Rintala Eggertsson Architects have designed FLYT, a Bathing installation at Fleischer brygge (Fleischer Park) in Moss, Norway, which not only promises relaxation and wellness in an urban and industrial setting, but is also a work of art in itself.
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The project is the outcome of an art-in-public-space competition that the municipality of Moss organized in 2018 to revitalize a former industrial area west of the city centre as a part of their 300 year anniversary. The competition was won by Rintala Eggertsson Architects with the proposal FLYT – with several bathing installations placed on floating piers in the sound of Moss. After negotiations with landowners, the project was moved to a nearby location where two of the installations were redesigned to fit with pre-existing piers. A third installation was placed inside the adjacent park to house secondary functions, to strengthen the axis towards the city centre, and to give the park area a more human scale. The third pavilion is set to be realized before the summer of 2021.
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Bathing Installation: Inspiration from industrial structures in the area
The bathing installations consist of two strucures; a) the diving tower with a lookout platform and a light installation, and b) the sauna both of which will be open to the public year-round. The installations have drawn inspiration from industrial structures in the area: cranes, chimneys, silos, gantries, etc that have defined the cultural landscape around Moss harbour for more than two centuries. Therefore, the solution was therefore to expose the loadbearing components and separate them from walls, floors, and ceilings in order to make them stand out as visually comprehensive to the public.
Spectrum of colours into the top of the diving tower as a reflection
As the project was developed in connection with the 300 year anniversary of Moss municipality, it was important for the design team to mark the relationship with the history of Moss that was significant in the first steps towards independence from Sweden and subsequent development of democracy in Norway. The Moss convention between the two states was the beginning of a development that ultimately led to parliamentarianism and the multi-party political system that now dominates public policies in the country. The architects wanted to add that as a layer to their installations by projecting a spectrum of colours into the top of the diving tower as a reflection on how governments come and go, sometimes represented by left-wing politicians, other times politicians from the right-wing, and often times by coalition governments of different sides of the political spectrum.
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A visual and haptic experience
The installations are made out of a series of wooden modules that play with the idea of repetition similar to shipping containers, but is a system that also invites people to think of the installations as toy blocks that are being stacked, almost like an invitation for the public to play with.
The installations by the waterfront will, in many ways, function as physical barriers to the sea, but are interactive as they will also function as gateways to the sea, a threshold defining the edge of the seaside promenade. Therefore it was important to give them a distinct scale and an architectonic expression different from the surrounding blocks of flats and closer to human proportions. The design team found it natural when working with functions so related to the human body to use more organic materials with texture and physical character that would offer the visitor a haptic experience of the installations rather than merely a visual one.
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The outcome is a functional, yet visually compelling set of installations that make outdoor bathing in the central area of Moss much more accessible to the general public.
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PROJECT INFO
Location: Fleischer brygge, 59.436374, 10.656793
Client: Moss municipality
Construction period: 10.04. –15.12.2020
Construction budget: NOK 4M
Art committee/competition jury: Hanne Tollerud, Trygve Nordby, Eva Talberg, Torunn Årset, Silje Hobbel, Berit Kolden and Thale Fastevold
Curator: Thale Fastevold
Project management: Moss municipality; Berit Kolden
Design: Rintala Eggertsson Architects
Engineering: Multiconsult
Lighting design: SML lighting
Text Credits: Rintala Eggertsson Architects
The exhibition Nordic Urban Spaces at the Nordic Embassies Berlin shows Nordic architecture and urban planning. The exhibition is open until 28 September.
Like good Scandinavian design, the urban design projects of the “Nordic Urban Spaces” exhibition in Berlin stand out for their restrained, striking forms and pragmatic approaches. They are not functional buildings. Their planners have accepted the challenge of creating added value beyond pure utility, be it in terms of design, function, ecology, energy or participation. A simple example of this is the “Cykelslangen”, a 230 meter long and four meter wide bicycle ramp that opened in 2014. The slender, steel bridge winds its way through Copenhagen harbour. The construction of the Copenhagen office Dissing+Weitling architecture enables cyclists to quickly cross the Fisketorvet shopping centre area without coming into conflict with pedestrians.
In addition to the experience of having the ramp completely to oneself, it offers cyclists a spectacular view over the harbour. It lies between the modern building facades and above the water surface as an iconic design element.
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Best-Practice
Videos projected onto a wall convey the contents of the project much more impressively than the sparsely described photos, plans and diagrams on blackboards. Thanks to headphones, they allow us to immerse ourselves in the image videos, some of which are very atmospheric and well explained. Too bad, more of this would have benefited the exhibition in order to grasp the essence of the plans more quickly. As a current collection of Scandinavian best-practice examples, the project show is definitely worth a visit.
In cooperation with the Institute for Urban and Regional Planning of the TU Berlin, the Nordic Embassies in Berlin are showing 41 projects of different scales until 28 September: urban planning, parks and riverside promenades, bridges, public buildings, housing construction and underground stations are among them. But there are also examples of participation and ecological initiatives for adults and children. What they have in common is that most of the concepts in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Iceland have already been implemented or are still to be implemented.
