HATLEHOL CHURCH

The Norwegian churches have undergone significant development since Christianity came to Norway. These churches have been constructed over nearly a millennium but share common features rooted in a familiar Norwegian church architecture that demonstrates a clear understanding of and connection with the language and forms of nature. The unique Norwegian cultural landscape — with fjords, mountain ridges, valley floors, and forests — is reflected in the churches’ architecture, creating a special unity between spirit and place.

A MEETING BETWEEN MOUNTAIN, WATER, AND LIGHT

Hatlehol Church is configured as a composition of several building volumes that express a clear belonging to nature and the language of the site. The church building’s space is arranged around the traditional world axis of church architecture: a north-south axis from the arrival at Kirkebakke towards the square and community, and a west-east axis that extends from the immediate natural surroundings with water and mountains, through the view from the church space to the sky and light. It is a meeting between mountain, water, and light. Between the presence of nature and the presence of faith, birth and death, the physical and the spiritual.

ABSTRACTIONS OF THE MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPE

The individual building masses are shaped as abstractions of the mountain landscape — like mountain fragments resting on the site’s natural plateaus. Several existing peaks are integrated into the architecture, notably including a baptismal font within the church space. Parts of the buildings break in the landscape and rise sculpturally above the trees, as striking skylights and as an integrated church tower. The entire church complex becomes a symbol of nature/the mountain, the massive and unchanging, and the meeting between heaven and earth.

PIONEERING CIRCULAR DESIGN

The ambition is for the building to be executed as the first public building in the Nordic countries constructed according to Cradle-to-Cradle principles. This includes initiatives such as material optimization, recycling of materials, energy consumption as a passive house, water reuse, and more.

Literature:

“Atlas of Never Built Architecture”, Phaidon, 2024
“ANC”, no 403, 2014, special issue on religious architecture, Korea 2014
“Arkitekten”, no 6 2014, Ark. forlag, portrait and selected projects
“En vandring mot Hatlehol Kyrkje” Movie

Culture

Transformation

Public

Private

Planning