Hammerfest Arctic Culture Centre Norway

The building rises up and over the new arctic beach like a great ship in dry dock, a vessel for creativity, for music and for dance. Its spherical underbelly mirrors the curve of the horizon at the top of the world and captures a sublime view of the island of Haja.

Its skin is an explosion of timber, a dense fur in motion ruffled by the winds becomes a reading of the building as dynamic, bristling with energy and with the potential to be wild. It is also an experiment in thermal performance. This bristling coat will act like a polar bear’s fur, trapping snow and blocking wind while allowing the low arctic sun to penetrate to the dark inner skin of building.

Hammerfest is marked by a building of its place – a culture centre that reaches into the myths of the founding of the northernmost city, into the material of its reconstruction, into the essence of its extreme location and its extraordinary environment.

 

Client
The Municipality of Hammerfest Council
Size
6,890 m²
Status
Competition
Year