Sverre Fehn

Sverre Fehn was a Norwegian architect who received wide recognition and accolade during his long career, including the Pritzker Prize in 1997. He is best known for his designs of private houses and museums that integrated modernism with traditional vernacular architecture. He considered the process of building “an attack by our culture on nature” and stated that it was his goal “to make a building that will make people more aware of the beauty of the setting, and when looking at the building in the setting, a hope for a new consciousness to see the beauty there as well.” He graduated from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in 1948 and was influenced by Arne Korsmo and Jean Prouvé. He received international attention for his Norwegian Pavilion at the World Exhibition in Brussels in 1958 and his Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1962. Some of his notable works include the Hedmark Museum, the Glacier Museum, the Aukrust Center, the Norwegian Museum of Photography, and the Norwegian Museum of Architecture. He used concrete, wood, and light as his main materials and created buildings that harmonized with their surroundings. He died in Oslo in 2009 at the age of 84.