The New York Times, April 14, 1997, p. C15.
An Architect From Norway Receives the Pritzker Prize
By Herbert Muschamp
Sverre Fehn, a 72-year-old Norwegian architect whose work is little
known outside Scandinavia, has been awarded the Pritzker
Architecture Prize for 1997. Mr. Fehn initially came to prominence
with his design for the Norwegian Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels
Worlds Fair, a wooden structure reminiscent of the work of Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe. Mr. Fehn's later works offer a lyrical synthesis
of modern forms and vernacular building traditions.
While the list of Mr. Fehn's completed projects is relatively
small, numbering only 11 buildings to date, it includes major
projects like the Glacier Museum in Fjaerland, Norway (1991), and
the Hedmark Museum in Hamar, Norway (1979). In the latter project,
Mr. Fehn juxtaposed robust staircases of molded concrete with the
excavated ruins of an ancient stone cathedral.
Mr. Fehn cites Frank Lloyd Wright as an important early influence,
and in the Glacier Museum he displays a sensitivity to landscape
even more acute than Wright's. Like Wright, Mr. Fehn considers
buildings an extension of landscape. He has described the act of
building as an attack by culture on nature. "But in this
confrontation," he said, "a new consciousness arises: once you see
one of the buildings, you will be more aware of the beauty of the
landscape and vice versa."
Established by the Hyatt Foundation in 1979, the Pritzker Prize is
widely considered architecture's highest honor. The jury for this
year's selection included J. Carter Brown, Giovanni Agnelli,
Charles Correa, Toshio Nakamura, and Jorge Silvetti. The award
ceremony is to be held next month at the new Guggenheim Museum in
Bilbao, Spain, designed by Frank Gehry, who won the Pritzker Prize
in 1989. An exhibition of Mr. Fehn's work is to open on April 16 at
the Basilica in Vicenza, Italy.
[End]
An Architect From Norway Receives the Pritzker Prize
By Herbert Muschamp
Sverre Fehn, a 72-year-old Norwegian architect whose work is little
known outside Scandinavia, has been awarded the Pritzker
Architecture Prize for 1997. Mr. Fehn initially came to prominence
with his design for the Norwegian Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels
Worlds Fair, a wooden structure reminiscent of the work of Ludwig
Mies van der Rohe. Mr. Fehn's later works offer a lyrical synthesis
of modern forms and vernacular building traditions.
While the list of Mr. Fehn's completed projects is relatively
small, numbering only 11 buildings to date, it includes major
projects like the Glacier Museum in Fjaerland, Norway (1991), and
the Hedmark Museum in Hamar, Norway (1979). In the latter project,
Mr. Fehn juxtaposed robust staircases of molded concrete with the
excavated ruins of an ancient stone cathedral.
Mr. Fehn cites Frank Lloyd Wright as an important early influence,
and in the Glacier Museum he displays a sensitivity to landscape
even more acute than Wright's. Like Wright, Mr. Fehn considers
buildings an extension of landscape. He has described the act of
building as an attack by culture on nature. "But in this
confrontation," he said, "a new consciousness arises: once you see
one of the buildings, you will be more aware of the beauty of the
landscape and vice versa."
Established by the Hyatt Foundation in 1979, the Pritzker Prize is
widely considered architecture's highest honor. The jury for this
year's selection included J. Carter Brown, Giovanni Agnelli,
Charles Correa, Toshio Nakamura, and Jorge Silvetti. The award
ceremony is to be held next month at the new Guggenheim Museum in
Bilbao, Spain, designed by Frank Gehry, who won the Pritzker Prize
in 1989. An exhibition of Mr. Fehn's work is to open on April 16 at
the Basilica in Vicenza, Italy.
[End]