(1st Prize in International Competition)

 

The project follows on from our 1st prize winning proposal for a new cultural city framework recently won in an open international competition The scheme consists of two public buildings; a new city library and a three auditorium concert hall for the Norwegian coastal City of Bodo.

 

The two buildings have a figurative quality, two distinct but related characters engaged in conversation, with each other and with their urban and harbour side contexts. Collectively, they are understood as the new cultural heart of the City whilst, individually, they respond to the particular conditions of their sites and programmes. Both buildings contain public spaces around a central figure that sits at their heart. In the Kulturhus this central space is the internal world of the principal 1000 seat auditorium, whilst in the library it is the surprise of a planted exterior courtyard, placed on the top floor, above a black box theatre.

The interior public spaces of the Kulturhus are planned to take advantage of expansive views across the harbour, forming a contrast to the interiority of the auditorium. From the principal foyer space, the lower volume and shaped roof of the Bibliotek forms a horizon to the sea and the mountains beyond. Within the Bibliotek itself, the scale of main library volume reflects that of the landscape. The grand scale of a columnar façade provides a rhythmic counterpoint to the powerful profile of the mountains beyond. Arriving on a boat, the buildings present themselves almost as a single piece; a ‘hill’ of gabled forms, perspectivally receding like a theatre set yet glittering on a sunny day.

The geometries of each building plan adjusts in response to variations in the grain of the city fabric. These moments announce principal facades and entrances. The main entrance façade of the Kulturhus is inflected to form a hinge in the shifting line of the street.. 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.