Modular hydro power stations
Ditti / Lappskaret / Krogstad / Ellenelva / Mortendalselva / Saldalelva, Norway
Location: Ditti / Lappskaret / Krogstad / Ellenelva / Mortendalselva / Saltdalelva, Norway
Time: 2010
Status: Unbuilt, 1st prize invited competition
Client: Fjellkraft as
Photo Credit: manthey kula
System for prefabrication of modular hydro power stations. Similarly formed wall- and roof elements in solid wood or concrete to be assembled responding to changing site conditions and different technical requirements. In spite of individual differences the buildings are recognizable as part of the company's profile.
Studio Pilestredet
Oslo
Location: Pilestredet, Oslo, Norway
Year: 2010
Status: Built
Client: Private
Photo credit: Manthey Kula
Transformation of an old industrial space into a small studio.
The vaulted room had no infrastructure, only a drain oddly placed high up on the wall. An elevated brick structure containing a bathroom and a small kitchen added to the spatial experience and subdivided the room into different zones.
Myrbærholmen fishing bridges
Møre og Romsdal, Norway
Location: Averøy, Møre og Romsdal, Norway
Year: 2010
Status: Built
Client: Norwegian Scenic Routes
Photo Credit: manthey kula
The narrow bridge of the high speed road has always been a very good and quite dangerous fishing spot. The new cantilevering walkways provide secure ground for both fishers and tourist enjoying the view over the Atlantic Ocean.
The geometry of the walkways emphasizes the curvature of the Atlantic road that meanders between the islets of the rough coast. A cut in the rock provide parking space for both locals and tourists trying their luck with the fish. Ramps, stairs, walkways and waiting area are prefabricated in galvanized steel and mounted on the existing bridge structure. The railings of the bridge were designed to improve fishing for the disabled.
Fence
Bergen, Norway
Location: Bergen, Norway
Year: 2010
Status: Built
Client: The Directorate of Norwegian Correctional Service
Photo credit: Stein Bjørge, Manthey Kula
Low cost fence around the outdoor area of the temporary juvenile detention unit at Bergen prison. Recycled road signs replace the regular barbed wire perimeter, providing the inmates with references to places outside their limited situation. Places they might know or dream of.
Akkarvik roadside restroom
Lofoten, Norway
Location: Akkarvik, Lofoten, Norway
Year: 2009
Status: Built
Client: Norwegian Scenic Routes
Photo Credit: Paul Warchol
Award: Nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2011
The rest room replaces an old facility that had been lifted off its footing by strong winds. Thus the small building needed to be heavy so that it would not easily be moved off the ground. The restrooms were conceived to present a pause from the impressions of the surrounding nature, offering an experience of different sensuous qualities. Thus the building is made of 10-12 mm sheets of structural corteen steel welded together on site. The thin steel sheets are braced by steel flanges where it is needed. The bracing gives an almost ornamental quality to the pragmatic spaces. Two large glass openings provide view to the sky and a reflected horizon. Surfaces that the visitors will get in contact with are made of stainless steel or covered in clear glass to prevent rust staining.
Skreda roadside restroom
Lofoten, Norway
Location: Skreda, Lofoten, Norway
Year: 2009
Status: Built
Client: Norwegian Scenic Routes
Photo Credit: Steinar Skaar
Low cost transformation of existing roadside restroom. Part of the dilapidated building was removed and protruding details cut away. The remaining volume was clad in fiber cement and surrounded by a new concrete platform defining the service and information area. Light fixtures were designed to be part of the standardized information system.
House Biristrand
Oppland, Norway
Location: Biristrand, Oppland, Norway
Year: 2008
Status: Built
Client: Private
Photo Credit: manthey kula
The house was to be built by the client and as such it was designed as a straightforward volume with a flexible structure leaving possibilities for the clients to develop their own solutions. The roof and three of the outer walls are in solid timber panels while the western wall is equipped with an open, flexible framework to accommodate recycled building elements.
Myrbærholmen fishingdock
Møre og Romsdal, Norway
Location: Myrbærholmen, Averøy, Norway
Year: 2008
Status: Unbuilt
Client: Norwegian Scenic Routes
Photo Credit: manthey kula
A dock from where one can fish safely in the often-rough seas along the Atlantic road. A stainless steel truss dimensioned to withstand a wave height of 14 meters. The dock is approached from the parking space through a passage cut in the bedrock.
Juvenile detention unit
Bergen, Norway
Location: Bergen, Norway
Time: 2008
Status: Feasibility study
Client: The Directorate of Norwegian Correctional Service
Photo Credit: manthey kula
Recognition: Exhibitied at the New Nordic exhibition at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark
Project for a new spatial organization of a juvenile detention unit in an abandoned building at the Bjørgvin prison. The existing two-story structure is suggested transformed into a three story interactive prison.
The youth facility constitutes a small community of inmates and staff. The cell is designed such that the inhabitant, by way of flexible sliding doors, can affect his or her relation to the communal space outside the cell. From being a closed entity the cell can gradually unfold and such work as an instrument for communication and engagement.
