Proposal for 22 July memorial
Oslo
Location: Oslo
Status: Limited competition
Client: KORO
Photographers: manthey kula
As one of ten international teams Manthey Kula has delivered a proposal for a National memorial in commemoration of the terror attacks of 22 july 2011 in the new Government quarters in Oslo.
We must talk about what happened here.
Entrance roof
Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Location: Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Status: Built
Client: Private
Photographers: manthey kula
The roof covers the entrance to a park established for the study of rituals related to mourning and commemoration.
A glue-laminated larchwood beam spanning between two sandstone columns.
The mourning buildings
Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Location: Baden-Württemberg, Germany
Status: In progress
Client: Private
Photographers: manthey kula
Two buildings to be built in a private park established for the study of rituals related to mourning and commemoration.
The buildings will be shell constructions in cast bronze over brick vaults.
Hamburgö house
Bohuslän, Sweden
Location: Bohuslän, Sweden
Year: 2021
Status: Built
Client: Private
Photo Credit: Mikael Olsson and manthey kula
Award: The Architectural Review AR House Award 2021 Highly Commended
In order not to destroy any part of the natural site by excavation, blasting or land-filling, the house is designed as a bridge spanning 29 meters from one bedrock plateau to another. The loadbearing structure consists of two laminated timber arches spanning across boulders left by the glacier more than 12 000 years ago. The arches were transported to the site by helicopter and bolted to steel brackets carefully placed and drilled into the granite. Two delicate steel trusses connect the building to the terrain bracing it against the heavy coastal winds.
The house is on grid; infrastructure and geothermal heating is brought to the structure through a non-load bearing “inverted chimney”. The interior of the house is characterized by the ever-changing surrounding nature and of the surprisingly slender arches that are visible in every room. Twelve sliding doors provide functional flexibility and unexpected visual passages through the plywood clad spaces. Exterior materials are chosen with regards to the climate; timber treated with iron sulfate, windows and doors covered in raw aluminum, fittings and structural elements in stainless steel and roof cladding in zinc.
National Memorial at Utøyakaia
Hole, Norway
Location: Utøyakaia, Hole, Norway
Year: 2022
Status: Built
Client: Statsbygg
Photographers: Karin Björkquist & Sébastien Corbari
In collaboration with Bureau Bas Smets
The project is a national memorial for the victims, survivors, and rescuers of the two terror attacks that hit Norway on Friday 22 July 2011 where 77 people were killed; 8 in the bombing of the government quarters, 69 on Utøya island at the summer camp of the Norwegian Labour Party’s youth organisation.
The project is situated on the mainland across the waters from the Utøya. From here the terrorist took the boat to the island, this was the place youth that managed to save their lives by swimming across the water met help and where injured victims were taken care of in the beginning of the rescue operation.
77 individually formed, solid bronze columns are placed on the first step of a stone stair by the water. Each column carries the name of a victim, each name is a unique relief. The stone stair continues out into the water where it forms a dock commemorating the locals who, in spite of risking their lives went out in their boats to help in the rescue operation.
The utilitarian parts of the project; access road, technical facilities, dock, and shelter are built in concrete and sandblasted stainless steel. The ground is covered in local gravel of the same origin as the bedrock in the area.
National veteran monument
Akershus Festning, Oslo, Norway
Location: Akershus Festning, Oslo, Norway
Year: 2021
Status: Built
Client: Forsvarsbygg
Photo credit: Sébastien Corbari and manthey kula
A new national monument to honor all personnel that has served abroad for Norway after 1945. The monument offers a calm and peaceful place for relatives and other visitors, and will also be used for larger public events and memorial ceremonies . The project is also a transformation and restoration of the large square at Akershus Castle in Oslo.
A 100 meter long bench in the Norwegian national stone larvikite encircles an existing grove of linden trees, thus establishing a sheltered place for reflection and recognition.
On the inside of the stone bench the names of all international operations in which Norway has partaken after 1945 are inscribed. The operations are positioned in relation to the celestial directions: operations in Africa towards south, operations in Europe towards north, operations in Asia towards east and operations in America towards west.
Inside the memorial grove there are three bronze elements that relates to each of the three entrances. A small information sign. A large plaque carrying the names of everyone that has died in Norwegian service abroad after 1945. An eternal flame remind us that that the lost ones will not be forgotten.
In the western corner of the surrounding stone bench a bauta is placed as the focal point of public ceremonies outside the grove.
Guest of honor pavilion
Frankfurt, Germany
Location: Frankfurt, Germany
Year: 2019
Status: Built
Client: NORLA
Photo Credit: manthey kula and Luis Callejas
Award: Nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2022
In collaboration with LCLA
In 2019 Norway was the guest of honor at the international book fair in Frankfurt. An open competition asked for a spatial concept that could organize the different cultural activities that were to take place in the large existing hall.
