London-based
drdharchitects has won first place in the international competition to design a
new library and concert hall in
Bodø, Norway.
The Bodø Kulturhus and Library will consist of two public buildings; a
new city library (5,500m²) and a three-auditorium concert hall
(7,350m²), creating a new cultural center for the Norwegian coastal
city.
The results of the competition were announced in Bodø, Norway on
February 27. drdharchitects beat five other practices to win the
invited competition, including
CF Moller,
Medplan,
General Architecture,
Langdon Reis Zahn and
Lundgaard & Tranberg.
On winning the competition, director of the London-based practice
Daniel Rosbottom said, “These are the last two sites left in the urban
center of Bodø, following the WWII bombing which devastated the city.
We are, in effect, completing the reconstruction through the building
of a new cultural heart. It is a great honor to be given such a
responsibility.”
Director David Howarth added, “We made over 50 iterations of the scheme
to get the balance of urban and programmatic concerns right. It was
very important for us that the buildings feel in scale with their
surroundings and that they can mediate between old and new; whilst
having the monumental quality that a civic building needs.”
Bodø is situated north of the Arctic Circle and is capital of the
Nordland region of Norway. The practice qualified for the Kulturhus and
Library project after placing joint first in a previous open
competition for a cultural master plan for the Bodø harbor area, in
which 93 practices participated.
Odd-Tore Fygle, mayor of Bodø and jury member, said, “We believe this
is a building that will fit very well into this part of Bodø… It is
very inviting. When you go down Storgata, you will really want to go
into it.”
The buildings have a figurative quality; two distinct but related
characters, engaged in conversation with each other, and with their
urban and harbor contexts. Together they form the new cultural heart of
the city of Bodø.
The geometries of each building plan adjust in response to variations
in the grain of the city fabric. The main entrance façade of the
Kulturhus is inflected to form a hinge in the shifting line of the
street, whilst the waterfront façade of the library adjusts to the line
of the harbor wall, recalling both the shed like nature of harbor-side
structures and the civic qualities of a temple or basilica.
The interior public spaces of the Kulturhus are planned to take
advantage of expansive views across the harbor. From the principal
foyer space of the Kulturhus, the shaped roof of the Bibliotek can be
seen, forming a horizon to the sea and the mountains beyond. Arriving
by boat, the buildings present themselves almost as a single piece; a
‘hill’ of gabled forms, perspectively receding like a theater set;
glittering on a sunny day.
from bustler
