Ode to Osaka

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.