Sverre Fehn

36
Sverre Fehn bigraphy, stories - Architect

Sverre Fehn : biography

14 August 1924 – 23 February 2009

Sverre Fehn (14 August 1924 – 23 February 2009) was a Norwegian architect. His highest international honour came in 1997, when he was awarded both the Pritzker Architecture Prize and the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal.

Life

Fehn was born in Kongsberg, Buskerud., in The New York Times, February 27, 2009 He received his architectural education shortly after World War II in Oslo, a crisis course that would later become an independent school under various names during the next decades, today known as the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. He quickly became the leading Norwegian architect of his generation.

In 1952–1953, during travels in Morocco, he discovered vernacular architecture, which was to deeply influence his future work. Later he moved to Paris, where he worked for two years in the studio of Jean Prouvé, and where he knew Le Corbusier. On his return to Norway, in 1954, he opened a studio of his own.

At the age of 34 Fehn gained international recognition for his design of the Norwegian Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Exhibition. In the 1960s he produced two works that have remained highlights in his career: the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1962) and the Hedmark Museum in Hamar, Norway (1967–79). Fehn’s other notable works include Schreiner House in Oslo (1963) and Busk House at Bamble (1990); however, few of his projects were effectively built.

He taught in Oslo’s School of Architecture from 1971 to 1995 as a professor and principal from 1986–1989, as well as at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.

Projects

Fehn designed over 100 buildings;, retrieved 29 December 2011 however, by the time he received the Pritzker in 1997 only 11 had been built. Some of the most notable are:

  • 1958 Norwegian Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair, Belgium
  • 1962 Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Italy
  • 1963 Schreiner House, Oslo
  • 1963-64 Villa Norrköping, Sweden
  • 1967-79 Hedmark Museum in Hamar, Norway
  • 1990 Busk House, Bamble
  • 1991-2002 Norwegian Glacier Museum, Fjærland
  • 1993-96 Aukrust Centre in Alvdal
  • 2000 Ivar Aasen-tunet in Ørsta
  • 2007 Gyldendal House, Oslo
  • 2003-08 National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo

File:Isbremuseet.jpg|Norwegian Glacier Museum in Fjærland File:Hedmark museum photo.jpg|Hedmark Museum, Hamar, Norway File:Aukrustsenteret facade.jpg|Aukrust Centre in Alvdal File:Norwegian National Museum of Architecture 2010.jpg|National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design