Verkstedet - Workshop for building conservation and traditional handcrafts
Open International Competition
2021
1st prize (700 000 NOK)
Participants: 121 teams
In collaboration with Arkitekt Aslak Haanshuus AS
A workshop building that contributes to the preservation and promotion of traditional Norwegian handcrafts will be built at an open-air museum in Follo. The building will function as both workplace and open learning arena, and will house carpenters, joiners, blacksmiths, silversmiths, glassblowers, potters and textile workers.
The plot has great natural qualities, and an important premise has been the preservation of an existing foresty hill with several protected oak trees. Preservation of the hill creates a clear separation between public entrance and operating side, allowing for the new building to create a compact and unified complex together with the existing museum building.
An elongated and flexible workshop space is placed on the existing surface next to the museum building, while a longitudinal backbone containing technical spaces, storage and wet rooms runs alongside and is stepped off towards the hill. The height of the building is decreased towards the north end in accordance with interior height requirements, reducing the scale effect of the volume towards the entrance side and the relatively low existing museum building.
The north facade of the new building delimits Torget - a continuous floor surface that marks the entrance to the museum as a whole, and that highlights the main foyer in the existing building. From Torget visitors are led down Gata, an intimate space where the two buildings interact closely, and where multiple synergies between different activities can occur. Gata culminates on Tunet, an outdoor workplace and a common gathering place for the entire museum. Tunet is directly related to the different workshops inside the new building, and has views towards the historical buildings of the open-air museum. The east facade of the building is opened up towards Gata and Tunet, thus activating the space between the buildings and allowing the public to take part in the diverse activities of the workshops.
The architectural expression of the new building draws inspiration from the existing museum building rather than from the historical and authentic gabled roof houses of the open-air museum. Our aim has been to create a robust and flexible workshop building, with a sober expression that will stand the test of time. A building that creates a natural framework for the individual expressions of the various handcrafts that will inhabit it.