Output details

Kulturkvartlet, Bodo, Norway.

A cultural quarter for the city of Bodø in Northern Norway, 100km inside the Arctic Circle. The project is focused around the development of two principal cultural buildings – a Kulturhus (Concert Hall / Theatre / Rock and Jazz Venue) and a City Library.

Client: Bodø Kommune.

The total project cost is approximately £110 million of which £27 million of funding is provided by the Norwegian Government

This complex project results from success in two stages of international design competition, the first open, the second invited. Building upon a history of competition success, it is the largest of a series of international commissions Rosbottom’s practice is currently engaged in. It is amongst the largest cultural projects ever won by a young UK architect and has been publicised across national and international press and television. Designated a National Project, it is one of only twelve major building projects awarded to a non-Norwegian architect since Norway‘s market opened in 1993 and was exhibited in Importing Architecture (Norwegian National Architecture Museum, Oslo, November 2012-March 2013). All six pieces by Rosbottom’s practice were subsequently acquired by the museum.

The project develops a number of design research strands. The familial character and scale of the two buildings address an ongoing concern with situation and continuity, responding to Aldo Rossi‘s idea of a cultural ‘monument‘ as the embodiment of collective memory and experience. Collectively they consolidate the city‘s existing urban structure and in dialogue with its variegated context create interior and exterior public spaces, which mediate new relationships between city and landscape. Programmatically, they provide social, educational and cultural facilities for Norway‘s Nordland region, specifically addressing the necessity to optimise the various functions offered, in response to the community served. The main auditorium exemplifies the innovative strategies developed to achieve this. A typological hybrid, it combines two, normally mutually exclusive, functions of classical concert hall and theatre. The buildings are materialised through self-supporting façades of ‘engineered stone.‘ The subject of extensive research and development, these draw contemporary construction technology into dialogue with issues of climate, place and architectural history.

Rosbottom, co-director of DRDH Architects, is jointly responsible for project design, design and coordination of each phase, and development of associated exhibition/presentation material.