在場所中迷失：雅蒙德/維斯奈斯建筑事務(wù)所

馬里·瓦頓/Mari Hvat tum

孫萌 譯/Translated by SUN Meng

雅蒙德/維斯奈斯建筑事務(wù)所（JVA）十分珍視阻力。最令他們頭痛的情形莫過于遇到一個沒有限制的任務(wù)；無限的預(yù)算，溫帶氣候中的完美場地，以及由建筑師自己決定功能。與其尋找建筑形式和其眾多影響因素之間的互動，他們則更傾向于尋找那些在場地、條件、經(jīng)濟或功能方面有困難的項目，甚至與建筑需求相矛盾?！拔覀兒芟矚g‘阻力’或‘摩擦’這些詞”， 埃納爾·雅蒙德說。“……在每個任務(wù)中，我們都用我們獨特的方式尋找非常規(guī)的情況、有意思的場地和約束條件……它們在后來的設(shè)計中將成為創(chuàng)造性的出發(fā)點”［1］。這種方式把它們的設(shè)計與其他北歐建筑區(qū)別開來。事實上，在北歐 “詩意化現(xiàn)代主義”有時顯得壓抑的環(huán)境中，JVA的作品展示了令人耳目一新的非詩意化特質(zhì)。他們的建筑是顛覆的，既不是遵循特定的“北方”審美，也不是預(yù)先設(shè)定場所精神。與其說適應(yīng)環(huán)境，不如說JVA的建筑設(shè)計發(fā)明和再造了居住環(huán)境。“我們一直致力于探索自然和結(jié)構(gòu)之間沖突的可能性”，建筑師在“迷失在自然”展覽的目錄中這樣寫道。

JVA事務(wù)所成立于1996年，由3個合伙人和約15位建筑師組成，該事務(wù)所已在國際建筑界占有一席之地。他們的作品在全世界范圍內(nèi)發(fā)表和展覽，并不斷地吸引國外項目，比如“生活建筑”著名的英國夏季住宅系列。其中，JVA的作品與其他著名事務(wù)所作品并排建造，如，彼得·卒姆托和MVRDV。從2007年以來，JVA的12個主要建筑作品巡回展穿梭于歐洲和北美之間，也刊登在很多書籍和雜志等出版物上。如果試圖把JVA的作品對號入座，結(jié)果則會非常多元化。他們的作品和工作方式滲透著很多“學(xué)派”的痕跡，從荷蘭的實用主義到瑞士的環(huán)境主義，從時尚的西班牙抽象主義到1990年代美國西海岸的離奇而賦于表現(xiàn)力的幾何主義。在挪威，這種實踐通常被視為“可怕的”，拒絕屈從教條主義對于建筑構(gòu)造純度的堅持，而這一點正是戰(zhàn)后北歐現(xiàn)代主義的特質(zhì)。JVA自己則熱衷于建筑本身，而沒有把精力投身于將他們的實踐定義或列入任何一個主義或?qū)W派。相反，他們培養(yǎng)的快樂和非教條機會主義有令人耳目一新的啟發(fā)性。

