Spring

The consolidation of the National Gallery, Museum of
Decorative Arts & Design, Museum of Contemporary Art, Museum of
Architecture and the National Touring Exhibitions is an act of cultural renewal. The decision to collect these institutions
and deploy them in one place has the potential to create a heterogeneous and
vibrant center for the arts that nurtures the cultural as well as the social
fabric of Norway. In order to leverage
this sense of renewal and transformation, this design proposal is based in the
manifold meanings of the term spring.
Just as the coming of spring each year signals an environment poised to
emerge from a condition of stasis into an explosive period of growth and
renewal, we have approached the design of this project as an opportunity to
facilitate two key acts of renewal, or transformation. This notion of renewal instigates a design
that is emergent, one that is not bound by the physical limits of the site. Renewal promotes a spatial condition that is open,
flowing, extending, releasing, springing out into the city, engaging Oslo and
its residents.

First, the design explores the challenge of filling a
significant void in the urban fabric of Oslo, transforming a key urban space
along the fjord. This site sits at the
nexus of a complex array of urban forces and conditions and has the potential to
seize on its contextual richness and become a significant public place that operates
as a social and cultural magnet for Norwegians and international tourists
alike. To draw out and exacerbate the complexity
inherent in the context, we have organized the functions and designed the
building to operate as a rich and varied place that avoids a sense of
overbearing institutional control and opens itself to the city and its
residents. While the design addresses
the serious challenges of preserving and securing the museum’s collections, it
also acknowledges the value of creating a heterogeneous environment that allows
people to engage the place as individuals, make choices and create personal
itineraries through the site and, as a consequence, develop a special sense of
place that inspires a deep sense of connection and feelings of awe and amazement.

The second transformation or renewal involves the relocation
of the varied artistic venues to Vestbannen.
This act presents an opportunity to create a moment of cultural and
social saturation that is quite rare. Consequently,
we have developed the project with the goal of immersing people in a space of saturation,
an environment that expresses the richness and diversity of artistic
exploration and representation in all its varied forms. We have designed a spatial system that
acknowledges the complexity inherent within the sphere of artistic production and
the nature of artistic disciplines inscribed within this space. Art can seem at one moment to be clear and
understandable and at another time to be ephemeral and fleeting. We believe a building that engages the
individual and promotes an active and dynamic experience will serve as an
analog for the role art plays in inspiring thought, interpretation and
ultimately understanding. The overall
goal is to create a place that allows the observer to digress, to discover
something about art, or perhaps the building, that they did not intend to encounter.

The act of condensing the individual arts venues into one
place should also be seen as an opportunity to create incredible synergy from
the interdisciplinary exchange between artists and admirers of art that come
from distinct disciplines and may not otherwise have been exposed to one
another. We believe the public spaces
organized throughout the building represent dynamic opportunities to promote
artists and spectators alike to engage each other in intellectual and social
exchange with the simple goal of enriching each others’ lives. Consequently, we decided not to place art at
the center of the site, but rather to define a sense of center with a dynamic
set of interior and exterior public places that open the complex up to the city
in order to promote exchange and interaction between people, art and the
physical environment.

To develop a place that is constitutionally heterogeneous
and dynamic, we avoided focusing our conceptual investigation on one overarching
condition or idea. Rather, we
acknowledged the richness inherent in the building program, the site and the
larger social context of Oslo. We
approached the challenge of creating a strong sense of environmental richness
by simultaneously incorporating the natural setting of the fjord, the built
form of the city and the open space of the Raduhuspassen, thereby creating a
fantastic place that promotes interaction, exploration and recreation.

The design completes the strong field of building mass that
runs along Aker Brygge, healing a major void in the urban gridiron. The design
also folds the space and activities contained in Radhusplassen by transitioning
from a level hardscape to a gently sloping landscaped plane and sculpture
garden. This sloping garden is carved
away along the edge of Brynjulf Bulls Plass in order to frame the heritage
structures that sit at the edge of the site.
This act simultaneously establishes a sense of deference for the
buildings while also incorporating them into the complex as elements on display
in the sculpture garden. Finally, the
design incorporates the intense qualities of movement and exchange that
characterize the fjord edge along Aker Brygge and Radhusplassen. Movement and exchange are key principles that
inform the public spaces of the complex and promote an active social realm. The
open green space at the center of the site also reinforces the Fjord’s role as
a lung for the city by allowing people to emerge from the rigid spaces of the
city into an expansive place that provides a sense of relief and an opportunity
for recreation, both of which allow for renewal of mind and body.

If the Fjord is Oslo’s lung, we have imagined the National
Gallery complex as Oslo’s cultural and social heart. To reinforce the sense of interweaving
between the art and spectators as well as between the Museum and city, we have envisioned the site not merely as a
building project, but as an extended landscape that folds three distinct
environments together into a spatial
system that blurs the lines between urbanity, architecture and the natural
environment. We have conceptualized the
site as a sanctuary that collapses these varied environments into a dense and
dynamic place that makes references to the phenomenal and contextual qualities
of Oslo, but at the same time creates an altogether distinct place that
celebrates emergence, renewal and exchange, establishing a place that celebrates
the potential and energy of spring, creating a place that is truly unique and
memorable.

