend, they stop before reaching the floor, so residents have to step down over a piece of wooden furniture that functions as both a chest of drawers and a window seat.
On one side of the staircase is a white-painted living area featuring a low-slung sofa and white mesh chair, while the other side is a kitchen and dining area finished in dark grey.
“The original kitchen was tight, inefficient and north facing,” said architect Tomas Stokke, describing the old layout. “By moving it into the common areas we could create a light, airy and spacious space that becomes the social heart.”
An oak worktop doubles as a breakfast bar with room for two. There is also a small fireplace that creates a cooking space at the end of the kitchen worktop.
A double-height bathroom sits beside the living area and is finished in polished concrete and grey stone. The bath and shower are raised up, so residents have to climb up a small staircase to access them.
Upstairs, the hallway connecting the bedroom with the stairs becomes a viewing platform over the living space below. It also leads out to a small sheltered roof terrace.
Photography is by Simon Kennedy and Inger Marie Grini.
Here’s a project description from Haptic:
Idunsgate, Oslo
The apartment is in the top floor of a 19th century apartment building in central Oslo in Norway. Purchasing the loft space above the apartment enabled the client to do a full scale refurbishment of the loft, bringing the two floors into one, unified space.
Through a thorough three-dimensional survey of the apartment and careful assessment of the means of escape, we were able to incorporate every nook and cranny and even part of the stairwell into the design.
By fully utilising the level changes and opportunities we could introduce spatial drama with substantial vertical sight lines. The en-suite bathroom to the master bedroom is organised over three levels by incorporating found spaces. A sunny terrace has a large glass wall that brings evening light deep into the apartment. Some loft space has been sacrificed to create a double height space over the living room.
The centrepiece of the apartment is the feature staircase connecting the two levels. A modular, powder-coated, white steel stair is suspended between the joists and connects to a low storage/sofa unit that runs along the front façade.
The bathroom incorporated several level changes, and by using large scale 100x300cm tiles, the impression is of one that is carved out of a single block of stone.
The original kitchen was tight, inefficient and north facing. By moving it into the common areas we could create a light, airy and spacious space that becomes the social heart and integrates with the rest of the apartment. A small fireplace is integrated into the kitchen worktop and the kitchen fronts are painted to match the colour of the fireplace.
Typology: Refurbishment and loft conversion
Client: Gullestad/Skavlan
Architect: Haptic Architects
Team: Nikki Butenschøn, Aleksandra Danielak, Peder Skavlan
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Idunsgate Apartment by Haptic appeared first on Dezeen.
Recent Norwegian projects including a sinuous hotel and a landscape intervention have been popular with readers, so we’ve collected together some spectacular examples of Norwegian architecture on our new Pinterest board. See our new Pinterest board»
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Norwegian architecture appeared first on Dezeen.
Architecture firm Snøhetta has unveiled images of a hotel that will wind across a rocky outcrop in Norway’s Lofoten archipelago.
Expected to start on site later this year, the Lofoten Opera Hotel will be located on an outlying site in Glåpen flanked by a mountain range. The new low-rise structure will loop a central courtyard, but will offer views out across the sea to the south and west.
“The spectacular view and the feeling of being ‘in the middle’ of the elements are the premier qualities of the site,” said Snøhetta in a statement.
“In a unifying gesture the site is captured in a circular movement, the complex layers of references to nature, culture, land qualities are translated into a band that transforms the site into a place.”
The 11,000 square-metre building will accommodate a mix of hotels and apartments within its curved body. There will also be spa facilities, seawater basins, hiking resources and an amphitheatre.
The project looks set to attract new guests to Lofoten, which is home to one of Norway’s 18 national tourist routes. Stretching along an 184-kilometre road, the route encompasses facilities for tourists exploring the natural landscape, including the Eggum rest stop completed by Snøhetta in 2007.
Here’s a description of the project from Snøhetta:
Lofoten Opera Hotel
Furthest west of Lofoten, in Moskenes community close to the town Sørvagen, is Glåpen.
The site extends out to sea to the south and west, linking the contact between ocean and the tall, shielding mountains to the north and northwest. The location is spectacular, sunny, in the mighty landscape elements, yet in touch with old settlement and sheltered harbors.
Snøhetta has developed a project and looked at a number of factors: the landscape “critical load” vs. new construction, functional and technical aspects of access, infrastructure, ecology and sustainability, connection to outdoors areas and existing buildings. The main goal is to find the development patterns and shapes that trigger the functional, architectural and experiential triggers the plot’s formidable potential. We think it will be essential to find a building program and a scale that “hits”, both in terms of economy, market and individual experience opportunities.