抵抗自然

一種獨特品質(zhì)通常會誘發(fā)新的東西，北歐建筑所表現(xiàn)的特點包括建造的清晰度、誠實地使用材料和避免人工痕跡。自斯堪的納維亞設(shè)計開始流行以來，金色木墻、天然石材以及有些刻板的清晰構(gòu)造一直都是北歐現(xiàn)代主義的標(biāo)志。雅蒙德/維斯奈斯建筑事務(wù)所也沒有逃出這個持續(xù)的神話。比如，斯瓦爾巴特科學(xué)中心項目就是對北方地區(qū)場所精神的一次實現(xiàn)——是對遙遠荒涼的北方地區(qū)的原始而自然的回應(yīng)。實際上，沒有任何東西能遠離事實?？梢钥隙ǖ氖?，JVA的建筑是從自然中得到靈感而構(gòu)想出來的。他們的很多作品都位于特殊的自然地段之中——從斯瓦爾巴特的干旱北極圈景觀，到紅房子所在的郁郁蔥蔥的河谷。但是，JVA的建筑中沒有任何東西是“自然的”，包括那些精確的幾何形式，仔細(xì)推敲過的材料和顏色，或非常優(yōu)雅的總平面、剖面和立面。比如，斯瓦爾巴特科學(xué)中心扭曲的敷銅箔體量，包括它的狹縫狀窗戶、發(fā)光體和斜幾何形，都是設(shè)計過程的產(chǎn)物，這個過程把形式和功能、場地和氣候結(jié)合成豐富而沒有沖突的關(guān)系，這個過程是對自然的挑釁和容忍，而并非模仿它。建筑師形容在努爾馬卡（Nordmarka，位于奧斯陸北部的森林區(qū)）的小屋時說：“位于一個干凈而幽深的森林中，這個小屋和當(dāng)?shù)丨h(huán)境聯(lián)系并不多，反而與柔軟的山丘及南方地平線方向的湖泊形成更多關(guān)聯(lián)”［2］。對當(dāng)?shù)丨h(huán)境的痛斥和為其建筑拓寬視野應(yīng)該被視為綱領(lǐng)性的聲明。JVA培育了一個精致和多層次的人造物，其意義在于與自然的對立而非統(tǒng)一或模仿。“我們上一代建筑師在處理自然的方式上有完全不同的信仰”，亞歷山德拉·科斯貝格（Alessandra Kosberg）說道，“我們并不把自然作為信仰，而是作為可以被積極利用的東西?！?/p>

重新定義場所

如果“自然”和“自然的”一直是現(xiàn)代挪威建筑界癡迷的主題，和它媲美的只有一個更相關(guān)的概念“場所”。歷史學(xué)家和理論家克里斯蒂安·諾伯格－舒爾茨（Christian Norberg-Schulz）對建筑的思考圍繞著場所精神（genius loci） ——當(dāng)?shù)氐木瘛?一個從他對自然景觀的本質(zhì)解釋中衍生出的概念［3］。諾伯格－舒爾茨的地形決定論認(rèn)為，建筑是對景觀的模仿式重新定制，該理論對挪威建筑界有很大影響，從斯韋勒·費恩（Sver re Fehn）到文撤·塞爾默（Wenche Selmer）到當(dāng)代實踐中的創(chuàng)新語境主義，比如卡爾·維戈·賀美巴克（Car l-Viggo H?lmebakk）或克努特·赫特內(nèi)斯（Knut Hjel tnes）。雅蒙德/維斯奈斯建筑事務(wù)所位于整個圖景中的什么位置呢？至少是不完美的。“我們不是培育一種方式，而是開發(fā)對待自然和場所的一系列策略。這些策略有些可能帶有‘詩意’ ——而有些則肯定沒有。我們更關(guān)心對某個獨特條件的特別處理手法，而不是創(chuàng)造某種特定的建筑方式”，雅蒙德說。他們的住宅作品，比如，邊緣住宅、白房子和三角形住宅，展示了這種語境機會主義。這3座住宅都建于不同的場地，或者是地形十分陡峭（比如邊緣住宅），或者由于場地被擠在高密度郊區(qū)環(huán)境中，要應(yīng)對有限的視野和嚴(yán)格的建筑法規(guī)（比如白房子和三角形住宅）。這些限制條件并沒有成為設(shè)計的阻礙，反而激發(fā)了賦有創(chuàng)意的解決方案。邊緣住宅位于陡峭的場地，使我們提出了獨特的懸臂施工方法，即用細(xì)長的鋼柱懸挑支撐在風(fēng)景之上。白色住宅位于高密度的郊區(qū)環(huán)境，使住宅扭曲和旋轉(zhuǎn)，建筑像望遠鏡一樣準(zhǔn)確地朝向設(shè)計的視角。在三角形住宅中，對高度和面積的嚴(yán)格限制產(chǎn)生了非常規(guī)的體量，并對光和空間進行創(chuàng)造性調(diào)整。它們都是精巧的小建筑。他們的尺度和材料都沒有超出常規(guī)，但是它們的幾何精度，那些精心設(shè)計的開口和嚴(yán)格的材料控制，賦予它們強烈的雕塑感。蒂爾塔格勒酒店（Tur tagr?Hotel）、努爾馬卡小屋及其他很多項目，JVA的設(shè)計把建筑本身植入景觀并賦予一種奇異的輕盈感，而不是夸張的“語境”姿態(tài)。這些作品完全沒有模仿既定的場所精神，而是將多種語境編織成全新的質(zhì)感。

