Guest of honor pavilion

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.