The space was divided by a single wall. Towards the pavilion’s large windows: the library, a cafe and small stages. On the dark side of the wall: the large stage and a landscape of strangely familiar table-forms. The tables referred to the abstract geography contained in literature: the landscape of imagination.
Each table supported a specific category of books or literature-related objects. The tables were designed and produced in aluminium with excellent craftsmanship not typical of temporary events. After the book fair, the tables were given to selected cultural institutions, libraries and book stores.
Skreda rest area
Lofoten, Norway
Location: Skreda, Lofoten, Norway
Year: 2018
Status: Built
Client: Norwegian Scenic Routes
Photo Credit: manthey kula
Award: Nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2019
The project is a complete transformation of an existing rest stop from the 1980’s, dominated by an over-sized traffic area. The site was organized in, and between an artificial terrain of nature-like mounds and boulders which obscured the view to the Lofoten seascape. The new project aimed to establish an inviting floor where from where travelers can enjoy the beautiful view across the water. The platform is subordinate to the landscape, yet its convex geometry contributes to place the visitors in an exposed, but secure position in the center of the large open space.
The platform is constructed of steel sheets spanning between cast concrete foundations. The foundations form floors for the furniture, ramps, and stair. The furniture consists of benches, tables, and railings, all structurally interdependent, all made from bent standard flat steel bolted or welded together to form stable elements. There are thirty different surfaces to sit on and by. Each piece has a different pattern in solid colors. The surfaces are highly reflective, mirroring the ever-changing sky.
Stella’s room
Sørum, Norway
Location: Sørum, Hedmark, Norway
Year: 2018
Status: Built
Client: Private
Photo Credit: manthey kula
The present farm is the result of a series of architectural interventions by late architect Are Vesterlid: A rich architectural collage of historic timber tradition and original contemporary work. Stella’s room is an addition to this context, executed some years after Vesterlid’s passing.
The room is built in the un-insulated part of the old barn building, partly behind the existing barn door. A free standing glass wall on the inside of the existing timber structure exposes the beautiful order of the old posts and beams. When the large barn door is closed light is brought into the room through a sculptural skylight.
Forvik ferry port
Vevelstad, Norway
Location: Forvik, Vevelstad, Norway
Year: 2015
Status: Built
Client: Norwegian Public Roads Administration
Photo Credit: manthey kula
A transparent structure through which one does not only see the old tavern across the bay , but also every part of the construction.
The service building consists of two concrete gable walls and an up side down vault of 10mm galvanized steel spanning between, and cantilevering past them. Underneath the roof are insulated spaces of slender wooden frames and glass. From inside the rooms one can see the continuous steel vault above the glass ceiling. The structure has an asymmetrical section with cantilevering awnings towards the south. The appearance of the building was never an intention in itself, but a result of the desire to expose every part of the structure and to make use of the static potential in the inverted vault.
The main focus for the landscape was to minimize the traffic area and give the intervention in the vulnerable coastal terrain a distinct, but subordinate form. This is achieved by eliminating ditches and retaining walls and by careful planning of the cutting of bedrock.
Ode to Osaka
The National Museum - Architecture, Oslo, Norway
Location: The National Museum - Architecture, Oslo, Norway
Year: 2015
Status: Built
Client: The National Museum - Architecture
Photo Credit: Annar Bjørgli, Urs Meier Aegler, manthey kula
Manthey Kula was commissioned to develop a concept for realization of Sverre Fehn’s un-built competition proposal for a breathing space for the Osaka World Fair in 1970. The installation was built in Fehn’s last building; The Ulltveit Moe pavilion of the National Museum.
The installation’s relationship to the initial competition entry had to be solved and sorted out: Technical issues, matters of form and material, geometry, size and siting, and eventually that of exhibition content.
The work was not Sverre Fehn’s project for the Osaka World fair, but a contemporary installation based on, and honoring his idea. It was a structure consisting of an airlock building and an inflated, moving space. All details were developed so that the installation could be dismounted and re-erected.
There were no objects on show – only space.
Taipei book crossing
Taipei, Taiwan
Location: Taipei, Taiwan
Year: 2014
Status: Built
Client: Taipei Free Artist's Association
Photo Credit: manthey kula
The small kiosk was part of Taipei’s preparation for becoming Design Capital 2016. Four international architects were invited to develop tiny structures with a public function for specific sites in the city.
Manthey Kula designed a book crossing where people of the neighborhood could meet and exchange used books. The white structure contrasted the colorful context, and the minimal interior captured scenes from the passing life and ever-changing city light.