1 斯瓦爾巴特群島科學(xué)中心，夜景/Svalbard Science Cent re, night view

2 斯瓦爾巴特群島科學(xué)中心，模型/Svalbard Science Cent re, model

3 斯瓦爾巴特群島科學(xué)中心，外景/Svalbard Science Cent re, exterior view 1－3 攝影/Photography: Nils Pet ter Dale

4 紅房子，外景/Red House, exterior view

5.6 紅房子，模型/Red House, model

4－6 攝影/Photography: Nils Pet ter Dale

JVA的奇異語境主義的一個很好的例子就是最近剛建成的沙丘住宅，位于英國的薩?？耍⊿uf folk）。 這是由“生活建筑”慈善項目開發(fā)的遍布英國的系列夏季住宅之一，它位于風(fēng)景如畫的索普尼斯（Thorpeness）沿海村莊。JVA基于他們自己在英國破舊而古雅的小旅館的假期回憶，展示了對英國鄉(xiāng)村住宅一種奇特的詮釋。把半個老虎窗輪廓分解成奇怪而尖銳的構(gòu)成，他們游走在可識別形式和超現(xiàn)實轉(zhuǎn)換之間。但是，如果這個住宅把場所的某些方面進行轉(zhuǎn)化，它則直接和其他方面連接，比如，玻璃基座直接朝著薩?？撕┑纳城鸫蜷_，以及住宅2層古怪卻精確的玻璃開窗方式，把海景框入室內(nèi)。這種令人驚嘆的類型學(xué)的顛覆——幾乎把對復(fù)雜形式的結(jié)構(gòu)主義感和對材料意義的狂熱堅持組合起來，是JVA堅決無視潮流的一個例子。這是一個有趣又帶危險性的項目，同時也聯(lián)系、增加和顛覆了建筑的時間與地點。

感官的扭轉(zhuǎn)

