NTR: Lofoten

Wow – blink and an entire month has past since the last time I posted to the blog.  To quote current events back in the US – “Ooops.”  The last month has been a busy one – filled with a couple conferences and work on my thesis project – however, a post on architecture lectures and readings is not interesting, so it’s back to the roads and the next stop on the tourist routes: Lofoten.

If anyone from UW is still reading this blog, you’ll recognize a friendly face.  Fellow Valle Scholar Lauren Keene joined me for a few days, driving from Lofoten down to Trondheim together.  If you haven’t seen Lauren’s blog, check it out (it’s better than mine and full of all sorts of monkeying around): http://overgadenovenvandet.wordpress.com/

To Lofoten!

Lofoten is known for steep craggy mountains rising out of the sea, small fishing villages, and stockfish (dried salted cod).  It’s a popular tourist destination during the summer, and is currently the most complete National Tourist Route with 11 different sites.  The projects demonstrate a range of program and “built” interventions.  Here are some of the highlights.

Grunnfør – Architects: 70˚ Nord – Gisle Løkken, completed 2005.  Program: Cyclist Shelter.

An outpost of the Tourist Route that provides infrastructure for cyclists following the alternate route to the heavily trafficked E10.  Standing in a field just above a rocky beach, the cyclists shelter is over 200 meters off the road.  The landscape is open and expansive.  The building provides enclosed shelter and an elevated vantage point for looking out at the mountains, field, shoreline, the Norwegian Sea, and the horizon.  In contrast to the majority of the tourist routes projects, which draw visitors out of a car, the cyclists shelter draws one in before redirecting the view back onto its surroundings.  The interior space is sub-divided by structural walls which carry the roof and allow for the 360˚ windows at the upper level, and create a variety of seating options with different vantage points.

Gimsøystraumen – Architects: Jarmund/Vigsnæs AS, completed 2007.  Program: rest area, WC, youth/community center.

A joint project between Statens Vegvesen and a local community group, the Dønning Community Center has distinct functions and seasons of use.  During the summer months, tourists have access to the restrooms, parking, and picnic tables at the site, while the community room, cafe, and stage are available year round for use by the local social groups and as a rental space.  The building form is inspired by large boulders left behind by receding glaciers – and appears solid except for two open facades and a dormer that allow access and light into the building.  A practical and pragmatic project, the building provides necessary services to tourists, but its primary users are the locals who live in near by villages.  Side note: the coolest RV of the trip – an old yellow Mercedes-Benz that belonged to

Gårdsvatnet - Architects: 70˚ Nord – Gisle Løkken.  Program: bird watching tower.

Gårdsvatnet (and it’s twin a little further down the road at Storeidvatnet) shares some basic similarities with Grunnfør – same architect, same 2 story rectangular wooden box.  Instead of panoramic windows, there are 2m high panel doors that open up to give birders and unobstructed view of lake and surrounding wetlands.  Unfortunately, the structure and use of space within the building are not nearly as interesting as at Grunnfør.

Torvdalshalsen – Architect: Architects: 70˚ Nord – Gisle Løkken, completed 2005.  Program: Rest Area – parking, picnic benches, wall.

Anybody else picking up on a pattern?  Yes, this is one of 4 projects by Gisle Løkken.  At Torvdalshalsen, Løkken plays with the spacing of small (2cm x 2cm) pieces of standardized lumber, creating wind breaks, terraced decks, and picnic nooks of varying porosity.  The project is oriented towards the south – maximizing exposure to the sunlight and providing shelter from the prevailing breezes.  In a part of the world where the sun doesn’t rise for over 30 straight days during winter, soaking up the summer sun is serious business.  The wind break also separates the seating areas from the parking lot – greatly improving the aesthetic quality of the project.

Eggum – Architects: Snøhetta AS, completed 2007.  Program: parking, kiosk, WC, historical site, campsite (adjacent to the NTR site)

The project at Eggum is built into a hill immediately below the ruins of a German radar station from WWII.  Snøhetta excavated a circular courtyard into the hillside below the former radar station, creating an amphitheater of sorts.  The kiosk and restrooms are housed in a rectangular volume made of concrete and wrapped in wood that is inserted into the side of the hill.  Digging down in to the ground creates a space that is protected from the wind.  The ruins of the radar station draw people up the hillside and stirsthe imagination.  There is only one small sign explaining the history of the building, which is otherwise open to exploration and wonder – adding a layer of interaction and performance to that contrasts the horizontality of the horizon with the height of the surrounding mountains, and the clean modernism of the kiosk with the ruins of the radar station.

Nappskaret – Architect: Jarmund/Vigsnæs AS, completed 2003.  Program: stairs, railing and trail to a view point.