The spectacular view and the feeling of being “in the middle” of the elements are the premier qualities of the site. Plot view, organisation and habitat as form have been inspiring elements behind the concept. In a unifying gesture the site is captured in a circular movement, the complex layers of references to nature, culture, land qualities are translated into a band that transforms the site into a place.
This form creates an inner and outer space, and enhances the site’s inherent potential of an architectural expression. Concept and program are balanced in a mix of hotels, apartments, amphitheatre, spa, hiking and sea water basins within a total size of 11,000 m2. The local beach culture and storstuga are included in the project. The organic form protects and opens at the same time.
Location: Lofoten
Typology: Residential & Hotel
Client: Lofoten Opera AS
Status: Ongoing
Size: 11,000 sqm
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for a Norwegian island appeared first on Dezeen.
This solitary wooden cottage on the Norwegian island of Vega was designed by Swedish studio Kolman Boye Architects to resemble the weather-beaten boathouses that are dotted along the island’s coastline (+ slideshow).
The traditional sheds, known as Naust, are common to Norway’s seaside towns and villages, so architects Erik Kolman Janouch and Victor Boye Julebäk decided to pay tribute by creating a small residence that resembles a pair of cabins.
“We have aimed to build a contemporary Naust with an unpretentious presence and a distinctive character, developing themes from the vernacular architecture,” they said, referencing the simple materials and gabled profiles.
Vega Cottage was built over the uneven terrain of a rocky outcrop near the coastline. “The site is distinctive for its grand and harsh northern landscape with wide panoramas of the Norwegian Sea and the jagged mountains rising from it,” said the architects.
A pathway leading to the entrance sits within a natural ravine, so as not to disturb views across the landscape. As a result, the house appears to be completely cut off from any other traces of civilisation.
The architects used pine to build the structure then added birch joinery details. Exterior walls are left exposed, while interior surfaces are painted white.
“The interior is kept subtle with a character of being hand-built, promoting tactile qualities and the attractive patina developed over time,” added Kolman Janouch and Boye Julebäk.
The largest space in the two-storey building is a family living room that occupies one half of the ground floor and features a stone fireplace.
Two oversized windows offer views out towards the ocean and the surrounding mountain range, while a door opens the space out a terrace flanked by two walls.
Other spaces on this floor include a lobby with a wall of storage. Bedrooms and smaller family rooms are located upstairs.
Photography is by Åke E:son Lindman.
Read on for the full description from Kolman Boye Architects:
Vega Cottage
The house stands on the island of Vega in the Norwegian archipelago not far from the polar circle. The site is distinctive for its grand and harsh northern landscape with wide panoramas of the Norwegian Sea and the jagged mountains rising from it.
Not far from the site, near the ocean shore, stands a group of traditional seaside huts, in Norwegian called Naust, whose forms and materials reflect many years’ experience of building in these conditions. The outermost hut shelters those behind – the huts being placed at odd angles to each other, partly due to topography and partly due to chance. The windowless weathered wooden facades have a straightforward tectonic and a strong material vocabulary.
We believe that good buildings engender the refinement of everyday life, having a curious, evocative and empathic nature. We have aimed to build a contemporary Naust with an unpretentious presence and a distinctive character, developing themes from the vernacular architecture.
Seemingly growing from the landscape, the house sits on a rock beneath a granite shoulder negotiating the uneven terrain. As not to disturb the dominant view towards the sea, access to the house is given through a narrow natural ravine densely grown with gnarled birch shrubs and laid out with sea-sand from the nearby shore. The landscape remains untouched and wild.
The large windows of the house face three directions, each with its strong unique characteristic. They are simple and robust in detailing and the optically white glass conveys undisturbed frames of the ocean, the mountain range and the bedrock.
Organised on two levels adapting to the terrain, the plan is compact, providing generous social spaces within a limited floor area. The upper level is comprised of smaller scale bedrooms and family rooms, whereas the lower level is a large gallery-like space structured around a stone hearth. Completed in linseed oil painted pine with untreated birch skirting, frames and reveals, the interior is kept subtle with a character of being hand-built, promoting tactile qualities and the attractive patina developed over time.
Upon completion of the house the clients’ father, who spent his childhood in the close vicinity, visited the cottage. Being able to sit down – for the first time – sheltered from the elements; he stayed seated for several hours silently observing the ever-changing light over the sea.
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references weathered Norwegian boathouses appeared first on Dezeen.
En portant un équipement de la marque Devold Protection, le cascadeur Tom Erik Heimen s’est fait filmer pour son saut enflammé depuis une montagne de Norvège haute de 3,900 pieds. Le plus gros risque dans ce saut extrême était que le parachute prenne feu lui aussi. Une vidéo signée Peter Degerfeldt à découvrir.
