The complex that was erected as the Harstad swimming pool and community centre, designed by the architect Jan Inge Hovig (1920-1977), is centrally located in the town centre. In 1999 the A3 Arkitektkontor was contracted to convert the swimming pool into a gallery for Harstad Gallery of Contemporary Art, and the construction was completed in 2001. This building is one of the most characteristic structures in the town and is included in the so-called community district. Here one will also find the Harstad cinema - also designed by Jan Inge Hovig.

The building is dominated by the vigorous concrete slabs which function both as floor slabs and as a demarcation of the roof. Situated between the slabs are large planes of glass which are divided with vertical glazing bars. The relationship between the light planes of glass which are divided with heavy vertical glazing bars gives the illusion that the roof hovers. This is a motif that is characteristic of many of Hovig's buildings from the 1950s.