Selvika National Tourist Route

Selvika, Norway

Photo © Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter

Drawing © Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter

Photo © Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter

Visitor Centers

Architects: Reiulf Ramstad Arkitekter

Location: Selvika, Norway
Year: 2012

The objective is quite simply to single out and magnify the experience of walking from the roadside down to the seaside at this very special place. Therefore a chief concern was to slow down this movement and make the path itself a means of refocusing the experiential mode: a measured, restrained approach that creates awareness.

The primary functional concern was universal accessibility. Instead of opting for a dual solution with staircase and ramp, we came up with the notion of making the ramp the common entryway and develop it into the integral character of the project. Because of the inclination of the site, and in order to create the reductive motion, the ramp had to be very long. The winding river of the path prolongs the approach and in so doing opens up new perspectives and experiences for the visitor.

Located in the extreme north of Norway, in a landscape almost lunar in its barren and inhospitable beauty, the facility should ideally be completely self-sustainable in terms of power input and waste output. The general notion was to create a human detail in the vastness of the landscape that is as timeless as the landscape itself and that brings attention to the relationship between the duration of experiences and the hugeness of the spatial circumstance.