The Aukrust Centre, Alvdal

The primitive design of the structure attempts in a naive but original way to provide a background for Kjell Aukrust’s versatile artistry. The diagonal wall is as simple as leaning fence poles against a barn.

The Aukrust Centre in Alvdal lies like a line in the landscape. Like a dam, the large wall along the length of the building gathers up Kjell Aukrust’s drawings, with motifs from the rural community he once left. Between the large, wooden pillars, the impulsive world of the artist flows continuously into the spaces.

The elongated architecture marks the borderline between the old and the new Alvdal; between agriculture and small industry and the through traffic heading north. The cornfield breaks like an ocean against the high stone base, which will protect the building from flooding in the River Glomma. The visitor is close to the beautiful seasonal cycle of the fields, from the spring sowing to the autumn reaping.

The road to the site ran through the forests of the Østerdalen valley, with the morning light filtering through the pine trees, the river Glomma flowing gently through the soft valley floor, the water creating clear mirrored surfaces over quiet sand banks, and the stone walls around church graveyards ... At the end of the journey the building had found its materials; stones for the dry walls, sand for the structural concrete elements and the ground concrete floor, pine for the wood-work. Between all this, the glass stretches like a transparent skin.

You turn round, look back, and imagine that the architecture sets the stage for the landscape. It presents the sunset from the promenade that lies in the cornfield, and the changing light on the great ridge of Trond mountain.