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The National Musuem of Art, Architecture and Design will be a new institution celebrating the visual arts in Norway. The building will occupy the site of the old Railway Station in the Vestbanen district of Oslo, nearby to the city’s waterfront.
The layout and distribution of the main building masses respect the scale of the retained station buildings (currently housing the Nobel Foundation), re-making the streetscape and redefining the end of Radhus Plass. The public can walk between the station buildings to a new public square, which lays down a welcome carpet to visitors. The colonnaded museum entrance area, which flanks this square, funnels visitors towards the central museum lobby. Hovering above and behind the colonnades rise two tower elements, which relate to the scale of the city and look out towards Akershus Festning, Radhus and the fjord.
The new public square may be used for sculpture, exhibition and performances, but the main exhibition experience is located within the heart of the site. At this point public and art meet, and collective memory will be nourished. The colonnaded ribbons of circulation, which began by drawing visitors into the gallery, converge in the central lobby and then lead up a majestic side lit stairway to the galleries and sculpture terrace. Visitor and curatorial needs are catered for and enhanced by a clearly linked sequence of generously scaled spaces.
At the upper levels a variety of roof terraces for the use of Gallery, Library and Conservation staff supplement the sculpture terrace to cater for amenity and hospitality requirements. Each terrace provides a visual relationship with the city, and through the landscaped use of indigenous fruit and berry bushes they exploit ecological as well as cultural opportunities. Project facts |
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