On the waterfront of Flekkefjord, a town on Norway’s south coast, Helen & Hard incorporates a theater hall, cinema, library, gallery, youth club and cultural school for their design of the Flekkefjord Cultural Center. Designed for their client, Flekkefjord Kommune, it has recently been approved for construction. More images and architects’ description after the break.
Flekkefjord’s narrow streets are lined with traditional timber houses, whose small scale contrasts starkly with the massive volumes of the new cultural center. Mediating between these different scales drove the design process.
The diverse functions of the project were divided into four individual “houses” and the spaces between them creating gathering and circulation spaces. The “between spaces” have been filled with a fanned, continuous stair which links the forecourt, the façade and the levels of the foyer within. The facades of the houses, both interior and exterior, are woven together to create a three-dimensional public concourse.