Recently at an Architizer award ceremony in New York Reiulf Ramstad Architects accepted the Firm of the Year Award for producing an exceptional range of unique projects for 3 successive years. Founder and design principal Reiulf Ramstad together with Kristin Stokke Ramstad, the firm’s managing director and CEO accepted the Architizer award. The Architizer award is the result of an increasingly glowing reputation that now extends beyond the border of their native homeland, Norway. RRA is one of the few studios in Norway today with such an impressive and diverse portfolio of completed projects. The projects stretch across a wide range of landscapes as diverse as heavily populated urban flat lots and uninhabited mountain top locations. The common link between all projects is the overriding representation of humanist values. Drawing influence from architects such as Carlo Scarpo and Sverre Fehn, RRA’s style has been characterized as “Revitalized Nordic”. In a break away from traditional Nordic architecture, RRA relies on natural materials to create unique views of nature for its building’s occupants. A clear effort to establish a new style of Nordic architecture is apparent and in the process new and refreshing ways of experiencing natural areas are the result.
We have earned a reputation for creating bold, simple architecture with a strong connection to the Scandinavian landscape
REIULF RAMSTAD, FOUNDER RRA
Photo copyright Reiulf Ramstad Architects
RRA GUIDING PRINCIPLES
According to RRA it sets out to create contemporary architecture based on careful analysis and planning, taking account of the location of each project while combining research with an innovative approach. Rather than employing typical problem-solving methods, the firm strives to develop its own solutions.
RRA has developed a dialog-based process for project development whereby clients and users contribute. By maintaining a close dialogue with different user groups functional solutions are reached with a high degree of usability.
RRA’s designs range from private residential to large civic works, such as schools, restaurants, public transit stations, museums, and tourist routes. Using biomimetic and natural materials, the firm’s main goal is to create unique buildings derived from logical thinking and decision-making.
LUXNISEKO the Reflektor will be sharing a series of projects by RRA in the coming months. Each project selected will aim to show RRA’s unique architectural approach to the Alpine environment in Northern Europe. The first project we have elected to examine is located way up North in an extreme climate. Despite the challenges there is great hope and energy in this place. The project is called Kiruna Guesthouse and following is its compelling story.
Visualizations Copyright by SONAAR http://www.sonaar.at
Kiruna is the northernmost town in Sweden set in the province of Lapland. It is a popular travel destination for both Swedish and international tourists and has recently been identified as the location of the world famous Icehotel. The extreme northern location makes it an especially good place to observe both the midnight sun and northern lights.
A long history with the indigenous Sami people with evidence of at least 6000 years of settlement makes Kiruna a city of historical importance. Founded in 1900 it quickly became a major centre of iron ore extraction and mining industry. During World War II large quantities of iron were transported by rail to the east coast where it was eventually sold to Germany.
We are symbiotic…. the town is here because of the mine. Otherwise no devil would have built a city here.
KIRUNA DEPUTY MAYOR NIKLAS SIREN
Located 145km inside the Arctic circle the climate in Kiruna can be unforgiving. Lengthy winters with no sunlight and average temperatures below -15C offer a testing environment for humans. An insatiable global appetite for construction drives demand for mines such as the one here. So strong are the economic forces that Kiruna mine has become the world’s largest iron ore extraction site, producing 90% of all the iron in Europe and enough to build more than six Eiffel Towers a day. Growing wealth creates a new opportunity for architects like RRA to help reinvent the town into a model of sustainable development. Here there is not only a thirst for change but also the will to make it happen. Fresh ideas are attracting young people who wouldn’t have stayed in the town before with new cultural facilities and a chance to be part of a visionary change.
Photo copyright Reiulf Ramstad Architects
GEOGRAPHY
Kiruna is located in the extreme north of Sweden, 145 kilometres (90 mi) north of the Arctic circle. The city centre is built on the Haukavaara hill at an altitude of 530 m rising high above the Torne river to the north and the Kalix river to the south. Nearby are the mountains Kiirunavaara and Luossavaara. Kiirunavaara is home to an iron ore mine that is the town’s primary economic resource. Luossavaara is home to a retired mine and is now used primarily as a nordic ski slope.
The city is built near Lake Luossajärvi with the area around Kiruna sparsely populated. To the northwest, west and southwest of Kiruna Scandinavian mountains rise tall into the skies making them clearly visible from within the city centre. Mount Kebnekaise stands as Sweden’s highest mountain and is just 75 kilometres outside of Kiruna. This is real Alpine country. The land to north is barren, and desolate with space only sparsley dotted with a birch forest. To the east is a boreal forest, stretching hundreds (if not thousands) of kilometers into Finland and Russia dominates the landscape. Around 15 km east of Kiruna is a group of villages at the Torne River, most notably Jukkasjärvi, where an ice hotel is built in winter, attracting tourists from all over the world.
