Architectural Competition :: National Museum at Vestbanen

The deadline for Phase 1 of the National Museum at Vestbanen competition was June 12, 2009. 236 teams from around the world entered the open competition. A detailed description and competition brief can be read here. Competition proposals were on display for the public until July 19, 2009

The physical site for the project is extremely challenging. There are 2 historic buildings that sit on the corner of the site that must be retained. One building currently houses the Nobel Peace Museum. The site is adjacent to the Rådhuset (Oslo City Hall) and its connecting public plaza, and next to the Aker Brygge waterfront development.

Integration with the existing urban context, building orientation, scale, and the relationship to the existing heritage buildings seemed a common challenge for all entries.

The open nature of the competition provided a variety of proposals on a scale not typically seen in North American competitions. Though varied, the majority of entries could be generally grouped into one or more of the following categories:

• The spaceship has landed
• The spaceship has crash landed
• Deconstructivist/Platectonic/Landscape interpretations
• Massive block-like structures with little or no landscape
• Massive landscape structures with little or no apparent building
• Vague but colourful crystalline structures
• Other

(click on any image to be redirected to a Flickr Photostream where photos can be viewed at a larger scale)

The majority of schemes seemed to shy away from any sort of integration with the heritage buildings. Some proposals appeared to be held back from the buildings by an invisible, albeit powerful magnetic field like zone. Others avoided acknowledging the heritage buildings at all. A few proposals swallowed the buildings whole in a matter not unlike "Jonah and the Whale".

Of the 236 entries, 4-6 will be invited to move on to Phase 2. The announcement of those selected will occur on Sept.3, 2009.