Jewelry on the fjord's shore

In the smaller Norwegian town of Øystese, located on the shore of the third longest fjord in the world – Hardangerfjord, the Hardangerbadet sports and health center has been established. The renowned Scandinavian architectural firm LINK Arkitektur approached the project as a new building, an extension, and a renovation simultaneously. The entire facility is conceived in a highly functional manner, with various interconnected spaces.

LINK Arkitektur, with 15 branches and 500 employees across Scandinavia, is among the 50 largest architectural firms in the world. The branch in Bergen, western Norway, has 43 employees, the majority of whom are women. Anne R. Bøthun is one of the leaders in Bergen and, together with Sonja Fastenrath, guided the investor and the entire community in Øystese, including the construction company, through the challenging and lengthy process of building the Hardangerbadet center. When local residents talk about this building today, they mention diamonds and jewels, and they don't just mean the shiny aluminum façade that reflects sunlight and the vibrant colors of the fjord.

The highly functional multipurpose building has a rich spatial use. It contains not only a hotel and a public swimming pool but also doctor's offices, a therapeutic center, and a pharmacy. Thanks to this project, the residents of Øystese realized that despite differing interests and personalities, they share one common trait. They want the opportunity to swim in every season, whether in winter or bad weather, and not stay home. Hardangerbadet, with its swimming and family pools, climbing wall, slide, thermal pool, and sauna, is designed to meet the needs of all age groups. As a result, people who previously knew little about each other now meet here. When you're wearing swimwear, you interact with others differently than when you're having a beer in a bar. The social sustainability of the project is therefore enormous. Discussions about the swimming pool often mention terms like jewel and community. Today, all local residents are genuinely proud of this building, as confirmed by the lifeguard.

On the site in the center of Øystese, there was a hotel built of bricks and dark wood since the 1960s. The architectural extension was meant to differ from it while creating a spatial unity with the existing building. A garden courtyard was created between the new building and the renovated hotel, which opens towards the fjord. The pool also opens in this direction with large glass elements. The volume of the building has been divided into smaller objects to match the scale of the surrounding structures. Each structure received a different facade material. The architects were inspired by traditional construction techniques, using slate stones and vertical wooden slats. Representative buildings in the area used to be clad with diamond-shaped slate – in Norway, they are somewhat affectionately called sirupsnipper because they resemble a mold for gingerbread, which is typical for Norway. The LINK Arkitektur studio reinterpreted the shapes of traditional roofing on the façade by using smooth aluminum 44 × 44 folded façade panels from PREFA Aluminiumprodukte in a special natural aluminum color. The folded panels, made from fully recyclable material, are a new rendering of the typical roofing form of this region and express LINK Arkitektur's respect and tribute to traditions and sustainable development. For the plumber Kjell-Arne Flotve, who installed the aluminum façade with his colleagues from Blikkenslagar Flotve AS, Hardangerbadet is the most magnificent project he has completed to date. Even though he is currently the only plumber in the wide Kvam region. This is also why he is rightly proud of this work in his hometown Øystese.

About the project:

PHOTOGRAPHS AND DRAWINGS: Croce & WIR