Project: Stormen, Bodø, architect: DRDH

Stormen, the Cultural Quarter of Bodø, is designed by the British architects DRDH and was officially opened in November 2014. It has received significant international recognition and has been awarded the highest architectural honours in Norway: the Statens Byggeskikkpris and the Houens Fund’s Certificate. It has been influential in the debate about future directions in Norwegian architecture.

DRDH divided the substantial cultural program across two buildings: the Konserthus and the Bibliotek. Together they form an ensemble, responding to the particularities of their urban and landscape contexts, and creating a sense of familiarity with their surroundings. The Cultural Quarter has helped to redefine and revitalise the city, as a catalyst for the transformation of both Bodø’s physical image and its social situation.

This volume presents an extensive and representative selection of the architect’s drawings, a comprehensive set of photographs, and visual material describing the structure and the detailing. In the essay «Being ordinary», the Norwegian architect Knut Longva discusses the low-key contextuality of the architecture of DRDH, opposing it to the imperative of iconic cultural buildings that dominates contemporary architectural discourse: «Stormen shows that monumental buildings can have a strong presence without resorting to spectacular measures» with the architecture of the Cultural Quarter succeeding in being both .ordinary and heroic at the same time».

Essay by Knut Longva.
Edited by Karl Otto Ellefsen and Dagfinn Sagen.