Twentieth-century architecture in Norway is characterised by a
search for a cultural, historical, and aesthetic identity, primarily
as the result of the country's independence from the Swedish
union in 1905. Thus. Norwegian architects at the turn of the
20ch century sought more national traditions, as displayed in
the other arts.
A Norwegian architect who tried to create a national architcetural style at the beginning of the 20th century was Arnstein
Arneberg. Arneberg joined forces with the Norwegian architect
Magnus Poulsson in building farmers' houses that used gables
and turfed roofs, Arenberg's house at Madserud Allé 38 (1924)
is an example of this regional style, with its red exterior wood
paneling and with its half-hipped roof. Ameberg and Poulsson
were educated in Sweden, a country also in quest of a national
identity that could be represented in
national architectural
style. Arneberg returned to Norway from Sweden in 1906, with
Poulsson arriving four years
later; they went on to develop a
postwar romantic style in town houses as well as for large public
buildings. Their design for the competition for the City Hall
(Radhus) in Christiania (Oslo) in 1915-17 was a culmination
of this idea. However, it was not built until 1930, and thus,
new ideas were included in the final design.
However, after World War I, the works of Arneberg and
Poulsson would be criticised for their "Norwegian-ness" and
their superficial ornamentation. A rejection of historical styles
and monumentality ensued. Although not created as such, these
older styles were thought of as expressions of power and repression. Classicism -with its emphasis on universal architectural
forms- came to the forefront at this time. Architects attempted
to create an objective architecture that would replace Norwegian
architects' preoccupation with national romanticism. Many of
these architects had been trained at the new Norwegian Institute
of Technology, which had opened in 1910, with its first graduates in 1914.
Gudolf Blakstad and Dunker's winning neoclassical project
for the New Theatre in Oslo (1919), which displayed an ordered
plan and exterior symmetry, was the first to be shown in the
new periodical Beggekunst, which was first published that same
year. Following this competition, neoclassicism's major proponent. Herman Munthe-Kaas, would herald this new style in the
same journal. A large portion of buildings from 1920 to 1925
appeared in this new, restrained classical style. During this time,
Blakstad and Munthe-Kaas won the competition and had built
the new city hall in Haugesund (1924-31), also based on neo-classical principles.
Two of Norway's leading exponents of national romanticism,
Arneberg, and Poulsson, tried to adapt to Neoclassicism, but
without complete success. In 1924 and 1925, the Norwegian
painters Henrik Sorensen and Erik Werenskiold began to attack
neoclassicism in architecture as being foreign. There was to be
no middle ground reached between the two schools of national
romanticism and classicism; instead, architects turned toward
modern functionalism.
Modern architecture flourished in Norway between the world
wars. Especially during the 1930s, some Norwegian architects
became concerned with creating an international architecture
based on global sameness. Such formal expressions as white
building volumes, flat roofs, strip windows, free plan, and minimal detailing made their way into the language of Norwegian
architecture.
Le Corbusier's Pavillon de 'Esprit Nouveau was praised in
1925 by Edvard Heiberg as a new form created from a functional
aesthetic. Lars Backer adopted the new architecture of functionalism, declaring it to be the new objective architecture in which
form follows function. In 1927, Johan Ellefsen, in an article
entitled "What is Modern Architecture?" claimed that functionalism creates forms that contain both national and local characteristics. He rejected any use of historical styles and advocated
in the manner of Le Corbusier the consideration of landscape,
climate, materials, and construction.
Backer's first project, the Skansen Restaurant in Oslo (1927),
was the first modernist building in Norway. Here he introduced
the continuous window band, the flat roof, clear skeleton construction, free plan, and continuous glass sections. An amalgamation of other architectural precedents- such as the work of Le
Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and the German expressionist
architect Erich Mendelsohn. Backer's restaurant also contains
horizontal and vertical elements of De Stijl architecture.
Ideas on modern architecture also entered the Norwegian
architectural discipline through a study tour to Holland in 1928
and also through a 1930 manifesto of Nordic functionalism.
This manifesto was written in conjunction with the 1930 Stock-
holm exhibition displaying architecture and utilitarian objects.
This exhibition, with Gunnar Asplund as the featured architect,
influenced many Norwegian as well as Swedish architects,
Munthe-Kaas, the Norwegian architect, became the Norwegian
delegate to the Congrès Internarionaux 'Architecture Moderne
(CIAM) and had direct contact with international ideas on architecture. In 1932, he made a study tour of ren European countries
and reported his findings in Byggekwat in the following year.
Ove Bang, who opened his architectural practice in Oslo in
1930, also helped lay the foundation for modern architecture
in Norway, His Villa Didev-Simonsen (1937) and the worker's
association (Samfunnshuset) in Oslo (1939) combine modernist
structure with the traditional material of wood. This Norwegian
interpretation of modernism contained architectural elements
with a sense for nature and humanism that would be further
incorporated in Norwegian architecture during the postwar
years.
After World War I, the architectural historian Siegfried Giedion brought to the forefront the need for a modernist architecture that considered the local essence of place, often cited as the
new regionalism," According to Giedion. Alvar Aalto's work
exemplified such an architectural language. Many Norwegian
architects, including Knut Knutsen, responded to Aalto's organic functionalism. Knutsen, like other Norwegian architects
after World War 11, attacked international modernist architecture, claiming that it threatened Norwegian identity, Knutsen's
approach is exemplified in his design of the Porter house (1948),
in which he abandons modernist rectilinearity for the organic
shape of the landscape that in tum. influences, the house's plan.