JVA建筑的一個共同特征就是對材料的興趣，甚至達到癡迷的程度。不是斯堪的納維亞設(shè)計的說教感，而是發(fā)自內(nèi)心和玩的方式——作為氛圍、美麗和愉悅的來源，而不僅僅展示材料或構(gòu)造的清晰性?！拔覀儚膩硪矝]有對這種建設(shè)真正感興趣。對我們來說，它更多的是通過手工藝創(chuàng)造一種氛圍”，哈康·維斯奈斯（Hakon Vigsnaes）說。如果這種興趣將他們與同輩的北歐當(dāng)代主義者區(qū)別開來，那么，這種興趣也將他們與2000年代的國際實踐密切聯(lián)系。對氣氛的興趣已經(jīng)成為最近10年的明顯特征——對1980年代和1990年代過于理論化的建筑的一種反作用，甚至是反抗，或?qū)π虑甑臉O簡主義反審美傾向的反抗。在沙丘住宅和最近剛完成的圖滕（Toten）農(nóng)場小屋項目中，JVA很明顯在堅持著這種“感性轉(zhuǎn)向”，打造出一座不僅服務(wù)于視覺感官也包括身體和其他感覺的建筑。圖滕的這個新項目就是這種方法的一個實例。其壯觀之處在于懸在挪威西岸最大的湖泊米約薩湖（Mj?sa）之上，這個陡峭的地段，原來有兩棟房子和一個巨大的谷倉。主要建筑在多年前被拆掉，南端的建筑還保存著，其被風(fēng)化的木結(jié)構(gòu)可以追溯到1830年。灰白的墻壁在白樺林背景的映襯下散發(fā)著耀眼的銅綠色，帶給這個地方古老而奇特的宏偉感。那個谷倉在這個地區(qū)很常見；巨大的多功能坡頂結(jié)構(gòu)，木結(jié)構(gòu)地板，上層的木框架覆蓋在垂直的擋雨板上。與該地區(qū)大多數(shù)谷倉不同的是，這個建筑從來沒有被油漆過。它表面灰色和暖棕色的微妙變化賦予它美麗的銅綠光澤，就像那個老房子一樣。而這個谷倉年久失修，必須要拆掉，但是，舊建筑的一些板材可以被重新利用。這個舊谷倉的板材則成為新建筑的出發(fā)點。新建筑將垂直于舊建筑的方向，并按照舊庭院的空間重新圍合，這個正方形的體量，需要一個簡單的單坡頂建筑，順應(yīng)地勢。入口立面是對稱的，大門上開了一扇窗，透過窗戶的景色令人驚嘆，視線可以穿過建筑直接望到下面藍色的湖面和山巒。這座建筑表皮用舊谷倉的板材覆蓋，而這些板材卻有全新的利用方式。這些舊板材是楔形的，兩端大小不同，傳統(tǒng)的做法是交替地排列頂部和底部，而JVA則巧妙地利用了板材的寬度差，在立面上創(chuàng)造了一個扇形圖案，從正門的兩邊呈放射狀發(fā)散出去。在墻面上的這種驚人圖案形成了一種風(fēng)筒視畫（trompe l’oeil）效果，使建筑轉(zhuǎn)角看起來延伸出去，形成一種歡迎的近乎炫耀的姿態(tài)。建筑室內(nèi)被米約薩湖面之上閃閃發(fā)亮的氣氛縈繞；沿著河岸的豐富而保持完好的文化景觀形成連續(xù)朝東的地平線。通過一個巧妙的三維規(guī)劃，室內(nèi)空間交織重疊。不同高度的室內(nèi)和地面高度天衣無縫地編織在一起，使人在不經(jīng)意間發(fā)現(xiàn)光線和視線的穿越。木框架結(jié)構(gòu)暴露的斜梁徑直穿過窗戶，給室內(nèi)一種突破常規(guī)的亮度。在室外，利用本地谷倉建筑表皮材料，使這個新建筑有一種奇特的親和力，通常這種建筑的斜梁支撐木框架是暴露的。無禮性、獨創(chuàng)性和娛樂性——根據(jù)條件提出創(chuàng)意解決方案（比如保留車庫窗戶的細(xì)節(jié)），陶騰別墅集中了古怪語境主義，對材料的感性使用，以及雅蒙德/維斯奈斯式獨特的機會敏銳性。從不循規(guī)蹈矩，他們對場地條件充滿了不懈的好奇，并把最驚人的發(fā)現(xiàn)轉(zhuǎn)化成新奇而美妙的東西。

奇異的語境主義

北歐當(dāng)代建筑為人稱道的是它們對自然和場所的關(guān)注，但雅蒙德/維斯奈斯與眾不同的是他們大膽的插入，而不是抒情的適應(yīng)。他們的方式肯定不是基于語境的——或者說是奇異的語境主義，這種方式用一種不可預(yù)見和非常規(guī)的方法利用場地條件，并激發(fā)創(chuàng)新性?！拔覀兺ǔ０l(fā)現(xiàn)保持場地的現(xiàn)有結(jié)構(gòu)很有價值 ——不僅是經(jīng)濟價值”，維斯奈斯說，“它使你捕獲更多的層次——使用和生活的層次，無論如何，這些是需要保留的重要部分。它提供了一種多樣性，是無法憑空產(chǎn)生的?！?他們總是尋找在任何情況下的特別因素，用非常規(guī)的方式發(fā)現(xiàn)、組合和創(chuàng)新建筑，可以超越常規(guī)和傳統(tǒng)。以驚人的方式疊加過去與現(xiàn)在，并頑強地拒絕它們的分離，JVA的作品在兩方面都建樹頗深。□

注釋：

［1］埃納爾·雅蒙德，“白色住宅”[J]，2007， Domus，10 （907）：70.

