Project Info

Architects: Rallar Arkitekter
Location: Rjukan, Norway
Project Management: Rallar Arkitekter
Area: 60.0 sqm
Year: 2013
Photographs: Per Berntsen
Architect Coworkers : Anders Gunleiksrud, John Haddal Mork, Kristine Øvstebø, Steinar Hillersøy Dyvik, Silje Ruud, Eiliv Andreas Myren Ribe
Supervisor Structural Engineering: Bendik Manum, Førsteamanuensis, fakultet for arkitektur og billedkunst, NTNU
Architectonic Consultants: Steffen Wellinger Førsteamanuensis Sivilarkitekt MNAL, Dipl.-Ing. Dr. Markus Schwai, siv.ark
Construction Management: Rallar Arkitekter

Introduction

The Rjukan town cabin is built by 22 architecture students from NTNU, directed by the student group Rallar Arkitekter. The project is a pavillion built to be a new and unique meeting spot for the people of Rjukan. The pavillion is open 24/7, and is also containing an exhibition with photos from Rjukan in the past and the present.
The cabin was built in two weeks, while the planning lasted over 10 months. The six architecture students in Rallar Arkitekter met the planning authorities in Rjukan in September 2012, to discuss a possible project. The municipality were willing to finance the project, while planning and building were to be done by the students. The task was open, and the students themselves had to decide what to build. The final goal for the project, was to give the people a new meeting spot which represented something new and challenging to the historical town.

Details

The distinctive construction is made from 4000 metes of 73 mm x 73 mm pinewood, sqrewed together in a 3-dimensional grid. The facades are covered with clear acrylic glass. The cladding covers from wind and rain, and gives you the warmth of being inside, without removing the transparency and contact with the outside. The wooden construction creates an open room facing the town square, and a more closed room containing the exhibition. There are different possibilities for sitting and informal meeting around the pavillion.
The whole pavillion is illuminated by strips of LED-lights mounted in the top part of the construction. The color of these are changeable, and might create different moods depending on the use, and mark happenings like the celebration of the sun or the ice climbing festival. The exhibition room is illiuminated by LED-spots as well. Together this makes the new signal building of Rjukan a lantern in town. For now, it is up to the people of Rjukan to decide how they would use the buliding further.