MK521
The Nordic Pavilion, Venice, Italy
Location: The Nordic Pavilion, Venice, Italy
Year: 2012
Status: Built
Client: The National Museum - Architecture
Photo Credit: manthey kula
MK521 was a sound installation for Venice Biennale 2012, the 50th anniversary of Sverre Fehn’s Nordic pavilion.
The project had two sources: The ffictional dialogue between Sverre Fehn and Andrea Palladio written by Fehn in 1964. and the module of 521 millimeters that Fehn made use of in the design of the iconic building.
The installation hung from one of the openings in the roof of the pavilion, designed to give space for a tree . The recorded dialog was played from a speaker suspended in a tailored trunk made of natural wool felt. During transport the piece was contained in a crate of fiberboard. When installed, the crate served as seating for the listener. The crate measured 521x521x521 millimeters, thus fitting the grid of the pavilion floor.
Studio Pilestredet
Oslo, Norway
Location: Pilestredet, Oslo, Norway
Year: 2010
Status: Built
Client: Private
Photo credit: Manthey Kula
Transformation of an old industrial space into a small studio.
The vaulted room had no infrastructure, only a drain oddly placed high up on the wall. An elevated brick structure containing a bathroom and a small kitchen added to the spatial experience and subdivided the room into different zones.
Myrbærholmen fishing bridges
Møre og Romsdal, Norway
Location: Averøy, Møre og Romsdal, Norway
Year: 2010
Status: Built
Client: Norwegian Scenic Routes
Photo Credit: manthey kula
The narrow bridge of the high speed road has always been a very good and quite dangerous fishing spot. The new cantilevering walkways provide secure ground for both fishers and tourist enjoying the view over the Atlantic Ocean.
The geometry of the walkways emphasizes the curvature of the Atlantic road that meanders between the islets of the rough coast. A cut in the rock provide parking space for both locals and tourists trying their luck with the fish. Ramps, stairs, walkways and waiting area are prefabricated in galvanized steel and mounted on the existing bridge structure. The railings of the bridge were designed to improve fishing for the disabled.
Fence
Bergen, Norway
Location: Bergen, Norway
Year: 2010
Status: Built
Client: The Directorate of Norwegian Correctional Service
Photo credit: Stein Bjørge, Manthey Kula
Low cost fence around the outdoor area of the temporary juvenile detention unit at Bergen prison. Recycled road signs replace the regular barbed wire perimeter, providing the inmates with references to places outside their limited situation. Places they might know or dream of.
Akkarvik roadside restroom
Lofoten, Norway
Location: Akkarvik, Lofoten, Norway
Year: 2009
Status: Built
Client: Norwegian Scenic Routes
Photo Credit: Paul Warchol
Award: Nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2011
The rest room replaces an old facility that had been lifted off its footing by strong winds. Thus the small building needed to be heavy so that it would not easily be moved off the ground. The restrooms were conceived to present a pause from the impressions of the surrounding nature, offering an experience of different sensuous qualities. Thus the building is made of 10-12 mm sheets of structural corteen steel welded together on site. The thin steel sheets are braced by steel flanges where it is needed. The bracing gives an almost ornamental quality to the pragmatic spaces. Two large glass openings provide view to the sky and a reflected horizon. Surfaces that the visitors will get in contact with are made of stainless steel or covered in clear glass to prevent rust staining.
Skreda roadside restroom
Lofoten, Norway
Location: Skreda, Lofoten, Norway
Year: 2009
Status: Built
Client: Norwegian Scenic Routes
Photo Credit: Steinar Skaar
Low cost transformation of existing roadside restroom. Part of the dilapidated building was removed and protruding details cut away. The remaining volume was clad in fiber cement and surrounded by a new concrete platform defining the service and information area. Light fixtures were designed to be part of the standardized information system.
Pålsbu hydro power station
Buskerud, Norway
Location: Tunhovd, Buskerud, Norway
Year: 2007
Status: Built
Client: Statkraft
Photo Credit: Per Berntsen
Award: Nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2009
The generator chamber is situated as a free standing building in front of the 530 meters long dam, emphasizing the sculptural quality of the unbroken man made line through the landscape.
The structure consists of 15 load bearing precast concrete panels stacked around the turbine and generator. The 52 tons equipment is lifted in place by a crane supported by an in situ concrete framework. The protruding structure of the crane is covered in rough spray-on concrete. There are no gutters; stainless steel profiles are welded to the concrete panels to prevent water from entering the precast holes that serve as screens in front of windows and ventilation openings. The roof is made of prefabricated steel trusses.
Brunnsparken coffeshop
Gothenburg, Sweden
Location: Gothenburg, Sweden
Year: 2022
Status: Open competition, third prize
Photo Credit: manthey kula
A small kiosk: prefabricated modules clad in copper and green concrete elements.
