cy / sal sun 🐚

Launch event for the Modern British City at
@c20society.bsky.social on 26th of January: secure.c20society.org.uk/Default.aspx...

Do come!

The book is out with @lhartbooks.bsky.social next week.

New illustration – Bastion House and The Museum of London designed by Powell & Moya. Extremely complex site bordered by Grade I ancient ruins, Grade II Ironmorger Hall and busy roads. Locals and C20 Society are fighting to save the buildings for adaptive reuse.

Nasjonalmuseet has something like 60 rooms on that floor and it chooses to show THIS one. Can’t say I didn’t laugh to myself in the foyer… And the shop has William Morris (I didn’t come all the way from London for this). They’re so good at milking design history that aren’t theirs, I love them

It’s happening! You can now grab a bunch of friends and, for a probably reasonable fee divided between 20 people (I haven’t punched the numbers), go see Rådhuset next month! There’s a bit more to it than that, but how about a Gbg winter getaway? 😗 rohsska.se/goteborgs-ra...

📖 2/2, I didn’t realise Viksjø had an architect son too. Really have to do something about the father/son pairs in my repertoire. Also this is a new contender on my list of ‘Modern buildings I want to get married in’. Asplund’s Rådhuset still top choice but we have some close seconds now!

📖 1/2 of the leaflet I was given. Sorry Norwegian but posting for posterity! Felt very seen by page 2, yes I did hear about this from trusted sources and came all the way from London to visit, that’s me you’re talking about…

✂️ Some model pics at Nasjonalmuseet from my weekend revisit. Clearly someone was endearingly optimistic about trees:

Itinerary-worthy for next time! ⭐️ The uncle I had a chat with mentioned that they sometimes host visits from architecture students, maybe worth an architects’ group trip? For my method, check here for events - www.kirken.no/nb-NO/felles...

Boo! 🔦 One more church on a hill. Frosty morning. The views are lovely; against a shimmering sky this seemed like another world. I’m grateful for getting to see it in the ways I did. And content it has sweet custodians. Erling, I have an Oslo parish now and it’s yours! ❤️

A few more morning pics. That campanile(?) might as well be a sculpture. I like how the triangle and cross motifs dictate everything. The roof-wall was once exposed concrete until it started cracking and leaked (😔😞). It was clad in copperplates in 1999.

I pointed out some concrete damages that I noticed during the day, which hopefully they will repair. Pleased they seemed proactive about it. (“It’s good that you’ve said this, now we can look into it.” - “We have an architect from London who’s telling us about cracks in the concrete!”…)

Had some great chats with the parish folks over hot chocolate. Some Norwegian some English, they were impressed with my svorsk (🥳). I explained I came here for Viksjø and I was glad to learn they love him too. The priest even found and gave me a little architecture leaflet they made some time ago.

As the one stranger at a service attended by about ten people, the priest and gradually everyone else came to talk to me. All super friendly and I was warmly welcomed into their community! 🤗 I couldn’t refuse their effusive invitation to post-service food, so I got to see the parish hall too.

He served us a full banquet! 🍽️ I have no idea if he’s known outside of Norway (or even within Norway for that matter) but Erling Viksjø was SO cool and deserves lots of love.

Haha, they do make photography a bit difficult! Some more aggregate action for you. Also note that even the organ is triangular; so are the door handles. Plus more info on Viksjø’s concrete, which I saw at Nasjonalmuseet earlier today (had missed this display on my last visit):

Service review: ✅ sang psalms with a bunch of Norwegians! Would’ve liked to see a traditional high mass here but this is fine too. (The parish, which is quite large, observes high mass in Vestre Aker Church where Viksjø is buried with his wife in the churchyard. I said hello yesterday. 💐)

A moderate amount of stained glass, splendidly colourful and radiant from without:

I attended the monthly evening service to see the interior, per church advice of ‘sorry we don’t have open days but come partake in an activity and see the building at the same time’. A cross emerging from concrete, integrated art, and the thrilling materiality that is Viksjø’s calling card:

My pilgrimage around Erling Viksjø’s Oslo is now complete. On Sundays we go to church, so let’s start with Bakkehaugen Church (1959), which I’ve dreamed of for months 🧵:

The show was fab, a childhood dream come true; read the original years ago. Not sure if I liked the contemporary dance interpretation of my beloved Act 3 polonaise tho. Also, go to the opera if you want to practice languages, old people will just talk to you! This has happened to me twice, it works!

Sometimes there are very strange moments in this building. Is this when I throw in the towel and say ‘architecture of my century is beyond me, explain to me like I’m from the year 1960’?

Ah thanks! I imagine it’s quite helpful in that scenario. In this instance it was just tiny screens for everybody and no big screen, which I found a bit strange. Would like to do Covent Garden someday, just yet to manage to get decent tickets in my budget…

The individual text screens seem useful but I actually found them pretty troublesome. You have to look down and then look up at the stage again, whereas if it was a big text screen above the stage you don’t have to shift your attention. Haven’t seen this set up elsewhere, wondering if it’s unusual?

POV your foyer wants to be Hans Scharoun’s Berliner Philharmonie so bad but you are not him.

Plus the auditorium, I wondered how well you could see from the top balconies. Mine was only the first level and it was just right, can’t imagine sitting any higher!

Averaged out the audience age at yet another opera house. This time, seeing Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at Snøhetta’s Oslo Opera House (2007), not that I particularly care about this building:

So far, my language takeaways in Norway:

❌ my Norwegian got better
✅ my Swedish got better such that I can understand Oslo Norwegian and passably fool the Norwegians I speak to

Me this morning, and probably the whole trip ❄️ (drew this on my phone while sat in a cafe nursing a hot chocolate, having pleasantly discovered that I can indeed get away with speaking svorsk)

Old photos from before its context was built up: sverrefehn.info/project/okern/

I have run off to Oslo to get away from life for a weekend. In the subzero morning sun, the only right thing to do is to see good architecture. Greetings from young Sverre Fehn and Geir Grung; Økernhjemmet (1955) with its striking horizontality atop a hill, oddly reminiscent of the Nordic Pavilion:

Wall and gate in brick, flint and stone in a range of chequerboard patterns.

Tile-hung house gable and chimney peeking above a wall of stone, flint and brick rubble, chequerboard pattern at base.

Three-storey house with patchwork of masonry including brick window surrounds and string course, and stone and flint in a chequerboard pattern.

Chequerboards (flint, ashlar, brick), Winchester.