Ibsen Library
-
April-July 2018
-
Henrik Ibsen is considered one the world's foremost playwrights of his generation, and spent his youth in Skien, Norway. The city itself whiches to establish a public library in his name. The main tasks for this parallel commission were; choice of site, space & program function, and UN sustainable goals. With hybrid public programs such as library + social service center + tourism center, the call also touches upon an array of complex topics, such as Henrik Ibsen's authorship & legacy, democratic values and arena, societal interplay, and how to translate this into architecture & design and weave it all together.
The planning of Ibsen Library is considered one of Skien's most ambitious projects in recent time, with an estimated pricetag of 330 million NOK. On this occasion, the municipality initiated a parallel commission inviting 3 offices (1 slot for wildcard entry to deal with space & program function and UN sustainable goals), making it the first project to include the Wildcard arrangement since its recommencement in april of 2017.
-
Parallel commission (wildcard entry) - programmatic content for a public library in Skien, incorporation of UN sustainable goals, Henrik Ibsen's legacy.
-
Skien municipality
-
AP+E (IE)
De Gayardon Bureau (IT)
Holt O'Brien (NO)
Tin.uno (NO) -
Skien, Norway
-
Jaja with Everyday & JAC
Arkitema & Rosan Bosch
Introduction
The approach, or research design to answer the assignment was defined as two simultaneous processes; Skien understood and analysed as a reality (social, cultural, and economic conditions, whereas Ibsen as fiction (artform, literature, drama). The overlapping qualities between the reality and fiction will be measured up against each other in an attempt to create a synthesis between the two, covering potential angles and findings benefitting the future development of Ibsen Library. It is only when the fiction is present in today's reality and contemporary discourses, Ibsen stays relevant for the city image of Skien and throughout the world. The sustainable goals (dedicated task for the wildcard team) will be dealt with as an integral and interative aspect of the end-product - which is to inform the two processes continuously.
The goal of this approach is not only to give well-informed guidelines to cover to broad specter of tasks to be answered; local community's interests, cultural heritage, urban identity, and international prestige.