Photo copyright Reiulf Ramstad Architects
CLIMATE
Being located 145 km north of the Arctic Circle, Kiruna has a subarctic climate with short, cool summers and long, cold winters, although the city itself can be considerably milder than the surrounding forest. Snow cover generally lasts from late September to mid-May, but snowfall can occur year-round. The sun does not set between May 30 and July 15, and perpetual daylight lasts from early May to early August. The period that the sun does not rise lasts from early December to early January, the exact boundaries depending on local topography. At this time of the year, a few hours of twilight are the only daylight available. Even though Kiruna’s winters are very cold by Swedish standards, they are still much less severe than winters on similar latitudes in North America and Siberia, and even more southerly areas in other parts of the world. Similar winter temperatures go as far south as below the 50th parallel thousands of kilometres further south in extreme continental climates. Kiruna however, has cooler summers than those areas, but still warm enough to stay above polar climate and below the northern tree line.
Photo copyright Reiulf Ramstad Architects
TOWN ACTIVITIES
Tourism is an important source of income for Kiruna and the surrounding region, with around 300,000 visitors arriving per year. Popular activities and spots to visit include the Abisko Scientific Research Station, the Institute of Space Physics and hunting and fishing. Tourists wanting to explore native Sami culture can try traditional winter activities such as dog sledding. During summer hiking in national parks such as Abisko National Park or climbing the mountains of Kebnekaise are popular. Less vigorous choices include walking Kungsleden and Nordkalottruta Trails or heading to the water for rafting, canoeing or boat trips on lakes. Whatever the activity Kiruna’s unique location north of the arctic circle consistently draws tourists for the yearly Kiruna music festival under the midnight summer sun.
In winter the Icehotel and northern lights hold sway as the star attractions. The lengthy snow cover lasting from October to May along with hard frozen lakes and rivers facilitate cross-country and alpine skiing, dog sledding and snowmobiling. Ice skating on lakes or rivers is a popular activity during the annual Snow festival held the last weekend of January.
In all cases the purity of the largely unspoiled landscape together with the rare opportunity to be spectator to natural phenomena like the Northern Lights is irresistible. The draw for outdoor and sporting activities is equally compelling. Notable sportmen residents include former NHL ice hockey defenseman Börje Salming and Olympic mogul skier Peter Spett.
Visualizations Copyright by SONAAR http://www.sonaar.at
THE KIRUNA GUESTHOUSE
The project for the new Kiruna Guesthouse will offer more to the its guests than is available today. The visitors will enjoy a richer experience of the place and its nature. The Guesthouse will offer modern architecture and design of high quality on an international level, and gets its own character linking it to the activities of the place and the traditions. At the same time, you should find the best of architecture, design, spa facilities and culinary art in the region. The project’s architectural expression ties in with the former facility in terms of its characterstic forms and use of wood as the main material. The house is predominantly clad in wood shingel, both on the roof and the outside walls, in combination with glazed openings.
The form of the guesthouse is monumental, mirroring the mountainous landscape it resides within and yet, it simultaneously feels more sculptural. A humanist sensibility has refined the primitive monoliths sharing residence on this most northern landscape. A distinct northern sense radiates from the Kiruna Guesthouse – a familiar feeling instantly recognizable to someone born in the north mountains.
There is a hopeful energy cast onto those watching it, perhaps emenating from its elongated peak or maybe it is the multiple small openings casting a window of light onto their inner activities. Whatever it might be their is a sense of hope and optimism radiating forth across the sparsley populated northern landscape. It is an optimism shared by the town of Kiruna at this time giving further evidence that this building belongs here. It is as if the architect has tapped in the spirit well of this place and transmitted a piece of its will into the Guesthouse. This theory runs parallel to the voices that currently describe RRA as a progressive architect that builds ideas from the voices and materials already existing in a place. If this is so then they have found a prosperous approach with which to develop an ‘architecture of place’ – building structures that feel as though they belong in that time and place.
REIULF RAMSTAD ARCHITECTS OF THE NORTH
O accepted the Architizer award. The Architizer award is the result of an increasingly glowing reputation that now extends beyond the border of their native homeland, Norway. RRA is one of the few studios in Norway today with such an impressive and diverse portfolio of completed projects. The projects stretch across a wide range of landscapes as diverse as heavily populated urban flat lots and uninhabited mountain top locations. The common link between all projects is the overriding representation of humanist values. Drawing influence from architects such as Carlo Scarpo and Sverre Fehn, RRA’s style has been characterized as “Revitalized Nordic”. In a break away from traditional Nordic architecture, RRA relies on natural materials to create unique views of nature for its building’s occupants. A clear effort to establish a new style of Nordic architecture is apparent and in the process new and refreshing ways of experiencing natural areas are the result.