［2］雅蒙德/維斯奈斯， 迷失在自然. 展覽編目，建筑設(shè)計，巴黎，2007

［3］克里斯蒂安·諾伯格-舒爾茨，場所精神：邁向建筑現(xiàn)象學(xué). 紐約：瑞佐理，1980.

11 邊緣住宅，夜景/Edge House, night view

12.13 邊緣住宅，模型/Edge House, model

11－13 攝影/Photography: Ni ls Petter Dale

Jarmund/Vigsnaes Architects cherish resistance.Their nightmare scenario is a commission with no limitations; with a boundless budget, a perfect site in a temperate climate, and a program determined by the architect him- or hersel f. Rather than looking for a smooth correspondence between architectural form and the many factors generating and af fecting it, they look for projects where site, situation, economy and program place dif ficult, even contradictory, demands on the architecture.“ We very much l ike the words‘resistance’ or‘ f riction’”, Einar Jarmund says“....in every commission we go out of our way to spot awkward conditions and tricky sites, restrictive law..s.so that they can later be turned into create points of depar ture.”［1］It is an approach which sets them apart from much Nordic architecture. In fact, in the at t imes oppressive landscape of Nordi“cpoetic modernism”, JVA’s work appears ref reshingly unpoetic. Their buildings are rebellious, refusing to submit neither to a particula‘r northern’ aesthetics nor to a predefined genius loci. Rather than contextual ly submissive, JVA’s architecture invents and re-creates the places it occupies“. We are constant ly aiming to explore the possibilities of friction between nature and structure” the architects declare in the exhibition catalogue Lost in Nature.

Established in 1996, made up by three partners and a workforce of around fifteen architects, JVA have already made their mark on the international architectural arena.Their work is published and exhibited wor ldwide, and they increasingly attract commissions abroad, for instance Living Architecture’s prestigious series of British summer houses, where JVA build alongside practices such as Peter Zumthor and MVRDV. A t ravel l ing exhibition of twelve major JVA buildings has crisscrossed back and forth between Europe and America since 2007, spurring a host of publications in books and magazines. Attempts at pigeon-holing JVA’s work,however, have given remarkably diverse resul ts. Their work and working methods bear t races of many‘schoo l s’, f rom Dut ch p ragmat ism to Swiss atmospherics, and f rom sleek Spanish abstraction to the quirky and expressive geometries of the American west coast of the 1990’s. In Norway, the practice has often been viewed as an enfante terrible, refusing to succumb to the dogmatic insistence on tectonic purity that has characterised Nordic modernism in the post war era. JVA themselves, however, are far too interested in architecture to devote themselves programmatical ly to any one approach or school.Instead, they cul tivate a cheer ful and undogmatic opportunism which is both refreshing and provocative.

Against nature

A particular character is of ten evoked whenever new, Nordic architecture is presented, involving the clarity of construction, the honest use of materials, and a general shunning of artifice. The blond wooden wal ls,the natural stone and the didactic clarity of the tectonic composition have remained the hal lmark of Nordic modernism ever since the hay-days of Scandinavian Design. Jarmund/Vigsnaes have not escaped this persistent mythology. Projects such as the Svalbard science centre has been presented as the realization of a northern genius loci－a pristine and natural response to the rough wilderness of the far north. Nothing, in fact,could be further from the truth. To be sure, JVA’s architecture is informed, inspired, and conceived in relationship to nature. Many of their works are situated in exquisite natural sites－f rom the arid arctic landscape of Svalbard to the explosively lush river val ley of the Red House. Yet there is nothing ‘natural’about the precise geometry, the careful manipulation of materials and colours, or the highly cultivated plans,sections and facades of JVA’s buildings. The twisted copper-clad volumes of the Svalbard research centre,for instance, with is slit-like widows, its gleaming body and its oblique geometry, are products of a design process in which form and function, site and climate,are brought together in a fruitful and friction-fil led relationship, defying and enduring nature rather than mimicing it. As the architects describe the little cabin in Nordmarka, a woodland region north of Oslo: “Placed in a clearing in a deep forest, the cabin doesn’t real ly relate to its present local piece of ground but rather to the soft hil ls and lakes towards the south horizon.”［2］The denouncement of the local ground and invocation of wider horizons for their architecture should be read as a programmat ic statement. JVA cul t ivate a sophisticated and many-layered artificiality, made meaningful more in contrast to nature than as its continuation or imitation. “The previous generation of architects had a completely dif ferent earnestness in the way they approached nature” says Alessandra Kosberg. “We don’t treat nature as a religion but as something you can use, actively.”