One of the first projects completed in Lofoten, Jarmund/Vigsnæs constructed a stairway and bright yellow railing leading to a view point overlooking a small valley.  The project uses color as a sign to signal the location of the project from the road.  A minimalist intervention by definition, the project capitalizes on the brightly colored railing to draw visitors up the hill.  The view is good, but it’s not great.  It’s almost as though Jarmund/Vigsnæs is commenting on the passive consumption of tourism, which leads people to sights without requiring any critical thought or observation of the landscape.

Akkarvikodden – Architect: Manthey Kula, Landscape Architect: Landskapsfabbriken – Inge Dahlman, completed 2009.

Developed in two stages, the project was initially a turn off with concrete terrace, concrete tables, and polished stone benches, designed by Inge Dahlman.  Manthey Kula later added the WC/Service building.   Utilizing both corten steel and stainless steel, the weathering of the materials registers differently across the surfaces of the building, marking the passage of time.  The all steel and glass structure also resonates and amplifies the slamming of the doors at painfully loud volumes.  From the interior the large glass windows, which look out at the sky and the far horizon create an visual effect similar to James Turrell’s Sky Spaces.  The project is sited halfway between the ocean and a curving wall of mountain faces, directing the view out to sea and back to the bare rock of the mountains.

NTR: Andøya

Andøya is one of two tourist routes without architecture (yet).  The route runs along the western shore of Andøya, an island at the northern end of the Lofoten archipelago.  The route is 51 km long, stretching out between Andenes (home to a NASA Telemetry Station and Rocket Field) in the north, and åknes-krysset (which should be capitalized, but wordpress apparently can’t handle a capital å) to the south.  Andenes is the biggest town (Pop. 2,602) on Andøya and is the ferry terminal for connecting to Senja.  There are iron-age (500BC – 1000AD, preceding and including the Viking Era) farm settlement remains at Sletten-Bakken demonstrating the long history of small farmsteads and fishing communities along the Norwegian coast.  Some unexpected finds from Andøya – a NASA Telemetry and Rocket Field Station (to study high atmosphere phenomena like the Aurora Borealis?), a beached 6′ long jaw bone from a whale, and cloudberries – a Scandinavian delicacy found primarily in arctic bogs and marshes.

One of the interesting components of this route is the absence of architecture – in my position, it is an opportunity to develop the architecture of the route as my thesis project.  As I have traveled the tourist routes and reflected upon my experiences, I have developed both an appreciation for the potential of the project (as a whole) and the excellence of some of the individual projects, as well as number of concerns regarding its realization (of the whole) and its relationship to Norwegian culture and global tourism.  The projects oscillate between providing intimate access to important natural and cultural landscapes and designing form driven objects that are sited to allow for camera-laden tourists to get out and snap a photo.  One of the questions at the root of my concerns is whether or not these projects offer an insight into larger patterns of development and human use/interaction with the nature?  Furthermore, if the patterns of urbanization continue to draw people into cities, are projects like the tourist routes an appropriate use of architects’ skills and abilities, or do they offer any insight into the development of urban space?  I don’t have an answer to any of these questions, but fortunately for me, that’s kind of the point.  Enjoy the photos!

NTR: Senja

Map Courtesy of Statens Vegvesen: http://www.turistveg.no/en/senja#map

The Island of Senja, about a 7 hr drive south of the Havøysund Tourist Route, is the site of the next tourist route.  The road follows the northern coast of the island, showing off the mountains’ dramatic plunge into the Norwegian Sea.  There are two completed projects along the route – Tungeneset and Bergsbotn – which demonstrate two very different strategies for designing architecture in a rural/undeveloped site.

Tungeneset – Architects: CODE Arkitektur, completed 2008.  Program: Parking, WC, pedestrian bridge to shoreline, barbecue platform, seating.

Tungeneset is my favorite project on the National Tourist Routes.  Similar to Lillefjord, it is a project that literally and metaphorically bridges the gap between the aesthetic practice of watch the passing landscape from within a car and the experience of exploring the rocky Norwegian coastline.  However, Tungeneset stretches the architectural scale of the intervention to match the scale of its surroundings, utilizing both architectural form and materiality to better integrate the project with the changes in geology and vegetation between the ocean below and the mountains above.  Where Lillefjord appears an object in the landcape, Tungeneset is sited as if it were a natural extension of the land; another band in the striations between water and sky.  The success of the architecture can also be measured by the use of the site.  Tourists stopped, parked their cars and actually explored the site – walking down to the water, finding a place to sit on the rocks, and studying the tide pools.  At Tungeneset, the site is a place to experience nature directly, and not simply a point on a map from which to take a nice photo.

