Snohetta is again on the shortlist for the World Architecture Festival Award – this time with its design of a Norwegian Wild Reindeer Centre Pavilion,
Tverrfjellhytta.
The integrated architecture, landscape, and interior design office Snohetta, based in Oslo, Norway, and New York City, was hired in 2011 by the Norwegian Wild Reindeer Foundation to design an observation and information pavilion at a stunning site at the outskirts of Dovrefjell National Park at Hjerkinn, around 1.250 meters (4,101 feet) above sea level, overlooking the Snohetta mountain massif.
The 75 m2 (807 S.F.) building was commissioned to create a shelter for school groups and visitors as mountain guides lecture about the unique wildlife and history of the Dovre Mountain plateau and the Dovrefjell National Park - home to wild reindeer herds, musk oxen, arctic foxes and a variety of endemic botanical species as well as of significant importance in the national consciousness of Norway. Today modern tourism and recreation continue to shape the cultural landscape of this place.
For the concept of the pavilion emphasis was put on employing qualitative high and durable natural, local building materials as well as on refining local building traditions, in order to construct a simple form building that can withstand the harsh climate. At the same time, new technologies were utilized to bring modern efficiency to the fabrication process. Thus within the building’s rectangular frame of raw steel and glass a wooden core was placed, made up of layers of timber 10 inches thick, formed into their organic shape using a large-scale robot-controlled milling machine based on digital 3D models and fixed together without screws or glue but with pegs to make the overall form. This richly colored core’s shape reminds of a rock or ice eroded by natural forces like wind or running water and creates a protected gathering place, while providing the visitor with spectacular views.
Until now Snohetta is the only architectural office to have twice won the World Architecture Festival Award for best cultural building, in 2002 for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and in 2008 for the National Opera and Ballet in Oslo.
www.snoarc.no
The World Architecture Festival Award will be announced during the festival taking place from 2-4 November 2011 in Barcelona
www.worldarchitecturefestival.com