The 77 individuals who lost their lives during the 2011 terrorist attacks in Norway will be commemorated by this competition-winning intervention by Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg to sever a strip of headland from the coastline near Oslo.
Jonas Dahlberg plans to pay tribute to victims by creating “a wound or a cut within the landscape” that will symbolise the feeling of loss created by the events of 22 July, which included the bombing of a government quarter in Oslo and the shootings that followed on the nearby island of Utøya.
The artist plans to make a 3.5 metre-wide slice between the surface of the landscape and the waterline in the Norwegian village of Sørbråten – just across the water from Utøya – effectively making it impossible to reach the end of the headland on foot.
“My concept for the Memorial Sørbråten proposes a wound or a cut within nature itself,” explained Dahlberg in his competition text. “It reproduces the physical experience of taking away, reflecting the abrupt and permanent loss of those who died.”
A five-minute trail will lead visitors across the landscape towards the memorial. This pathway will become a tunnel, arriving at a cutaway that faces across the water towards a stone wall inscribed with the names of the victims.
“The names will be close enough to see and read clearly, yet ultimately out of reach,” said the artist. “This experience hopes to bring visitors to a state of reflection through a poetic rupture or interruption. It should be difficult to see the inherent beauty of the natural setting, without also experiencing a sense of loss.”
Dahlberg also plans to use the excavated material to build a second memorial at the government quarter in Oslo, forging a connection between the two sites to reference the connection between the two attacks.
The various trees and plants removed to create the pathway at Sørbråten will form an artificial landscape in Oslo, creating a sunken walkway with tiered seating along one side. Meanwhile, the leftover stone will be used to construct an amphitheatre.
Here’s the full announcement from the July 22 Memorials organisation:
Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg to design July 22 Memorial sites in Norway
Director of KORO/Public Art Norway Svein Bjørkås announced the jury’s evaluation of submissions and final decision in the closed competition July 22 Memorial sites. The jury’s decision was unanimous, voting Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg as winner of the competition.
Dahlberg’s concept takes the site at Sørbråten as its point of departure. Here he proposes a wound or a cut within the landscape itself to recreate the physical experience of something being taken away, and to reflect the abrupt and permanent loss of those who died on Utøya. The cut will be a three-and-a-half-metre wide excavation running from the top of the headland at the Sørbråten site to below the waterline and extending to each side. This gap in the landscape will make it impossible to reach the end of the headland.
The material excavated from the cut at Sørbråten will be used to build the foundation for the temporary memorial at the Government Quarter in Oslo, and will also subsequently serve as the foundation for the permanent memorial there.
From the Jury’s evaluation of Jonas Dahlberg’s proposal:
Jonas Dahlberg’s proposal takes the emptiness and traces of the tragic events of 22 July as its starting point. His suggestion for the Sørbråten site is to make a physical incision into the landscape, which can be seen as a symbolic wound. Part of the headland will be removed and visitors will not be able to touch the names of those killed, as these will be engraved into the wall on the other side of the slice out of nature. The void that is created evokes the sense of sudden loss combined with the long-term missing and remembrance of those who perished.
Dahlberg has proposed to move the landmass taken out of the rocky landscape at Sørbråten to the permanent and temporary memorial site in the Government Quarter in Oslo. By using this landmass to create a temporary memorial pathway between Grubbegata and the Deichmanske Library, a connection is forged between the memorial sites at Sørbråten and the Government Quarter. The names of those killed will be recorded on a wall that runs alongside the pathway.
The proposed permanent memorial site in Oslo takes the form of an amphitheatre around Høyblokka. Dahlberg also proposes to use trees taken from Sørbråten in this urban environment to maintain the relationship between the memorial sites in the capital and to the victims of the atrocities at Utøya.
The Jury considers Dahlberg’s proposal for Sørbråten as artistically highly original and interesting. It is capable of conveying and confronting the trauma and loss that the 22 July events resulted in in a daring way. The proposal is radical and brave, and evokes the tragic events in a physical and direct manner.
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honour Norwegian terrorist attack victims appeared first on Dezeen.
Norwegian firm Eriksen Skajaa Architects has redesigned the offices of the team behind the Bergen International Festival, creating an environment that’s meant to resemble the backstage areas of a concert.
Eriksen Skajaa Architects created an open-plan office over two floors for the Bergen International Festival, a music and cultural jamboree held in Bergen each summer. This is in contrast to the old offices, which were in a bank and made up of individual rooms.
The designers say the open-plan design is more suited to the company’s fluctuating staff numbers and activity in the buildup to the festival throughout the year.
Eriksen Skajaa Architects said its design aesthetic drew on the idea that the offices are like the backstage or workshop for the festival itself.