Important Facts:
Where: Nordic Embassies, Rauchstraße 1, 10787 Berlin, Germany
When: 6 June to 28 September 2018, Monday to Friday 10-19.00 h, Saturday and Sunday 11-16.00 h
Young architect’s firm Lipinsky Lasovks Johanson has won the architectural competition for the Forest Finn Museum in Finland. Their design merges architecture with its surroundings: An exciting example of how architecture and nature can go hand in hand.
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The museum deals with the topic of the so-called ‘Skogfinner’: farmers who moved from eastern Finland to the woodlands of Sweden and Norway during the 16th and 17th century. Using fire clearance, they turned forest areas into arable land. This sparked a conflict with the growing industry which again was in great need of charcoal. For this reason, the government had an ambivalent attitude towards the immigrants. Up until the 20th century, the Forest Finns had their own culture and language but merged more and more into the Norwegian and Swedish society. The Forest Finn Museum will tell the story of this minority.
Forest In A House
The museum will be located between a grove and a river and the architecture picks up the forest as a common theme. The simple green saddle roof and wooden stelae make the building look like a primitive hut. Stable wooden beams support the roof, allowing the glass facade to wind around the interior like a ribbon without any structural purpose. This way, the forest seems to expand into the building. The stelae are placed across the inside space in a seemingly random order, the layout of the building doesn’t guide visitors through the exhibition but invites them to go astray and wander about.
Visual Axes
Within the glass ribbon, the architects have placed exhibition spaces in square rooms. The arrangement of these cuboids keeps the visual axes between the forest and the river clear. This makes for an almost transparent building that fits seamlessly into the forest landscape and doesn’t block the view. Architecture and landscape seem to melt into one another.
The young architects have come up with a design that not only interacts with its surroundings but also reflects the topic of the museum outwards which makes the museum a place that sparks interest and invites its visitors to playfully discover its topic.
Together with Fortunen Architects, Østengen & Bergo Landscape Architects have added an attraction to Norway’s National Tourist Route. Through their design, Skjervsfossen waterfall can now be experienced in many ways. In the following article, Kari Bergo of Østengen & Bergo Landscape Architects and Nils Johan Mannsåker of Fortunen Architects explain their concept and realization of gentle interventions in the landscape.
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Skjervsfossen is situated near Voss, close to a former highway that connected the east and west of Norway. For decades, the beauty of Skjervs-fossen was overlooked due to heavy commercial traffic on the highway. It was a roadside waterfall that passers only noticed as cars were spattered by it when they crossed the bridge. In 2011, a tunnel rerouted traffic, and new possibilities arose for Skjervsfossen as a tourist destination. It was included by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (Statens Vegvesen) in their portfolio of National Tourist Routes attractions, which feature many examples of spectacular views created by eye-catching architecture. Statens Vegvesen signed Østengen & Bergo Landscape Architects to design both an overall project concept and a new service area by the waterfall, with Fortunen Architects designing the restroom building.
From viewpoint to experience point
The landscape surrounding the waterfall is a narrow valley formed like a deep bowl. The waterfall drops 135 meters over two sections, divided by a terrace and a road bridge. Skjervsfossen was for a long time a hidden treasure, guarded by the rough and inaccessible landscape surrounding it. During analysis of the site, we found several points of interest, and since the terrain is steep and almost impossible to walk in, a trail made of natural stone became a central artery of the project, connecting several views of the upper waterfall, a new parking area with picnic and restroom facilities, and two universally designed pathways leading to the edge and bottom of the drop.
Instead of leading the public to a single point to view the waterfall from a certain distance and angle, the project invites visitors to enter and enjoy the landscape. The interventions offer different experiences of the waterfall: looking at wild river flow just before it drops, feeling dizziness while standing on the edge of the fall, or hearing the rumbling of the cascade from within the lush forest. At the bottom of the valley, a universally designed pathway leads to the foot of the fall itself. Here visitors can experience the extreme power of the water and be completely showered during periods of high water level in the river.
Landscape of Stones
Local natural stone is the main material used at Skjervsfossen, in the restroom building, service area, and on nature trails. The color scheme has been carefully adapted to the environment, with robust fences in rebar and benches in concrete. The abrupt rising figure of the restroom building creates a landmark from the road but does not interfere with the landscape and waterfall view once visitors reach the parking area. The building was designed with a sense of humbleness in the face of nature and placed directly on the shore of the river.
The building’s concept is a piece of rock from the surroundings moved to the actual site. Its shape makes it a non-house, a sculpture of solid rock, pieces of which also make up the facade’s cladding. From the interior, which is covered with warm-colored plywood of pine, a vertical stripe of glass runs from the river at its bottom, through the wood and rock, all the way to the sky. […]
Skjervsfossen Waterfall, National Tourist Route, Garnvin, Norway
Client: Statens Vegvesen, Norwegian Public Roads Administration
Landscape Architect: Østengen & Bergo Landscape Architects
Architects: Fortunen Architects
Construction: 2015
Read on in Topos 93 – Fragile Landscapes.