In contrast to Knutsen, Are Korsmo, an early proponent of
functionalism, emerged as the leading proponent of International Style architecture during this time. In 1949, he traveled
to the United States to study the works of Frank Lloyd Wright,
Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Walter Gropius, and other modernists. Korsmo became fascinated with Gropius's teaching methods, and he introduced these to Norway at the Arts and Crafts
school in Oslo, His own house in Oslo (1952-55) with free
plan and modernist structure, combines the saturated colors of
traditional Norwegian farm interiors. Korsmo's architecture did
not bring nature into a more regional articulation of elements, as
in Knutsen's work, which gained a wider acceptance in Norway.
Korsmo became inspired by Gropius's ideas of solving tasks
by collaboration and led to the founding of the Norwegian group
within CAM named PAGON (Progressive Architects' Group
Oslo Norway). Members included Korsmo, Sverre Fehn, Geir
Grung, Odd Ostbye, P.A.M. Melbye, Hakon Mjelva, Robert
Esdaile, and Christian Norberg-Schulz. This group took part in
numerous architectural competitions during the 1950s.
The dissolution of CIAM in 1956 triggered the beginning
of the crisis in modern architecture. The free plan of modern
architecture used in an urban context brought an end to traditional urban spaces such as the street and the square, with the
result of a loss of place. This low of place created by late modern-
ism was also discussed in Kevin Lynch's book. The Image of the
City (1960). To counteract this sense of loss, Norwegian architects began to create a strong identity in the building itself
through expressionistic experiments. Eero Saarinen's TWA air
terminal in New York (1962) and his United States Embassy in
Oslo (1955-59) emphasised : sculptural quality to architecture.
Both buildings reflect the expressionistic tendencies that soon
would develop in Norwegian architecture,
Expressionistic experiments in Norwegian architecture continued. but other architects still developed ideas that followed
Knutsen's organic functionalism and Korsmo's modern idiom.
Eliassen and Lambertz-Nilssen carried Knutsen's ideas farther,
as seen in their the Aust-Agder Central Hospital (Arendal) and
Telemark Central Hospital (Skien) and in the 1970s with Sande-
fjord's Civic Center (1969-75)., Korsmo's student Fehn carried
his ideas into a regional and individualized architecture, as did
Kjell Lund and Nils Slaatto.
One of Fen's earlier works, the Norwegian Pavilion at the
Brussels World's Fair in 1958. shows the use of the structural
clarity of Mies van der Rohe along with the use of traditional
Norwegian materials. In his Archbishopric Museum in Hamar
(1979), Fehn inserts into ruins of the medieval bishop's quarters
modernist form. In this project, he combines wood and concrete in an interest for the tectonic. His Glacier Museum in
Fierland (1991) also displays the same qualities and translates
the local landscape into the architectural design and form, Fehn
has become a major influence in Norwegian architecture with
his incorporation of the ideas introduced by Korsmo concerning
the poetry of architecture and using past architectural forms
within a modernist language.
Significant shifts in Postmodernism also appeared in Norwegian architecture, often filtered through the writings of American
architect Robert Venturi, who promoted an architecture that
reflected the complexity of life by incorporating memories of
identity and historic architectural forms in a new context. Architect Jan Digerud, who was educated in the United States,
brought Venturi's ideas to Norway in an article in Byggekunst
titled "An Inclusive Architecture," Digerud eventually joined
with Jon Lundberg wo create the firm Jan and Jon; they designed
five one-family houses as well as a cottage near Riser illustrating
these Postmodern tendencies.
Venturi's and Louis Kahn's ideas also inspired Are Telje,
Fredrik AS. 'Torp, Knut Aasen, Arne Henriksen, Harald Hille,
Thomas This-Evensen, and the group 4B. Throughout the
1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Postmodernist architecture developed
alongside works produced by Korsmo's and Knutsen's followers.
Most recently, during the 1990s, Norwegian architects began
to develop sense of place within building practices by integrar-
ing ideas of sustainability and tectonics. One work that is :
response to climate is Jarmund's and Vignes's Offices for the
Governor of Swalbard (1997-98). Svalbard, located in the Arctic,
has severe winters with lice light, harsh wind, and large amounts
of snowfall. The west face of the building resembles the wind-
breakers seen across the mountainous roads of Norway, which
give protection
from harsh winds, indicative of the winter chi-
mate. Jarmund and Vigsnas apply tectonics in a metaphorical
and functional manner giving a sense of place to the building.
Bjerk's and Borge's Samelandssenteret (Sami Center, 1998-
2000) in Karasjok- the Norwegian capital of the Sami people-
also responds to the harsh environment and cultural identity of
northern Norway. The center, used for cultural, commercial,
and political activity, combines, to a certain extent. symbols of
the Sami culture. One of the structures is reminiscent of the
traditional dwellings of the Sami and uses exposed timber, and
a few window frames use the national colours of red, yellow, and
blue.
Sustainable design is beginning to infiltrate the Norwegian
landscape. In the Steiner School in Stavanger, designed by Arbeidsgruppen HUS, there is a focus on healthy materials. The
architects used low-emission materials. They have also treated
the wood with traditional beeswax lacquers. With a predominantly cold and wet climate, this building has walls that breathe to avoid condensation. The wall comprises an outer permeable
layer of buckskin, a cavity, cladding of timber or board, then
insulation and plasterboard as the inner finish.
REBECCA DALVESCO
Sennott R.S. Encyclopedia of twentieth century architecture, Vol.2. Fitzroy Dearborn., 2005. |
