Northern Exposure A generation of Norwegian architects and designers adds fuel to creative culture in Scandinavia. BY DAVE KIM PORTRAIT BY BIRGIT SOLHAUG (OPPOSITE) Architect Reiulf Ramstad (left) with the founders of design collective Klubben: Sverre Uhnger (top), Sara Wright Polmar (right), and Victoria Günzler. (FOLLOWING SPREAD) Top left, Oslo s Fagerborg kindergarten, designed by Reiulf Ramstad Architects. Bottom left, a rest stop designed by 3RW, at Flydals gorge in western Norway. Top right, a lookout point at the Trollstigen tourist site, designed by Ramstad. Bottom right, the Korsgata 5 apartment building, also by Ramstad, in Oslo. HOW IT S MADE Norway has long been excluded from what the world calls Scandinavian design; the country s leading practitioners have been outpaced and overshadowed by the Danish, Finnish, and Swedish since the midcentury-modern boom. When asked why the nation never managed to produce figures with as much global influence as, say, Denmark s Arne Jacobsen or Finland s Alvar Aalto, many Norwegians will give the same answer: the oil economy. Vast fossil fuel reserves were discovered in the North Sea during the 1960s and 70s, and they quickly brought spectacular wealth to a country that had for generations relied on farming, fishing, and shipping as its economic drivers. For decades the dream of oil made innovation in industries like design more or less irrelevant to a booming energy market: When the farmer discovers that his goose lays golden eggs, he tends to stop fussing over the other animals on the farm. But Scandinavian designers and architects, after losing ground to the Italians and Dutch during the 90s and aughts, have made a grand comeback in the last few years and this time Norway is making sure it s not left out of the party. Especially prominent at the moment are the country s architects, who have enjoyed a building boom at home but are frequently scoring major cultural projects (and acclaim) internationally. Norwegian industrial designers are also on the world stage, exhibiting at design fairs like the London Design Festival and ICFF, the latter of which hosted an emerging-designer showcase titled Inside Norway this year. In May, Norwegian Icons an exhibition of midcentury pieces from Norway s master furniture makers came to New York, following blockbuster openings in Oslo and Tokyo. Surveying the work of the country s designers and architects reveals a diverse range of styles and approaches. A few are textbook examples of the so-called Scandinavian look: natural materials like wood and stone tamed by the functionalist rigors of modernism. The international press has been quick to celebrate such work, which means the public often associates contemporary Nordic design with lowslung, ultrastreamlined sofas or pinewood cube houses set in snow-white landscapes. Granted, these are common sights in Norway, but visitors to major urban centers like Oslo and Bergen will quickly come to realize there is much more to the nation s design repertoire. A recent tour of the country revealed the many opportunities and challenges Norwegian architects and designers are facing today, and how a design culture with an unsung history, but plenty of world-class talent is made. Architecture Oslo is one of Europe s fastest-growing cities, which means it s a very good time to be a developer in Norway s capital. Fjord City, a waterfront redevelopment project along the southern coastline, is a classic case study of urban planning fueled by population growth and a booming economy, with cultural and commercial projects sprouting up over some 550 acres. Its crown jewel, designed by firmof-the-moment Snøhetta, is the ramp-roofed Oslo Opera House, a gleaming white-marble building so bright that it s hard to look at in the summer sun. The structure has sparked something of a Bilbao effect in the region, drawing an estimated 10 million visitors since its completion in 2008. The commission has also helped stir up demand for architecture with a wow factor. Across the street from the opera house is a row of 12 commercial high-rises commonly referred to as the Barcode project, so-named for its resemblance to the stripes of a bar code. For visitors arriving in Oslo via the adjacent central train station, the aggressively designed collage which includes projects by Dutch firm MVRDV and the local practices A-Lab and Dark Architects is their first impression of the city. Controversial from the start, the decade-long building project has received a slew of criticism for the height and incongruous flashiness of its structures, but has also become a de facto architectural laboratory for a city in the midst of an extreme makeover. Next up for the waterfront site are large-scale housing developments a hot-button issue in the swelling city. If you want to buy an apartment in Oslo, says Gary Bates, partner of the Oslo-based firm Space Group, there might be a showing on Saturday or Sunday, and by noon on Monday, 90 percent of the places will be sold, which is a bit worrisome for architecture. People are buying whatever you re building, so the incentive to build something better, something more competitive, is not really there. The breakneck pace of private-sector construction is very much at odds with the international media s assumptions about Nordic architecture, with its supposed subtleties and contemplative regard for nature. Strolling around Oslo s hot new districts, like the Tjuvholmen neighborhood (where Renzo Piano s Astrup Fearnley Museum slumps over the adjoining harbor like a windless sail), one imagines the city as a newly minted billionaire with something to prove, one who couldn t wait to amass a collection of shiny toys. Bright colors and sleek glass facades prevail in these modish developments, and the array is dazzling but also a bit blinding. Outside the city, however, the spectacle of Norway s natural landscape mutes the shine of expensive new structures of which there are plenty. In 2005, the National Public Roads Administration designated 18 highways as National Tourist Routes, selected for the traffic-stopping beauty of the landscapes they wind through. About 150 architecture projects lookout points, walkways, rest stops, cafés have been built along these roads, and 100 more will be constructed before the project officially concludes in 2020. The commissions often go to emerging firms like 3RW, which designed stunning rest stops at Flydals gorge and Hardanger fjord, and Jensen & Skodvin, whose minimalist lodging pods for the Juvet Landscape Hotel might be the finest roadside SURFACE 126
