Sverre Fehn, Nordic Pavilion, Venice. Voices from the Archives

Sverre Fehn's Nordic Pavilion in Venice is a masterpiece in postwar architecture. The young Norwegian architect won the competition in 1958 and the building was inaugurated in 1962. Through six decades the beloved structure has been mired in phenomenology, poetry, and the personal memory of the select. Looking at the archives, a very different story emerges.

In minute detail, this book presents the history of the origins and making of the Nordic Pavilion; spanning from the geopolitical context in an increasingly tense cold war atmosphere, to the aggregates in the concrete of the audacious roof construction, and to the iconic trees, many of which died already before the second exhibition in 1964.

Sverre Fehn, Nordic Pavilion, Venice. Voices from the Archives documents the vast cast involved in the making of the Nordic Pavilion, spanning from kings, prime ministers, bureaucrats, ambassadors, museum directors, architects, and a myriad of artists' associations, to Venetian dignitaries, engineers, gardeners, lawyers, and plumbers. The pavilion was conceived and built against the backdrop of friendships and animosities, powerplay and diplomacy. The detours and disappointments, the successes and failures of the Venice affair make a prism in miniature to understand the mindset and conflicting ambitions of the Nordic countries in the 1950s and 60s. Richly illustrated with previously unpublished images, among them many photographs taken by Fehn himself, the archival evidence also sheds new light on one of the great Nordic architects of the recent past.

OMTALE

«It would be good if every building project was subject to the same deep description because it would cumulatively give a very different sense of how architecture, even great architecture, comes into being. […] Few people want to record the problems that building projects often cause, so it is a pleasure to find one described with such remarkable, beautiful fidelity.»
Charles Saumarez Smith, charlessaumarezsmith.com
Charles Saumarez Smith er forhenværende direktør av the National Gallery og the Royal Academy of Art i London, og forfatter av The Art Museum in Modern Times (2021)

«Til slutt må det nevnes at dette er en usedvanlig vakker bok, på høyde med (og tydelig inspirert av) de beste arkitekturbøkene fra Sveits og Tyskland, som vanligvis setter standarden. Det er inspirerende at vi kan produsere bøker av denne kvaliteten i Norge, både når det gjelder form og faglig innhold». 
Jørgen J. Tandberg, Kunstavisen

«The photos, drawings, and meeting transcript are a great start to an impressive book that is packed with an enormous amount of archival information on the building …»
John Hill, A Daily Dose of Architecture Books
Sverre Fehn, Nordic Pavilion, Venice (archidose.blogspot.com)

Anmeldelse på italiensk av Mario Fosso i weArch:
Sverre Fehn e Venezia, 1962. Quando la natura diventa arte concreta (wearch.eu)