Space – such as a prison cell – should not be used as punishment, but rather as vehicle for the individual in his/her journey back to the society.
Pålsbu hydro power station
Buskerud, Norway
Location: Tunhovd, Buskerud, Norway
Year: 2007
Status: Built
Client: Statkraft
Photo Credit: Per Berntsen
Award: Nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2009
The generator chamber is situated as a free standing building in front of the 530 meters long dam, emphasizing the sculptural quality of the unbroken man made line through the landscape.
The structure consists of 15 load bearing precast concrete panels stacked around the turbine and generator. The 52 tons equipment is lifted in place by a crane supported by an in situ concrete framework. The protruding structure of the crane is covered in rough spray-on concrete. There are no gutters; stainless steel profiles are welded to the concrete panels to prevent water from entering the precast holes that serve as screens in front of windows and ventilation openings. The roof is made of prefabricated steel trusses.
Virginia
Paper project
Year: 1997-2001
Status: Paper Projects
Photo Credit: manthey kula
Aknowledgement: The Virginia project is part of the collection of the National museum, Norway
The Virginia Series consists of four projects based on female literary characters. The projects have been exhibited at the Finnish museum of architecture in Helsinki, Galleri Rom, Oslo, The Artists Association, Baku, Pilegrimsgården Budsjord, Dovre and the National museum, Oslo.
Vanessa Baird: Go Down with Me
Oslo
Location: Oslo
Client: MUNCH
Photographers: Ove Kvavik/The Munch Museum
The first exhibition of Vannesa Baird at MUNCH presents more than 500 works.
Trembling Earth Edvard Munch
Oslo
Location: Oslo
Client: MUNCH
Photographers: manthey kula and Ove Kvavik/The Munch Museum
Exhibition focusing on Edvard Munch’s depictions of nature.
Edvard Munch Horizons
Oslo
Location: Oslo
Client: MUNCH
Photographers: Ove Kvavik/The Munch Museum
This collection display gives a broad overview of some of the movements and tendencies which characterised European art in Edvard Munch’s lifetime. Munch’s art is shown alongside the work of many other artists to convey a picture of Munch as an artist very much in touch with his own time.
Satyricon & Munch
Oslo
Location: The Munch museum, Oslo, Norway
Year: 2022
Status: Built
Client: The Munch museum
Photo Credit: The Munch museum and Peter Geelmuyden Magnus
An exhibition presenting work by Norwegian black metal band Satyricon and Edvard Munch. The meeting between Satyricon’s commisioned composition and a selection of paintings and graphics by Munch resulted in a monumental and at the same time intimate experience that captured all senses.
Compassion in Action
Oslo
Location: Nobel Peace Center, Oslo, Norway
Year: 2022
Status: Built
Client: Nobel Peace Center
Photo Credit: Nobel Peace Center/ Johannes Granseth
An anniversary exhibition celebrating Fridtjof Nansen’s work leading up to him receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in 1922. The exhibition focuses on Nansen’s humanitarian legacy by showing some of the recipients of the UNHCR Nansen Award.
Guest of honor pavilion
Frankfurt, Germany
Location: Frankfurt, Germany
Year: 2019
Status: Built
Client: NORLA
Photo Credit: manthey kula and Luis Callejas
Award: Nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2022
In collaboration with LCLA
In 2019 Norway was the guest of honor at the international book fair in Frankfurt. An open competition asked for a spatial concept that could organize the different cultural activities that were to take place in the large existing hall.
The space was divided by a single wall. Towards the pavilion’s large windows: the library, a cafe and small stages. On the dark side of the wall: the large stage and a landscape of strangely familiar table-forms. The tables referred to the abstract geography contained in literature: the landscape of imagination.
Each table supported a specific category of books or literature-related objects. The tables were designed and produced in aluminium with excellent craftsmanship not typical of temporary events. After the book fair, the tables were given to selected cultural institutions, libraries and book stores.
Flåm restaurant and foodcourt
Flåm, Norway
Location: Flåm, Norway
Year: 2019
Status: Invited Competition
Photo Credit: manthey kula
A glue-lam post and beam structure clad in raw aluminium housing restaurants and food market in the heavily touristed village of Flåm in the fjord landscape of western Norway.
Stella’s room
Sørum, Norway
Location: Sørum, Hedmark, Norway
Year: 2018
Status: Built
Client: Private
Photo Credit: manthey kula
The present farm is the result of a series of architectural interventions by late architect Are Vesterlid: A rich architectural collage of historic timber tradition and original contemporary work. Stella’s room is an addition to this context, executed some years after Vesterlid’s passing.
The room is built in the un-insulated part of the old barn building, partly behind the existing barn door. A free standing glass wall on the inside of the existing timber structure exposes the beautiful order of the old posts and beams. When the large barn door is closed light is brought into the room through a sculptural skylight.
