Ånd

Christian added company ALA
2 years ago

Christian added company HAV Eiendom AS
2 years ago

Christian added this project

CITY
The fjord waterfront has all the potential to make Oslo a truly contemporary coastal capital. Through its topology the Opera has managed to stretch central pedestrian Oslo eastward. Upstream the multicultural Grønland pulls north. A move southward is needed to regain the shoreline for the fjord city.

RIVER
The Aker river flows into the sea on this site. Medieval Oslo was sited to the east of the river, the modern centre to the west. This point, where the fresh water meets the sea, is where the museum is placed. In this setting the museum becomes a high point of the dramatic series of public vistas starting at the railway station square at the end of Karl Johans gate and through the opera square. The new beach boulevard will meander over the opera to the museum with full views to the fjord and full exposure to the sun long into the summer nights. Locating the museum here will pull crowds to the area, creating a positive flux.

TWO PIERS
Bjørvikautstikkeren will develop into a lush beach outlined by the opera and the museum. Paulsenkaia will house a large mainly residential development which intertwines with the river and the pier, giving excellent fjord views and creating a number of public spaces alternating on each side, scaling down towards the generous square encompassing the last rays of a setting sun across the beach. The northern office section of the building rises up towards the Bar Code area linking the shore line to the high skyline behind.With the directed cuts through the building on ground floor, the result is an urban condition where people have an abundance of routes and settings to choose between.

THE MUSEUM
“…the line itself, its rise and fall and the entire curvilinear interplay, always has held greater fascination for me than the colour schemes.” In his biography of Munch, Stenersen mentions the artist reflecting on man consisting of waves of spirit and matter. Stenersen quotes Munch saying “The difference between men and women is as great as between round and straight lines.”

BIPOLARITIES
The programme contains an inherent polarity through the fact of housing two separate collections. The museum also contains a contradiction; wanting to inversely protect whilst extrovertly exhibit its content. This contradiction is reflected in Munch’s personal dilemma of wishing to display his innermost feelings to the public at wide.

ARCHITECTURE
The building is placed in between the two view sectors across form Bispekilen and the medieval ruins towards the Akershus castle. It is shaped as a combination of a flat transparent surface and a bulging opaque wall. The vertical glass surface takes the line of the pier where the solid wall accommodates the varying sizes of the galleries within and creates an entrance foyer to complete the main vista.

As one approaches the museum its curved façade distorts the view of the city it reflects. The viewer is mirrored against the cityscape behind into a distorted series of stripes across the façade. The approaching people are lured in as they follow the undulating contours into the foyer in a direct continuation of the beach promenade. The foyer is an extrovert cave like space facing the grand view to the fjord. From here one moves into the protected introvert main body of the museum, to the other side of the main glass surface. A view upstream opens to the visitor as he heads higher into the gallery levels. Munch’s story is told along the windows facing the morning sun and the medieval ruins, before continuing up into the main galleries. This section has the full blown, pregnant shape of a container. Daylight filters out into a darkness broken only by the highlighted paintings as one moves deeper into the museum.

2 years ago