Snøhetta’s Wild Reindeer Centre pavilion

Architect Snøhetta
Location Dovrefjell National Park, Hjerkinn, Norway
Completed June 2011

Set in the harsh but majestic mountainous landscape of Norway’s Dovrefjell National Park is a striking timber shelter for observing wild reindeer and other rare animals, including musk-ox and polar foxes.

Norwegian practice Snøhetta was appointed in 2009 to design a shelter for school groups and the public, allowing them to view the protected animals in a concealed environment as part of the Wild Reindeer Foundation educational programme.

The 90sq m Wild Reindeer Centre Pavilion, which cost 4 million kroner (£440,000), provides just the basics: a warm gathering space (there is a fireplace suspended from the ceiling), seating for 35 visitors and a small kitchen. Toilets are in a nearby separate building.

Situated 1,220m above sea level and accessed via a 1.5km path, the pavilion is open only during summer. Even then, this exposed part of central Norway can still be very windy and wet.
It was only possible to build the pavilion on such a sensitive site because it already contained two nondescript military buildings which have since been demolished. The 1,700sq km Dovrefjell National Park was established in 2002 having previously been an army firing range. Mineral mining had also been carried out in the area. The park is still undergoing an extensive cleanup programme involving the removal of roads and ammunition.

The pavilion is rectangular — 12.6m long x 6.6m wide and 3.2m tall — and is built from a raw steel self-supporting frame welded together on site that sits on a concrete foundation raised off the ground. One of the long elevations — the north or observation side — features five panels of single glazed 10mm thick glass, silicone sealed into the steel frame. The short elevations employ a double wall 10mm thick steel construction (no insulation) fixed to the concrete foundation.

The main entrance is on the south elevation, which reveals the building’s organic inner core: sections of pine lain on top of each other and connected together using traditional shipbuilding techniques. The timber continues inside, forming the main seating area and creating a warm, cave like interior.

“We wanted to create a contrast between the soft inner core of the timber and the rigid steel frame around it,” says Snøhetta’s project architect Knut Bjørgum.

Creating the timber seating structure

From a distance the timber curves and seating look as if they have been carved out by hand. In fact, the shelter’s form was created from 250mm square pine timber beams and assembled using only wooden pegs as fasteners.

The simple building shape and use of natural materials reference local building traditions. The innovation in this project lies in the advanced technologies used both in design and manufacturing.

Snøhetta made a series of 3D-printed test models and then milled a 1:50 scale model in solid oak using its in-house seven-axis Kuka robot-controlled router.

Norwegian shipbuilder Djupevaag was used to make the timber elements. Snøhetta had used the firm before when it made the oak balconies for its opera house in Oslo.
“They have a unique knowledge of how to treat wood in a complex way and how to shape it organically,” says project architect Knut Bjørgum.

The surface model was then divided into sections of 250mm square log pine timber layers of varying lengths from about 6 to 10m. The wood was CNC cut one layer at a time until the whole structure was built up to the smallest cross-section.

The whole structure was transported to the site in three large pieces. A timber frame was built within the steel and glass frame to help support the main pine sculptural element. The pine sections were assembled using a traditional timber shipbuilding technique. Instead of glue or nails, wooden pegs were used as fasteners. The pegs are dried causing them to contract
before being hammered into pre-drilled holes in the wood. Gradually the pegs regain their normal shape, tightening the whole construction.

The advantage of using wooden pegs is that they follow the same movement as the main structure as humidity and temperature changes.

The surface of the pine structure is polished by hand machines and all edges are processed with traditional hand tools.

The south facing exterior wall is treated with pine tar to help protect it from rain while the interior wood was oiled.