l iving in northern Norway means living in close connection with the elements of nature. It is so, whether you live in an urban situation or in the countryside, by the coast or interior.The extreme contrasts of the seasons —the beautiful dark light of December, the shining whiteness of March, the almost unbelivable greenness of summer, and the yellow celebration of autumn before the returning of the darkness — they affect us all. The natural conditions are characterized by contrast and contradiction. People here tend to find beauty and quality of life not in spite of the rain and the snow, the darkness and the cold, but because of it. Beauty in this context is more the fruit of intense contrasts than of gentle harmony. It is impossible not to be affected by it. To live in such a landscape makes the experience a shared reference. The celebration of the returning of the sun in the end of January, Sunday cross-country skiing in the mountains, hiking in the summer — it is a ritual and a shared experience. This may open a different way of seeing and living, and a sensibility for the quality of the moment that includes the consciousness of change. The grandeur of the landscape makes you aware of the context, and not merely the objects in it.The experience of not just looking at scenery, but seeing by taking part in the changing process of nature, leads us to focus on the essence, not the surface. The most dramatic changes are the disappearing of the sun in Novem- ber, the returning of the sun in January and the coming of the midnight sun in May.The first rays of the sun on the mountain-tops in late January, after it has been totally gone for two months, is a moment of shivering jo. Then, after just a few minutes, it’s gone again. It’s like a few harmoni- ous chords on a piano. Such events are very emotional for everybody. The shifting of the elements in one week, one day, one minute, can be overwhelming. In spring trees turn green in two or three days.You can hear the grass growing on a summer morning. And then there is the silence and all the delicate and sublime colour-shiftings in the sky on a dark midwinter day. And there is the snow, sometimes 2.5m deep on flat land. Maybe the snow is too often talked about as a problem —huge masses of packed snow make perfect playgrounds for children where new spaces can be created by accident and creativity.
The Landscape and Architecture of 70ºN. Tromsø, Norway Bjorn Otto Braaten
Traditional building culture
The old trading centre at Kjerringoy, Nordland
On Site review 11
16
Spring 2004
Architecture of the Circumpolar Region
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