Design: Snohetta
Location: Eggum, Lofoten Islands, Norway
area: 5500 m2
Completed: 2007
Project is a part of a ‘National tourist routes‘ project.
Photos: Landezine

In winter 2004 Snøhetta won the concurrent design at Eggum, which is part of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s E10 tourist route project through the dramatic and beautiful landscape of Lofoten. The task was to solve the traffic situation around Kvalhausen, which attracts many campervans, cars and a few buses during the midnight sun season. In addition, a service building was to be designed to suit this unique site. The site relates to the open sea as well as the tall mountains.

Snøhetta’s project won with its sensitive approach to the surroundings and its strong focus on preserving and developing the qualities of the surroundings as the main attraction rather than simply creating an architectural attraction.

The project consists of a service building within an amphitheatre which also allows room for car parking. Outside the amphitheatre there are two separate areas with dedicated spaces for campervans. Gabion walls were used throughout the site to define the parking space and to create a unifying effect.
The terrain itself has determined the location of the areas for campervans, parking for cars and the positioning of the service building itself. An existing excavation in the hill has been used to locate the service building and car parking. The campervans have been located in such a way that every parked vehicle will have a view of the sea.
The building itself has two main volumes. A concrete volume fitted into the terrain contains area for toilet facilities and a wooden volume which holds a multi-purpose room with a small kitchen.

Materials used in the project are to a large extend local. All the gabions have been filled with stone from the excavation for the building. Gravel and sand were separated out and used as back fill. This corresponds well with the ruins of the radar station above which have walls also built of morainic stone. The wooden volume is clad both inside and outside with thick planking of driftwood gathered from a beach a few hundred metres from the building. The same applies to the roof. The planks vary in width and are untreated so as to achieve a natural patina. The interior floor of the multi purpose room is of polished and oiled concrete. The emphasis has been on using rough, natural materials through consistent detailing.