Urban Design Principles

1. Extension
/ completion of waterfront urban fabric.
2.Placement of café and large exterior dining area
along waterfront to reinforce current pattern of exterior dining along edge of
Aker Brygge. 3. Folding of Radhusplassen into project physically and
visually. 4. Response to open space of fjord through erosion
of building along Pipervika edge providing an exterior garden with views of the
fjord and Akershus Fortress. 5.Incorporation of Heritage structures into the
sculpture garden. 6.Creation of a landscape area and sculpture garden
that focus back onto Radhusplassen and fjord. 7.Development of a diagram for government office
buildings that reinforces the public qualities of the site by sharing an urban
plaza and interactive sight lines with library and presentation functions.Atriculation of building forms that creates a
dynamic gateway to Oslo for travelers exiting the E18 ramp to Dronning Mauds
Gate.

Building Diagram Volume The Galleries and Vaults are housed in a relatively solid
band of program that extends the building fabric from Aker Bryggge, matching
the proportions and scale of the neighboring buildings. This mass is clad in a flat seam interlocking
metal panel system to accentuate the scale and tautness of these building
volumes. As the band progresses along
with the exhibition sequence it shifts from traditional massing that meets the
ground at Dokkveien to a hovering thin sheet at Dronning Mauds Gate. The elevated mass creates a dynamic urban
condition that allows the landscape and sculpture areas to slide under the
building, while also allowing a view of the city through the field of columns
and tress that give character to the landscape area. The Library and presentation areas are
situated in a crystalline glass volume that is captured space between the
underside of the hovering plane and the ground at the rear of the site. This marks the intermediate stage of the
progression from a grounded mass to a hovering mass. Throughout the art band, the volume is selectively
fractured and cracked open to create opportunities for natural light and views
from the interior spaces, and to accentuate the relationship between the museum
and the expanded landscape.    Galleries 1.The Temporary Galleries have been placed on the ground
floor, situated between the Lobby and back of house functions such as Reception
& Dispatchment and Studios/Workshops.
The Temporary Galleries are flexible and can be combined in a variety of
configurations, each of which has a secure corridor connection to the Reception
and Dispatchment area to allow for changing exhibits while other galleries
remain open. The Temporary Galleries
activate the lobby space and make it convenient to visit the museum frequently
for travelling exhibits.

2.Permanent galleries have been organized in a
sequence starting with the Contemporary Galleries, proceeding to Design, Arts
and Crafts and terminating with Older Art.
Each floor has large flexible halls as well as smaller galleries that
activate the circulation spine.

3.The Contemporary Galleries occur on two levels,
with the second level mezzanine space looking over the main Contemporary Gallery. This configuration provides extra tall spaces
in a portion of the gallery as well as future expansion space that could be
captured by adding a floor structure over the vault space.

4.The Older Art Gallery spaces occupy the top
level of the proposed structure. The
galleries will benefit from filtered northern light captured by skylights. The separation of the Older Art Gallery from the
ground plane reflects the temporal separation between the collection and
contemporary life. The connection from
Older Art back down to the lobby occurs through a dramatic glass encased
escalator that reveals views of the entire central garden.
Vaults
1.Vaults have been located substantially above the
extreme flood level. 2.Vaults have been dispersed vertically throughout
the museum in order to relate to corresponding portions of the exhibition
halls. In all cases, certain exhibition
halls can be transformed to act as vestibules for accessing vault space that is
to be converted to temporary exhibition space.
Vaults are interconnected by back of house secure corridors and a large
centrally located freight elevator.
Void
The diverse set of public spaces that frame
the site have been folded into the project as a means of capturing the energy
and spatial movements embedded within the context. Radhusplassen is addressed by a porous, but
defined edge that both completes the wall along Aker Brygge but also allows for
passage into the site and up a gently inclined landscape plane. This garden plane allows people to spend
leisure time engaged in activities ranging from picnicking to recreation
activities, and also provides an opportunity to observe the exterior of the
Heritage structures as if they were a component of the Museum collection. Further up the ground plane, the landscape
shifts to a combination of hard and soft surfaces that accommodate a sculpture
garden as well as an amphitheater that provides a place for viewing movies
projected onto the exterior of the museum. The landscape plane fractures and shits
vertically over the main lobby, defining the taller volume of the temporary
galleries on the ground floor. A dynamic
skylight placed within the fracture allows natural light to flood the lobby
while also allowing people on the landscape plane to see down into the interior
public spaces and temporary gallery.
Volumes of space including the meeting room, multi-function hall and
temporary galleries appear to be objects embedded within and emerging from the
ground plane.

Movement / Edge

The dynamic system of movement and exchange
along the edge of the fjord at Radhusplassen and Akers Brygge serves as an
analog for a dramatic vertical wall that operates as an interface between the
central landscape space and the primary gallery bar. The ‘living wall’ is a thickened zone in
which vertical circulation and major movement through galleries is compressed
onto the edge, providing a spectacle of motion and energy when viewed from the
city. This allows people to become a
component of the frame or canvas of the living wall. This area also allows for the display of art
in the urban realm through a series of display windows that puncture the skin
of the wall. Just as the wall allows
people to be seen within the galleries, it also frames a dynamic view of the
entire museum complex and City Hall beyond.