Svein Lund’s home - Furulund, Oslo

The project is two L-shaped houses separated by a long thick wall arranged to form two atriums, sits on a plot where all the 20 trees were salvaged during construction. Often considered a particularly Norwegian house, spending time in the house makes Luis Callejas experience both theatricality and an atmosphere of Luis Barragán, Mexico, Morrocco, and the Mediterranean. It makes him ponder if Mexican and Norwegian architects share a kind of telluric sensibility: “At Villa Furulund, light is not omnipresent; compactness and legible constructive systems are intentionally rejected in favor of celebrating shadows, proximity to trees, and effortlessly knitted material continuity,” he writes in the essay “Chasing Shadows”. Villa Furulund was completed in 1998 and was awarded the Sundt Prize in 1999 and Houens Fond’s diploma in 2000.

Deichman Bjørvika - Oslo’s Central Library

The international architecture competition to design Oslo’s new central library was won by Lundhagem in collaboration with Atelier Oslo back in 2009. The librarians wanted a house that would inspire visitors to explore all the new facilities and activities the modern library can offer. This motivated us to create an open and intriguing building in which you are constantly invited around the next corner, to discover new places. With its central location in Bjørvika, the new library is set to become a vibrant hub - a modern meeting place for learning and exchange of knowledge.

As Built - Marienlyst Park

In the mid 1930s, a large estate of parallel, seven and eight story high blocks were raised at Marienlyst in Oslo, after modernist principles and designed by a number of the city’s finest architects. Still Norway’s most densely residential area, the blocks sit in a green, urban landscape at Kirkeveien, a Boulevardtype traffic artery close to the University of Oslo and the National Broadcast. In 2000 the architectural firm Lund Hagem won the competition for further developing the popular area. Marienlyst Park was completed in 2004. Subjected to strict regulatory guidelines, demanding that the new should resemble the old both structurally and formally, Lund Hagem’s set of large, free-standing blocks explicitly reference modernist Marienlyst, Yet, as architect Håkon Vigsnæs writes "The plan conveys a desire for historical continuity and urban consistency, whereas on a purely programmatic level there is obviously no continuity because of the utterly different social conditions underlying the architecture of the two projects" In interesting ways, the constellation of the new and the old Marienlyst reflects shifting ideals of planning, domesticity, individuality, materiality and aesthetics.

Barcode - Oslo

This book documents how a highly original, competition-winning master plan, conceived by MVRDV, A-LAB and DARK, has contributed to the transformation of Bjørvika and the Oslo Fjord. The author, Hans Ibelings, architecture critic and lecturer, elucidates how the radical clarity of the master plan has provoked innovative architecture that mixes work, living, commercial and leisure in a dense setting. With realisations by the three offices, as well as by SJ arkitekter, Snøhetta, MAD arkitekter and Lund Hagem, Barcode has become a showcase of 21st-century architecture. Richly illustrated, including a photo series exclusive to the book, Barcode – Instant City explores the transformation and the new burst of life at the border between city and fjord.

Built by the Sea - Villas and Small Houses

The book is a showcase of private residences and summer houses in which the interplay between the built and unbuilt natural landscape achieves its maximum effect. Norway's Lund Hagem Arkitekter is celebrated for their unique relationship with nature. Established in 1990, the firm has staked their reputation on their unique sensitivity to the interaction between form, material and the existing surroundings. Impressions from the landscape and local buildings create a vocabulary they use as their basis for creating modern architecture rooted in the Nordic tradition. This book will capture the attention of both students and professionals alike, especially those who are interested in Nordic architectural solutions for domestic living in harmony with nature.

Neighbour Buildings - Social Sustainability

Part of a series of internal research publications and manuals.
With thanks to Einar Stephan from Agenda Kaupang and Stian Schjelderup.

Creating Community - Social Sustainability

Part of a series of internal research publications and manuals.
With thanks to Einar Stephan from Agenda Kaupang and Stian Schjelderup.

Architecture for The Future - Sustainable Methods and Frameworks

It addresses reuse, rehabilitation, and transformation, with a deeper exploration of the methods guiding these strategies.

Ivar Tollefsen’s Fredensborg has transformed the American embassy fortress with uncompromising ambition.

Text: Hugo Lauritz Jenssen
Photos: Nils Vik

The crushed labradorite embedded in the façade’s prefabricated concrete panels sparkles and glints. The elegance is superb, the angles so sharp they could slice through the frosty haze drifting off the Oslofjord. The triangular, dark building mass is stylistically rooted in the finest moments of postwar modernism. At last, Oslo – and the world – can rediscover Eero Saarinen’s embassy building from 1959. For decades it was almost invisible, as U.S. diplomats sealed themselves inside their fortress in the very heart of the capital. After the Americans vacated the embassy in 2017, the company Fredensborg, owned by Ivar Tollefsen and his son Nick Tollefsen, painstakingly transformed the building. Now the triangular structure finally reopens, housing restaurants, offices, and a wildly bold, invisible expansion – hidden beneath the entire building.

-I think it’s going to be a cool place to hang out.
Deichman’s new main library aims to draw people to Bjørvika.

Text: Ingrid Røise Kielland
Photos: Nils Vik

Looking up toward the ceiling. The municipality wanted the exterior of the new library to act as a backdrop to the opera house rather than appear “sculptural,” explains architect Einar Hagem. “We made up for that on the inside,” he says. Because the site was relatively small, the architects focused on creating interesting sightlines upward, toward the three skylights.

NRK Series - Arkitektens hjem, Svein Lund

Faced with the dark, cold winters and long, light summers, Norwegians developed an architecture that combined simplicity with beauty and humanism with democratic ideals whilst remaining closely connected to nature. The resulting design tradition was born out of a belief in humanism, tradition, moderation, handcrafted perfectionism, modesty, quietude and purposefulness. Lundhagem creates architecture, landscapes and interiors inspired by the Norwegian design tradition of simplicity, minimalism and functionality.

BBC Series - The magical Island House

Faced with the dark, cold winters and long, light summers, Norwegians developed an architecture that combined simplicity with beauty and humanism with democratic ideals whilst remaining closely connected to nature. The resulting design tradition was born out of a belief in humanism, tradition, moderation, handcrafted perfectionism, modesty, quietude and purposefulness. Lundhagem creates architecture, landscapes and interiors inspired by the Norwegian design tradition of simplicity, minimalism and functionality.

NRK Series - Arkitektens hjem, Einar Hagem

Einar Hagem’s innovative coastal cabins do not dominate the terrain, but rather hide among the rocky outcrops and coastal vegetation. Openness, transparency, and lines that submit to the landscape are the hallmarks of his architectural signature. Hagem’s own cabin is located in Bamble.