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HOW IT S MADE PHOTOS: TOP, SIMEN SKREDDERNES. BOTTOM, SIMEN SKREDDERNES. SURFACE 128
HOW IT S MADE PHOTOS: TOP, COURTESY REIULF RAMSTAD ARCHITECTS. BOTTOM, THOMAS BJORNFLATEN. 129
HOW IT S MADE (TOP TO BOTTOM) The Tiki sofa by Andreas Engesvik for Fogia. Marbled ceramic containers by Sara Wright Polmar. Engesvik s Vong chair, manufactured by Tonning Møbler. PHOTO: TOP, COURTESY FOGIA. LEFT, COURTESY GUNZLER POLMAR. RIGHT, COURTESY ANDREAS ENGESVIK. SURFACE 130
accomodations in the country. Designs for the tourist-route projects often boldly contrast the lush fjords and barren tundras they occupy, but they re never the main event. In Norway, nature is easily the country s greatest cultural asset, and it usually upstages the man-made. At Trollstigen, a historic mountain pass in western Norway with 11 hairpin turns, a visitor center and steel-clad footpath perch hundreds of feet above a breathtaking gorge. In photographs, the visitor center appears to overwhelm the landscape with its two dramatically pitched wings. But when one is standing in front of the building, with mountains rising hundreds of feet above and a river rushing below, it reads as a sartorial accent, a handsome concrete bow tie on a landscape fit for a Romantic painting. Both the center and the walkway were designed by the architect Reiulf Ramstad, who reveals that his project, completed in 2012, was about reducing the design footprint and consolidating a sloppy constellation of existing shops, restaurants, and viewpoints into a more coherent form. The biggest part of the project is what you don t see, Ramstad says. After our project was realized, there were fewer square meters of buildings than before. Small moments go a long way in the design of the walkway, which boasts open grates and minimal guardrails that, while completely secure, help magnify the sometimes terrifying power of the natural world. One doesn t know what to take in first the foglaced gorge, the impossibly tangled highway, the gut-tightening drop beyond the rail, or the roaring river underneath one s feet. The visitor feels immersed in it all, with what feels like very little protection. We thought it was important for you to understand that nature is very beautiful, but also brutal and dangerous, Ramstad says. The materials and structures we use should be tactile guides for where you want to go and where you don t want to go. This is actually the kind of attention I want us to apply not only to places in nature, but also to the city. If we took the same care when we design in urban places, I think they would be much better. And therein lies the quandary that Norwegian architects are facing. The design principle of deferring to nature, coupled with meticulous craft and highly functional forms a tradition popularized by the Norwegian Pritzker laureate Sverre Fehn, one of the country s few design heroes is proving difficult to maintain in a country that s urbanizing at breakneck speed. How does one preserve ties with tradition, even as cities like Oslo embrace their new identities as international economic and cultural hubs? It s a challenge many growing nations around the world are facing, and Norway with its combination of social-democratic ideals and robust cash reserves is a valuable model for how it might be tackled. HOW IT S MADE Says with Torbjörn Andersson and Espen Voll before going solo nine years later. He cites the world s reawakened interest in Scandinavian design as one reason for his optimistic outlook, but also believes Norwegian industrial designers have gained an unprecedented level of confidence in developing their own voices. Part of this newfound independence means breaking away from the overwhelming influence of the Danish modern movement and dropping a longstanding little-brother complex. We don t have to feel ashamed in comparison to our neighbors all the time, Engesvik says. The government has played a major role in promoting the Norwegian design industry and distinguishing it from that of the Danes, Swedes, and Finns. Last fall, the Norwegian Design Council, funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Fisheries, showcased established designers like Engesvik and emerging ones like Lars Beller Fjetland in a show called 100% Norway at the London Design Festival, marking the 10th year of the annual exhibition. There are plenty of creative minds coming out of design schools in Norway; the problem is that there aren t enough local manufacturers to produce their work. Some designers, like Sara Wright Polmar, Victoria Günzler, and Sverre Uhnger, form collectives to foster and promote peers, while pooling limited resources and buyers. In Norway, because most people in the business know or know of each other, there s a friendly atmosphere, says Polmar, who in 2011 co-founded the design group Klubben with Günzler and Uhnger. People are supportive of each other, and working together is quite common. The team counts 29 members to date, and continues to grow. But the lack of viable manufacturing is one of the biggest challenges for the country s young designers, who often have to leave their home country despite the burgeoning design culture there. You simply have to travel and show your work other places, Polmar says. You have to try to make connections and find people to work with outside of Norway. Engesvik is optimistic about his country s manufacturing industry, though he agrees that its limitations are among the main reasons Norway is still behind its neighboring nations in terms of design. A lot of manufacturers here think that if you re able to make something, the rest is taken care of, he says. They don t understand that the images have to be great, and the communication around your brand has to be precise. But when younger people enter the few existing companies and join up with the younger people in design that s when you ll see things happening. Hopefully that transition won t be long in coming to fruition. After decades of overlooking Norwegian design, the world is finally paying attention. Design It s probably the best time in many years to be a designer in Norway, says Andreas Engesvik, who in 2000 co-founded the studio Norway 131