Sverre Fehn

Norges paviljong på verdensutstillingen i Brussel

Fredrik Fogh

Nordic pavilion, Venice

Exhibition

Jon Eikvar

Svein-Erik Engebretsen

Since its opening in 1968, the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter has been one of Norway's most important cultural buildings. With its distinctive, expressive architecture, organically located among the landscape of Høvikodden, and with its dynamic use of materials such as glass, stone, natural concrete and copper, the building stirred international attention. When the two young Norwegian architects, Jon Eikvar and Svein Erik Engebretsen, won the Sonja Henie and Niels Onstad architecture competition in 1964, it was their very first architectural assignment. "We tried to embody the idea of a forum where the relationship between art forms could unfold and be experienced".

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter 

Museum

Fiberglass

Curved fiberglass roof

Roof section

Technological

tectonic

Aesthetic 

flexibility

Fiberglass ceiling 

Ornament

Ceiling

Architectural

Advertisement of Rikett Fiberplast in Byggenytt 31.08.1968.

Rikett Fiberplast advertisement in Byggenytt 31.08.1968

Roof

Historical

Sun House represented an idea of an ideal house, consisting of prefabricated elements. The house was to be made up of sections with a net base area of 120X400 cm. Each section, connected in width or length, would expand the house by 4.8 square meters. The system could thus be used for functions of various dimensions, from the smallest fisherman's cabin to homes, hotel facilities, etc. Each section was constructively independent and consisted of 18 components, including one wooden floor with the option of carpet or parquet, one roof molded in fiberglass with polyurethane foam insulation,two sandwich wall elements cladded in plywood or redwood, insulated with polyurethane foam, and a load-bearing rigid wooden frame, built by standard construction materials. The frame legs are double and stand on each side of the non-load-bearing wall elements, locking them in their place.

Sun House Section 

Window

Beam

Column

Sandwich wall

Newness

Erik Langdalen is a practicing architect and a professor of architecture at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. 

 is an award-winning office specialized on the preservation and transformation of historic buildings, including the Eero Saarinen designed US Embassy in Oslo (2023), the Magnus Poulsson designed Dombås Church (2023), and the soon to be opened Karl Norum-designed Posten Moderne Museum of Contemporary Art in Trondheim, as well as a number of heritage sites across Norway. His teaching and research focus on the recent past, specializing on concrete architecture, buildings systems and components. Erik is in charge of the Re-Store course portfolio, investigating how architectural education needs to respond to the climate crises through the reuse, preservation and transformation of what is already built. Since 2021, his teaching has engaged the concept of provenance in a number of master studios and seminars. His books include 

Sverre Fehn, Nordic Pavilion, Venice. Voices from the Archive

 (2021). He is the owner of the cultural center 

. Erik holds a Diploma of Architecture from AHO and a M.ARCH AAD from Columbia University GSAPP.