DOMKIRKEODDEN Museum of Agriculture and Fisheries in a unique natural setting where tradition is very present

Collaboration with: NO.MAD Arquitectos – Eduardo Arroyo.

A museum is a collective act of preserving memory. A vital experience defined not only by the exhibition space but by its relationship and appropriation of the landscape and the intensity of this combined experience. The presence of the building refers us to the Norwegian construction tradition in terms of its form and material.

However, the extensive program of the new museum requires dimensions that push us to think about the visual fragmentation of its volume for a correct integration into the environment. Thus, the building is inserted into the existing landscape as a linear accumulation of recognizable generic constructions. This fragmented set undergoes various formal adaptations to preserve the existing trees and establish visual and functional synergies with the landscape and with the rest of the museum buildings, as well as for conditions of interior privacy.

Its elevated presence on the hillside allows for its visual integration without giving up the contemporaneity of its use and design. The idea of transversality appears within the museum by allowing continuous views through parts of the building that connect the two sides of the landscape in which it is inserted. Its development on two floors and a basement allows to maintain a respectful height below the roof of Storhamarlåven. The different arrangement of its combined roofs generates an exciting interior spatial richness on the upper floor that houses the exhibition halls and panoramic restaurant. The outdoor use of the land is an important part of the project in an extension through large landscaped terraces related to the interior programs of the Auditorium, the Library, the Cafeteria and the Møterom for events. Also, there is a large open-air auditorium facing south for events in good weather protected by the layout of the building.