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Sverre Fehn - Norway Norsk Bremuseum (Norwegian Glacier Museum) Fjærland 1989 - 1991 |
The Norsk Bremuseum (Norwegian Glacier Museum in English), designed by Sverre Fehn,
is located at the scenic Jostedalsbreen National Park in a lea along the Fjaerlandsfjord at the foot of the glaciers.
The purpose of the museum is to collect, create and disseminate
knowledge about glaciers and the climate, and at the same time provides
information about the Jostedalsbreen galcier and the National Park of
the same name. The building
appears as a rough angular bunker made of site-cast exposed concrete,
recalling the
stones and mountains carved by the glaciers. With its bulky volume, the
building strongly contrasts with the soft landscape surrounding it. The
heavy concrete
envelope of the museum is pierced with small portholes and strips of
glazings. Only one large opening is sealed with angled glass panes
which rise into the air like gaping cavities in the hillside. This
glazed area allows for magnificent views for the visitors of the cafe
and restaurant
area. Access to the building is made by a long entrance canopy,
extending in a strait line and apruptly shifted upwards as it meets the
concrete mass of the building, acting as a visual interpretation of a
glacier sliding down a
mountain. This expressive canopy with its extraordinary length is
considered to be an interpretation of the long durations for these
natural landscapes to be formed. On either side of the entrance is a
stairway leading up to a public roof-top terrace, allowing for a
general survey
of the surroundings, as if one had climbed a rock. The entrance itself,
located between the two stairs, is conceived as a cave-like portal,
interpreted as an access into the underside of a glacier. In the
interior, the ceiling and the skylights appear very topological,
exposing forms as if they were shapes between the underside of a
glacier and the rock. An important feature of the space is the long
central skylight. Construction of the building was completed in
1991, later Sverre Fehn conceived an addition to the museum, containing
the Ulltveit-Moe
Climate Centre, which could be opened in 2002.
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