The studio used a birch wooden framework, polished concrete floors, and black and white walls. Partitions of wooden shelving and vertical wooden fins along glass walls are intended to give the feeling of being in a workshop.
“We have focused on a production logic where it must be clear that this is a place where you make something,” said the architects. “Hence the element of wooden framework which can give the feeling that the project is not fully completed.”
The firm also made it possible for the festival staff to host small concerts and exhibitions in the new offices and designed the canteen so that it doubles as an auditorium.
The rest of the offices also include two meeting rooms, a box of shelving concealing the stairwell, two private offices and a small padded seat built into the shelving.
The bronze bust of the festival’s founder, singer Fanny Elster, is displayed in a backlit niche within the wooden shelving grid.
The company sourced its furniture from Scandinavian companies such as Design Office, Vitra and Artek, and lighting from Zero and Fagerhult.
Another project we’ve featured by Eriksen Skajaa Architects is a contemplation room which resembles a monastery in the office of a web consultancy firm in Oslo.
The Bergen International Festival was established in 1953 and features performances in music, theatre, dance and visual arts.
Photography is by Rasmus Norlander. Illustrations by Eriksen Skajaa Architects.
Here’s more from the architects.
The workshop behind the scenes
Interiors for the Bergen International Festival in Vaskerelvsmauet 6, Bergen, Norway.
Background
Bergen International Festival is a music and cultural festival to be held in Bergen in late May and early June each year. The festival is the largest of its kind and contains a wide range of events in music, theatre, dance and visual arts at the national and international level. Concerts are held in the Grieg Hall and Haakon’s Hall, in the four composer homes on Siljustøl, Trolhaugen, Lysøen and Valestrandsfossen as well as in a number of city churches, streets and squares. The first festival was held in 1953.
Concept: workshop/behind the scenes
The festival’s former premises were in an older bank building with large individual offices and for their new offices wanted open plan offices for increasingly project based work.
We have therefore prepared a project with a high degree of flexibility. The use of the premises changes during the year with a shift from planning period to the festival period in which both the activity and number of employees increases. It requires flexibility both in the workforce and in the use of the premises. We also proposed to facilitate the ability to organise small concerts and exhibitions in the new premises and that way linking the festival as an organisation closer to the events they hold.
We established early some basic ideas for the premises: the festival offices imagined as workshops where the festival is made, but also the activity behind the scenes of what’s happening in front of the curtain. We have focused on a production logic where it must be clear that this is a place where you make something. Hence the element of wooden framework which can give the feeling that the project is not fully completed, and glass walls with frames and profiles hidden from the outside so that the boxes rather look like open spaces. We have otherwise had a clear Scandinavian focus on the materiality and furniture selection, while the festival wanted to stand clear in context with the Grieg Hall, Bergen Art Museums and theatre.
Layout
We have drawn the plans so that the rooms have some organising elements such as meeting rooms and the shelf-box around the stairwell. We have had a focus on keeping the lines and let the walls align with each other to create a neat and orderly plan.
On the 5th floor are two flexible rooms for different uses: offices for project jobs and dining room. On the same floor there are also two meeting rooms, rest rooms, toilets, storage, wardrobe for guests and a printer room. The dining room can both be divided with loose walls and used as a concert hall with a stage toward the stair core, or as used today with a grand piano placed at one end wall.
On the 6th floor open plan offices are reorganised around another shelf-box around the stairwell. We also made two closed offices. On the floor there is also a copy rooms and a meeting room that can also serve as a place for temporary employees.
Design
Material palette is kept very simple and consists of a polished concrete floor, black and white walls with recessed plinth and either fixed plaster ceiling or acoustic hiling with concealed edges and large formats. Many of the rooms in the premises has walls of vertical wooden frameworks of birch with glass system wall behind mounted with concealed fixing. Rooms with wooden frame work have ceiling of birch and birch flooring.
The boxes around the previous round stairwell is in birch veneer with shelves, cabinets and benches and is used as a place to make a phone call or to small meetings. The bronze bust of the festival’s founder, singer Fanny Elster, also got a niche with lighting behind.
The furniture is from: Design Office, Vitra, Artek, Hay and Nikari, while illumination is from Zero and Fagerhult.
Architects: Eriksen Skajaa Architects
Project team: Arild Eriksen, Joakim Skajaa, Julia With
Size: 450m2
Year: 2013
Client: Bergen International Festival / Gjølanger Bruk
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designed to resemble a workshop appeared first on Dezeen.
Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter ont conçu cette jolie maison de vacances privée, à Havsdalen en Norvège. Les baies vitrées donnent une belle vue sur les montagnes enneigées et l’ensemble du mobilier est en bois, de quoi apporter un peu de chaleur à l’atmosphère. Les photos sont signées Søren Harder Nielsen.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
