We made it to the top 5 contenders! support 
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drdharchitects wins library and concert hall competition in Norway
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 centre for the Norwegian coastal city.
The results of the competition were announced in Bodø, Norway on 27 February. 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, practice director Daniel Rosbottom said, “These are the last two sites left in the urban centre 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 honour to be given such a responsibility.”
Director David Howarth said, “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.”
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.”
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 masterplan for the Bodø harbour area, in which 93 practices participated.
Description of the scheme
The buildings have a figurative quality; two distinct but related characters, engaged in conversation with each other, and with their urban and harbour 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 harbour wall, recalling both the shed like nature of harbour-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 harbour. 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 theatre set; glittering on a sunny day.
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- situation plan
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- ground floor plan
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- first floor plan
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- second floor plan
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- third floor plan
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- section AA
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- section BB
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9 comments »
It’s funny going to norway to watch architecture. If you go to Oslo, and see how both private and public money is spent on architecture, you can find multiple projects where there is an obvious love for architecture, -you can tell that the city really has had a huge desire to do something good. If you travel outside of Oslo however, both the large government projects, public and private projects, -often have a very cheap feel to them. I did a studytrip through Norway a few years back to see educational buildings, and it’s pretty obvious that they are spending big in Oslo, and saving up outside of it, -even in cultural buildings like this one. Of course there are cheap stuff in Oslo too, but especially the public money is put into thinking through projects a lot. This is also evident in for example the different airports at the various cities, where the spending in Oslo, even when you compare the size, is pherhaps tenfold. Too bad that Bodø seems to also be in the cheap corner when it comes to developing architecture in Bodø This seems over rational and not particulary exciting. Can’t see what they got excited about at all in this project.
This should have been chosen instead. Dont know what the jury was thinking.
http://ftp.bodo.kommune.no/kulturbygg_anbud/Motto%20MARKED%20OG%20KATEDRAL/Samtlige_plansjer_tegninger_og_tekst.pdf
I actually agree with both comments here. I think the second submission package was much more interesting. I haven’t seen the whole submission package for the winner….but I hope it was REALLY good, otherwise I scream travesty!
Hey guys, you are being a bit unfair here, sometimes good architecture is not about excitement, form or unusual. This is a project very much with its feet on the ground and in line with great Scandinavian architecture; it will age very well and no doubt be fit for purpose – we should be very sceptical of the Bilbao effect.
i agree with the first few comments. the winner appears to be an extremely conservative choice. As for scandinavian architecture has suffered great setbacks from the so called feet on the ground no nonsense approach. Architecture, particularly that of cultural buildings should provide more than just a competent solution…..they should provide a vibrant and interesting contribution to a city’s urban fabric. Leaving aside the Bilbao effect, this is a basic requirement of municipal architecture – beyond any commercial or economic concerns.
Anything less is a wasted opportunity….
Well, I disagree about architecture not beeing something to be excited about. I think it should be, and I think that the scandinavian approach is about something very basic that often can achive that excitement. This project, at least to me, does not excite at all. It looks dull, ordinary and uninspired. It might be a very rational and well performing solution, robust and capable of change and contributing to the city, but I think it should make the inhabitants proud, and make one want to go there.
It’s a big misunderstanding that architecture in pure form is only about rational solutions and a timelessness. Architecture is also about poetic and subjective descriptions of values and quality, and that is what I don’t see in this project.
As for scandinavian design, this project was designed by an english firm.
what about this one:
http://bustler.net/index.php/article/langdon_reis_zahns_entry_for_library_and_concert_hall_competition_in_bod/
this would have been an amazing contribution to the city, it is sad that the jury were overpowered by economic forces.
yes i am aware of the facts, or do imagine that Scandinavian design fails to influence British practices or should be contained geographically to just a few northern countries? the reality is that outside that sphere there’s a potential for contribution towards those design principles.