Vennesla Library and Culture House

The Vennesla Library and Culture House (Norwegian: Vennesla bibliotek og kulturhus) is a public library serving the inhabitants of Vennesla Municipality in Agder, Norway. The new library building completed in 2011 has won several architecture prizes and has been praised both within Norway[2] and abroad.[3]

Facade and main entrance of the Vennesla Library and Culture House August 2017.
Vennesla Library and Culture House
Vennesla bibliotek
Interior in Vennesla Library
Interior in the library part of the building
General information
TypeLibrary
Town or cityVennesla
CountryNorway
Coordinates58°16′13″N 7°58′13″E
Elevation48 m (157 ft)
Construction started2010
Opened2011
Cost80 million NOK
OwnerVennesla Municipality
Technical details
Floor count2
Floor area1,900 m2 (20,000 sq ft)[1]
Design and construction
Architecture firmHelen & Hard
Awards and prizesStatens byggeskikkpris, 2012

The Municipality of Vennesla decided in 2005 to relocate the library to the city centre, linking together an existing community house and learning centre into a cultural centre. A café, open meeting places and a small scene were incorporated into the plan of the new building, making it a combined library and house of culture. With the new building, the municipality sought both to establish a public meeting place and to increase the quality of architecture in the urban area of Vennesla. An architectural design competition was initiated in 2008; it was won by the firm Helen & Hard from Stavanger and the new building was ready in 2011.

The main building material is wood, and the building is dominated by the 27 glue-laminated timber arcs that support the roof and give associations to ribs of a whale skeleton. The building has attracted much interest and won several prizes, among them Statens byggeskikkpris for 2012 (the Norwegian state prize for good buildings).[4] The building has, however, also received criticism for lacking functionality for its main purpose, namely being a library building. The author of an opinion piece in the Norwegian weekly Morgenbladet maintained that the library building was beautiful, yet inconvenient for normal library use.[5]

References
  1. Rambøll: Vennesla bibliotek
  2. "Arkitekter tror på Vennesla bibliotek", "Vennesla bibliotek ble åpnet 29. oktober i 2011. Nå spres bilder av biblioteket verden over. Arkitektur N hadde biblioteket på forsiden av nummer 01/12. Nettavisen The Huffington Post spør om biblioteket er det vakreste i verden. Arkitekturnettstedet ArchDaily skriver at biblioteket har en «sofistikert eleganse», og Wallpaper skriver at biblioteket har en sterk identitet.", from the Norwegian architecture magazine arkitektnytt.no 28 February 2012, translation: Vennesla library was opened on 29 October 2011. Photographs of the library are being spread around the world. [The architecture journal] Arkitektur N had the library on the front page of its issue no. 01/12. The Huffington Post asks [rhetorically] whether the library is the most beautiful in the world. The architecture website ArchDaily writes that the library has a "sophisticated elegance", and Wallpaper writes that the library has a strong identity."
  3. "PHOTOS: Is The Vennesla Library The Most Beautiful Library In The World?", Huffington Post, 22 February 2012
  4. "Vennesla bibliotek vinner av Statens Byggeskikkpris 2012" Archived 2012-07-10 at the Wayback Machine, article from the Norwegian State Housing Bank
  5. "Vinneren av Statens Byggeskikkpris 2012 ble biblioteket i Vennesla. Og det er et fint hus. Men er det et godt bibliotek? Alle hyllene og benkene og inventaret sitter fast i selve konstruksjonen. En bygning der anvendbarheten synes å være helt sekundær og hvor stilen hinter mer mot smykkedesign enn om tilpasning til kunnskapservervelse. Er det virkelig en estetikk i seg selv som fremholdes som vår tids ypperste arkitektur?", from «Arkitekten og selvtekten», (translation:The winner of the Norwegian state prize for good building 2012 was the library in Vennesla. And it is a nice house. But is it a good library? All the shelves, benches and the rest of the inventory is a part of the construction. A building where its usability seems to be of second importance and where its style hint more towards jewelry design than adapting to acquiring knowledge. Is it really aesthetics in itself that is judged to be the greatest architecture of our time?") from article in the Norwegian newspaper Morgenbladet, page 29, 27 July - 2 August 2012
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