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This coming Thursday evening, the UK-based Design History Society has invited us to present our Flydalsjuvet project, in the context of a seminar series on craft and representation. The talk features the Flydalsjuvet facility building as case study, focusing on its material assembly – a reuse wood-meets-glass homage to century-old local building methods. We will also examine the different channels through which visitors “experience” the craftsmanship at play in the project’s composition.
The Geiranger region is known for its remarkable carpentry tradition, which constitutes a key part of the architectural culture and imagination of Norway. 3RW’s use of hand drawings and simplified assemblage sketches – a pedagogical exercise in non-expert representation – links back to local craft histories, while the office’s translation of the fundaments into a glass mass prevents a full continuity with these histories. So, various tectonic expressions create an ensemble of crafted character which oscillates between disruption and nostalgia. Moreover, the site’s location partly limits its exposure to a large public. Many Flydalsjuvet “visitors” are not actual users of the facility, but various professionals of the built environment who learn about its design and material assembly through print and digital publications. Detail-oriented construction methods and sturdy form joints here resuscitate an architectural heritage through the flat surface of the page or the screen. While the project formalizes a notion of craft that is inherent to both matter and humans, we argue that its distribution into the world raises interrogations about the value of siteless experiences of architecture.
For images and more information about our facilities at Flydalsjuvet, go to the project’s page. For information about the event, click here. Other works by 3RW along Norway’s scenic roads include our rest-stops at Hereiane and Kjeksa, as well as viewpoints at Askevågen, Sivlesfossen and Ornesvingen.



