Scan Magazine | Special Theme | Nordic Architecture Special – Norway
Left: Landskapsfabrikken’s universally designed walkway, whose colours are inspired by the mountain landscape around Norway’s highest mountain, Galdhøpiggen, plays a central part in the climate park Klimapark 2469. Photo: Landskapsfabrikken. Right: In the Barcode project’s eastern corner, Landskapsfabrikken has designed an urban space, a kindergarten playground and both private and community rooftop gardens. Photo: Kristina B. Holmblad
The art of reading the landscape Imagine driving along the coast, bicycling through the city or playing with your children on a day when everything just seems to fit. The Norwegian architecture office Landskapsfabrikken, run by partners and landscape architects Inge Dahlman and Andreas Nypan, is making those moments a reality. By reading the landscape, the office has created an award-winning road while preventing avalanches and helped pull Norwegian cities in the right direction. By Eirik Elvevold
The Norwegian landscape has great variation. Majestic mountains, vast plains, deep forests and modern cities all play their part in making the country look stunning. While many of us might see the landscape merely as a background to life, and once in a while worthy of a photo, Landskapsfabrikken’s four architects work relentlessly to improve it. “We spend a lot of time reading landscapes and surroundings to understand their context and discover all their possibilities,” says landscape architect, partner and CEO Andreas Nypan. The firm, the name of which means ‘the landscape factory’, has worked on widely different landscapes all over the country for more than a decade. The vision, however, has remained the same. 56 | Issue 93 | October 2016
“We want the world to be a better place when we’re finished. The landscape can be an exposed coastal road or high-rise buildings in downtown Oslo. Regardless of the specific problem, we break it down, analyse the pieces and design a solution with architectural ambition,” says Nypan, who works out of Oslo with two other landscape architects and an urban designer. Together, they have already made the Norwegian capital better. The Barcode project’s eastern quarter is more green and liveable, the Medieval Park’s history is preserved even further and the city is a tad more bicycle-friendly. In the competition OsloVelo, arranged by the public-private programme Futurebuilt, Landskapsfabrikken’s design – which
prioritised bicycles in flow streets and slow streets – was bought alongside 18 other contributions. Outside the capital, the four Scandinavian architects have worked on projects such as Klimapark 2469, a climate park next to Norway’s highest mountain, Galdhøpiggen; a revitalisation of Stavanger’s central square and bay; and several works for the iconic National Tourist Routes. In 2014, Landskapsfabrikken’s avalanche prevention at Skjarvelandet in northern Norway was awarded the title of Norway’s most beautiful road. “At Skjarvelandet, we aligned the avalanche prevention with the topography for an optimal driving experience. The National Tourist Routes are full of good landscape architecture. All the stops are dramatic in their own way – none of them are copy-paste,” says Nypan.
For more information, please visit: www.landskapsfabrikken.no