 

 

Bergsbotn – Architects: CODE Arkitektur, completed 2010.  Program: parking, viewing platform.

This is one of my least favorite projects on the National Tourist Routes.  Same architects, same island, but a completely different result.  At Bergsbotn, the architecture explores form in a manner that encourages a sense of mirth, but does little to engage the visitor in the landscape.  It’s one concession to the unique qualities of the site is to appropriately make this structure a two sided viewpoint – featuring both the obvious dramatic view out to the fjord, and a more intimate view into the ravine that carved the hillside and channels water from the mountains down to the fjord.  How that relates to the split ribbon form of the architecture is beyond me.  As a structural strategy, it works moderately well (I can only assume that this form was chosen in part to minimize the size and visibility of the structural components), but there is still a noticeable diving board effect at either cantilever, gently bouncing the entire structure whenever one takes a step.  The purpose of this site is clear – it is a momentary stopping point for people to jump out of their cars and snap a quick photo before driving off.  The form of the architecture is being used as a sign – not as a means to a new experience or understanding of space, but as a signal that this is another place to take another panoramic photo.  Just what the average tourist’s slideshow needs – another panoramic photo.

NTR: Havøysund

As in Maine, when driving in Norway, there is no such thing as a straight line – the saying “yah can’t get the-ah from he-ah” most definitely applies.  Traveling across Finnmark from Varanger to Havøysund is to start the journey down the Norwegian Coast by heading inland, and then turning North.  Not exactly direct, but well worth the detour.

The Havøysund route winds for 66km along the coast, west and a little bit south of Nordkapp – the northernmost point on the European continent.  No matter how you cut it, the route is a down and back trip.  The town of Havøysund is the end of the road, and the only way out of town is to retrace your steps.  There are three different projects, two completed, and one under construction, that provide excellent opportunities to experience different characteristics of the surrounding landscape.

Lillefjord – Architect: Pushak Architects, Completed: 2006.  Program: service building, seating, bridge, and hiking trails up to a waterfall and viewpoint.

One of the realities of the National Tourist Routes, is that the architectural projects are small interventions that punctuate individual landscapes along a longer journey.  The relatively small-scale architecture is constantly juxtaposed against the enormity and sublimity of the natural environment.  How the architecture mediates one’s experience of the journey and the landscape is one of the primary challenges of the individual projects, and a key determinant to their success.  Does a project engage the visitor in the landscape or local culture or is it merely an aesthetically pleasing object set within the natural landscape?

Pushak’s work at Lillefjord is one of the better examples of a project that engages the visitor in the natural environment.  The program is condensed into a small footprint that appears at first to be an object dropped by helicopter in to the far north of Norway, however, it’s program – a bridge from the parking lot, across a small river (Lillefjordelva) – and execution really work to pull people from their cars and into the landscape.  The wood slat siding is angled in response to the geometry of the service building and the bridge, creating visual continuity across the bridge.  The exposed steel frame (prefabricated off site) also draws visitors onto and across the bridge to hiking trails that lead to the mountains and a nearby waterfall.  The bridge even draws people down to the banks of the river, to look at the bridge, and cool off in the passing water.

Snefjord – Architect: Pushak Architects, Completed: 2005.  Program: Sheltered seating pods, parking.

While Lillefjord encourages one to get out of the car and walk into the hills, Snefjord’s focus is on getting out of the car to rest and observe the quiet rhythms of the bay in front of you.  The seating pods are bi-directional, providing a sheltered place to sit regardless of the direction of the wind.  The pods offer an expansive view of the northern coast and the small settlements that dot the shoreline.  While visiting the site, I met Kari Mattheussen, a recently retired woman who spent her childhood in Snefjord.  She returns to Snefjord every summer, a pilgrimage that is, for her, integral to psychological and physiological well-being.  Kari’s connection to this place is so much a part of her identity that she doesn’t feel herself without returning home to walk on the shore, watch the passing of the midnight sun, feel the breezes, smell the ocean, and listen to the waves and birds.  The practice of engaging the landscape with all of her senses is one she learned from her father and one that she has passed on to her two sons.  Though by no means an exhaustive survey, Kari described (without prompting) her family’s connection to the landscape as a deep and meaningful component of their personal identities, supporting the idea that the tourist routes projects provide an insight into both the Norwegian landscape and Norwegian national identity.

Selvika – Architect: Reulf Ramstad Arkitekter AS, Under Construction, 2011.  Program: rest area, service facilities, parking, and beach access.

