"Vardø radio" (1 of 3)
Description
Vardø coast radio station is situated on a windswept moraine ridge south of Vardøhus festning (Vardø Fortress), like a large stone on the landscape. It was originally intended that the building should be fashioned of untreated, site-moulded concrete, but uneven moulding work and climate conditions made it necessary to sandblast the exterior and paint it white.
The architects Kjell Lund and Nils Slaatto grew up in Lillehammer. After studying in Trondheim, they set up an office in Oslo and most of their work is linked to Oslo and Østlandet. Vardø radio is the only building designed by Lund and Slaatto in Northern Norway. However, Kjell Lund has designed the Carmelite cloister in Tromsø.
Pagg is a word often used by Lund and Slaatto. The word “pagge” translates roughly as a “big lad”, a “hefty package”. In the architectural sense of the word, a pagg is a concentrated block of immense power. During the 1960s, Lund and Slaattos’ architecture was closely linked to simple geometric forms like the pyramid and the cube, both non-directional forms emphasizing the meaning of the place, the spot. In the same way, Vardø radio is one of the significant institutions in the north – as emphasized by the cubic form of the architecture. The main building covered an original ground area of 250 m². The length of the building was extended in around 1980, so that the characteristic cubic form, or pagg-expression, was lost. Lund and Slaatto were also the architects for this development. The building was extended again in 2006, this time with a glassed-over entrance section, which in purely architectonic terms stands in contrast to the closed form of the cube. Atelier 2 AS in Alta were the architects for this last development.
The architects Kjell Lund and Nils Slaatto grew up in Lillehammer. After studying in Trondheim, they set up an office in Oslo and most of their work is linked to Oslo and Østlandet. Vardø radio is the only building designed by Lund and Slaatto in Northern Norway. However, Kjell Lund has designed the Carmelite cloister in Tromsø.
Pagg is a word often used by Lund and Slaatto. The word “pagge” translates roughly as a “big lad”, a “hefty package”. In the architectural sense of the word, a pagg is a concentrated block of immense power. During the 1960s, Lund and Slaattos’ architecture was closely linked to simple geometric forms like the pyramid and the cube, both non-directional forms emphasizing the meaning of the place, the spot. In the same way, Vardø radio is one of the significant institutions in the north – as emphasized by the cubic form of the architecture. The main building covered an original ground area of 250 m². The length of the building was extended in around 1980, so that the characteristic cubic form, or pagg-expression, was lost. Lund and Slaatto were also the architects for this development. The building was extended again in 2006, this time with a glassed-over entrance section, which in purely architectonic terms stands in contrast to the closed form of the cube. Atelier 2 AS in Alta were the architects for this last development.