Redef ining place

If‘nature’and the‘natural’has been a persistent obsession in modern Norwegian architectural discourse, it is rival led only by the closely related concept of ‘place’. The architectural thinking of the historian and theorist Christian Norberg-Schulz revolved around the genius loci－the spirit of the place－a concept der ived f rom his decisively essentialist interpretation of the natural landscape.［3］Norberg-Schulz’s topographical determinism with its idea of architecture as a mimetic re-enactment of the landscape, has been a powerful inf luence in Norwegian architecture, f rom Sverre Fehn and Wenche Selmer to the innovat ive contextual ism of contemporary practices such as Car l-Viggo H?lmebakk or Knut Hjel tnes. How does Jarmund/Vigsnaes fit into this picture? Not seamlessly, at any rate. “We cultivate not one, but a whole series of strategies towards nature and towards place. Some of them are perhaps‘poetic’ in some sense－some are definitely not. We are more concerned with the particular commission and its unique conditions, than with cul tivating one particular approach in our architectur”e says Jarmund.Houses such as the Edge House, the White House and the Triangle House i l lust rate this contextual opportunism. Al l three houses are buil t on dif ficult sites, either because the topography is impossibly steep as in the Edge House, or because the sites are squeezed into dense suburban situations with confined sight lines and restrictive building regulations, as in the White House and the Triangle House. Rather than thwarting the design, however, the restrictions have triggered creative solutions. In the Edge House, the steep si te p romp ted a unique, cant i levered construction tiptoeing over the landscape with spindly steel column legs. In the White House the tight suburban situation caused the house to twist and turn, directing itself like a telescope towards precisely defined views.In the Triangle House, the strict regulations on height and area produced a highly unconventional volume,al lowing for an innovative modulation of l ight and space. These are ingenious little buildings. Their scale and materiality are nothing out of the ordinary, yet their geomet rical precision, careful ly composed openings and restricted range of materials, give them a remarkably sculptural presence. Like the TurtaHotel, the Cabin in Nordmarka, and many other projects, JVA’s buildings insert themselves itsel f into the landscape with a quirky lightness rather than with bombastic“contextual” gestures. Not for a second miming a predefined genius loci, they nevertheless picks up on mul tiple contextual strands and weave them into a completely new fabric.

A good example of JVA’s quirky contextualism is the recent ly completed Dune House, in Suf folk,England. One of a series of summer houses developed across Britain by the charity Living Architecture, it sits just at the edge of the picturesque coastal vil lage of Thorpeness. Drawing on their own holiday memories of the shabby quaintness of English Bed & Breakfasts,JVA have presented an idiosyncratic interpretation of the suburban Eng l ish house. Decomposing the characteristic hal f-dormer silhouette into a strange and edgy composition, they operate on a thin line between a recognizable typology and its sur real transformation. If the house transforms certain aspects of the place, however, it links very direct ly onto others, like the way the glass base opens directly onto the sand dunes of the Suf folk beaches, and the quirky but precise window openings in the second f loor frame and reveal the sea view. This surprising typological subversion－combining an almost deconst ructivist sensibility to complex form with a rabid insistence on material meaning－is an example of JVA’s stubborn disregard for trends. It is a fun-loving, risk-taking project, simul taneously connecting to, adding to, and subverting its time and its place.