The third site of the Havøysund tourist route.  It’s hard to determine the success of this project, but finding an empty job site was kind of exciting.  The form and materials of the project are similar to Sohlbergplassen and Strømbu on the Rondane tourist route (Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk)  - circular service buildings and a twisting pathway of board-formed concrete down to a beautiful beach.  Access to a swimming beach will be a great way for visitors to  break what Juhani Pallasmaa refers to as the supremacy of vision in experiencing our immediate surroundings.  By submerging one’s body in the ocean and engaging all of one’s senses in the experience of the surrounding environment, one experiences a place more fully.  When I visited, it was 27 degrees, possibly the hottest day of the summer, so I went swimming.  Well – that may be a bit of an over-statement.  I waded in a deep as I could bear, and then dunked myself a couple times before running out.  It may have been a hot and sunny in early August, but at 70 degrees N, the water was still freakin’ cold.  As you can see in the photos, I wasn’t the only one temped to go swimming.

Sverre Fehn – Norsk Bremuseum

Another short photo post: some images from Sverre Fehn’s Norwegian Glacier Museum (1989-91, expansion 2006-2007).  Three interesting anecdotes I learned from the Director of the Museum (who happened to be on his smoke break while I was snapping photos out front): First, Sverre Fehn sketched the first parti for the museum while on vacation in Morocco.  Second, he never intended for the stairs to align with the mountain.  That was purely a happy accident.  Third, the tiny little WC in the parking lot was his first commission after winning the Pritzker Prize in 1997, and he went through several iterations before settling on the final design.  Talk about down-to-earth norwegian humility – “Yes, I just won the Pritzker Prize, but of course, I will happily design a parking lot toilet for you!”

Suomi

Less talk, more photos.  All things Suomi – trees, reindeer, Saami canoes, Aalto, and flat(ness) – in photos.

NTR: Varanger – Back to the beginning

From the very beginning of this project – back in Seattle when I was first looking at the Tourist Routes Projects and starting to write my proposal for the Valle Scholarship – the idea of traveling the entire coast of Norway was very seductive. Even after two months of living in Norway and three weeks of driving, it still is. So when I left Oslo on July 25, it only made sense to drive 2,300 km through Sweden and Finland (Suomi) to get back to Finnmark and the Varanger Tourist Route; to start over from the beginning and drive the entire coast.

Finnmark is the largest and least populated county in Norway – it is larger than Denmark, but only has 72,000 residents. Human settlements date back over 10,000 years, and the Saami culture and people remain a significant part of life in the far north. Of all the tourist routes, the projects along the Varanger route have the most direct ties to the local history, incorporating the Norwegian Witch Trials, German occupation during WWII, and the cultural conversion from Saami shamanism to Christianity into the three sites.

Gornitak – Architect: Margrete Friis, Landscape Architect: Berg & Dryning – a rest area, shelter, and WC that incorporates the ruins of a German munitions bunker and fuel dock into the architecture. The project provides sheltered places to sit out of the wind and enjoy the view as well as two picnic sites with steel fire places closer to the water. The munitions bunker is nicely integrated into the overall structure of the rest area and facilities, however, the interior of the structure is lined with opaque blue glass walls, preventing you from seeing any of the original structure. This provides a striking contrast between old exterior and new interior, but it also limits the experience of the ruins to a superficial view from the outside.

Nesseby – Landscape Architect: Inge Dahlman – a parking lot with stacked stone walls, seating, and illumination of the nearby church. The project gives visual access to a small church (locked) on a small peninsula jutting out into Varangerfjorden. Frankly, it’s a disappointing project. The walls are nicely constructed, and the wood seating areas are cleanly detailed, but the walls do little beyond defining the edges of the parking area, and there is no signage or information about the site’s history or ecology. Rather than engage the visitor in the site and the landscape, the project seems content to be a static place from which to view the church and the shoreline. Of course, one can walk beyond the parking lot, however, the project makes no effort to draw you into the landscape or change your perspective from the same views you can get from your car.

Ceavccageadge – An independent cultural site that allows you to walk through Saami settlements, burial grounds, and sacrificial and religious sites along the coast. I find it very interesting that this is not an official part of the national tourist routes – especially given the ties to local history that are celebrated at the other sites in Varanger. It would seem to me that the Saami history, which is so strongly tied to Finnmark, would be just as compelling to highlight as a part of the NTR, if not more so, than the church at Nesseby or the German munitions shed at Gornitak. However, it is not included, or even mentioned in Statens Vegvesen’s description of the route on their website.

Steilneset – Architect: Peter Zumthor, Artist: Louise Bourgeoise – I have written about the Steilneset memorial in an earlier post (http://trollspotting.wordpress.com/2011/06/22/no-car-no-problem/) so I will spare you additional writing, however, here are some new photos of the completed memorial and burning sculpture.