The sensuous turn

A noticeable feature of al l JVA’s buildings is an interest－obsession even－with materiality. Not in the didactic sense of Scandinavian Design but in a far more visceral and playful way－as a source of atmosphere, beauty and pleasure, rather than material or tectonic legibility. “We have never real ly been interested in construction as such. For us it is more a matter of crafting an atmosphere” says Hakon Vigsnaes.If this interest sets them apart from many of their Nordic contemporaries, it does inscribe them deeply into international practice of the 2000’s. The interest in atmosphere has been palpable in the recent decade －

a reaction, perhaps, against both the over-theorized architecture of the 1980’s and 1990’s, or against the aesthetic anorexia of the turn-of-the-mil lennium minimalism. With works such as the Dune House and the recently completed vil la at Toten, JVA certainly adheres to this‘sensuous turn’, cul tivating an architecture attuned not only to the eye, but to the body and the senses. The new vil la at Toten is a par t icul ar ly good example of this approach.Spectacular ly situated high above the west banks of Norway’s biggest lake, Mjsa, the steep site original ly contained two houses and an immense barn. While the main house was torn down many years ago, the southernmost house is stil l standing, a weathered wooden structure dating back to the 1830’s. Its graying wal ls provide a rich patina against the green birch forest behind, giving the place an ancient and curiously majestic feel. The barn was typical for the region; a huge, mul ti-purpose pitched roof st ructure with timbered ground f loor and a timber frame upper storey,clad in vertical wooden weatherboards. Unlike most barns in the area, this one had never been painted. Its subt le variation of greys and warm browns gave it a beautiful patina, akin to the old house. It was, however,in a bad state of disrepair and had to be taken down,which made bits and pieces such as the cladding available for reuse. The old barn panel became a point of departure for the new house. Placing the building perpendicular to the old house to regain the old courtyard, the rectangular volume sports a simple monopitched roof, sloping with the terrain. Its entrance facade is symmetrical, the main door contained within a window which af fords a stunning view right through the house, onto the blue lake and rol ling hil ls below.The house is clad in the old barn panel, yet the panel is used in total ly new way. For while the old panel with its wedge-shaped top-root variations was traditional ly leveled by alternating tops and roots, JVA utilized the uneven board widths to create a fan-shaped pattern in the facade, radiating out from either side of the f ront door. The striking pattern on the f lat facade creates something of a trompe l’oei l ef fect, making the corners appear to stretch out in a welcoming, almost baroque gesture. The interior is dominated by the shimmering, ethereal view over Mjsa; the fertile and wel l kept cul tural landscape along its banks forming an unbroken horizon towards the east. In a cunning piece of three dimensional planning, the interior spaces inter lock and over lap. Rooms of varying heights and f loor levels weave into each other in a seamless way,always af fording glimpses of light and view through and across. The exposed diagonals of the timber f rame construction run straight across window openings,giving the house an informal lightness. From the outside, it lends the building a curious af finity with the local barn-architecture, in which diagonal ly suppor ted wood f rame constructions are of ten lef t exposed. Irreverent, ingenious and playful－inventing solutions (such as the highly original window details of the garage) as occasion requires, the vil la at Toten sums up both the quirky contextualism, the sensuous use of materials, and the particular opportunistic acumen of Jarmund/Vigsnaes. Never submit ting to dogmas or trends, they grab hold of the given with untiring curiosity, turning the most surprising find into something new and beauti ful.

Qui rky contextual ism

Contemporary Nordic architecture is often praised for its particular attunedness to nature and place, yet Jarmund/Vigsnaes Architects stand out more for their bold insertions than their lyrical adaptations. Their approach is certainly not a-contextual－rather one could speak about a quirky contextualism in which the qualities that exist on a site or in a situation are used in unexpected and undogmatic ways, as inspiration for the new. “We often find that retaining existing structures on a site has a value－not just an economic value” says Vigsnaes:“It allows you to capture more layers－layers of use and of life, which are important to retain, somehow. It gives a mul tiplicity which is impossible to generate f rom scratch.” Always looking for the specific qualities in any situation, they find, invent and combine things in a manner which overturn both expectations and conventions.Superimposing the past and the present in surprising ways, doggedly refusing their separation, JVA’s works add to the depth of both. □

Notes:

［1］Einar Jarmund, “White House”[J], 2007, Domus,10 (907) :70.

［2］Jarmund/Vigsnaes, Lost in Nature. Exhibition catalogue, La Galerie d’Architecture, Paris 2007.

［3］Christian Norberg-Schulz, Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture. New York: Rizol l i,1980.