On a sunny day, this oculus resembles the flare of a star that can be attributed to a reference of Brother Klaus’s vision in the womb. The very somber and reflective feelings that become inevitable in one’s encounter with the chapel make it one of the most striking pieces of religious architecture to date. With no plumbing, bathrooms, running water, electricity, and with it’s charred concrete and lead floors, the seemingly uninviting chapel remains an anticipated destination for many.

“To me, buildings can have a beautiful silence that I associate with attributes such as composure, self-evidence, durability, presence, and integrity, and with warmth and sensuousness as well; a building that is being itself, being a building, not representing anything, just being.”

Text provided by the architect.

Commissioned in 2002, the stilted intervention is part of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s effort to inspire increased tourism in the isolated region. Since 1994, the administration has opened 18 routes that meander through Norway’s breathtaking fjords, coastlines and waterfalls.Zumthor’s museum is one of several commissioned architectural projects along the trails. Among these is his and Louise Bourgeois’ Steilneset Memorial, which poetically commemorates the 91 victims of the 17th-century witch trials. Zumthor’s four buildings include a small museum, a cafe, a shelter and a service building, each offering a different view of the isolated landscape. Both the museum and the café stand tall over the precipitous landscape, balanced on a grid of timber supports. Nearby, the service building perches along the side of a large stone wall.

These buildings occupy a once-booming zinc mine operation. The Allmannajuvet mine began operations in 1881, closing after only 18 years due to the ore’s changing prices and high extraction costs. Though its main visitors are now hikers on the trail, the mine originally boasted over 160 employees and was a critical locus for zinc exports. “It’s incredibly remote, it’s modest and you can see that the people were poor,” explained Zumthor, speaking to Icon. “The working conditions must have been terrible. You cannot stand upright in the tunnels; you have to go miles into the mountain, where it’s cold in summer and winter. So it gave us the idea to be modest in everything we did. Not poor, but modest.”

Through materials and design alone, Zumthor honors the site’s industrial heritage. The exposed structural timber framework and corrugated metal roofs of the buildings are in dialogue with the infrastructure of mining operations as well as the surrounding rugged terrain.The intimate relationship with history through the careful choices of site, material and form is typical of Zumthor’s work. Allmannajuvet is no exception, powerfully recalling the site’s industrial heritage. Paying close attention to both materials and construction, the work harnesses both past and present, quoting the site’s industrial history through distinctively post-industrial design.

Text provided by the architect.

Although with a quite articulated footprint, the building designed by Zumthor is definitely linear in elevation; the overall effect is that of a contemporary architecture subtly reminiscent of the historical aspect of the old city of Cologne, with its narrow merchant houses.

The plans were designed having in mind the complex ensemble of functions of the museum, which accommodates galleries for both ancient and modern art, temporary exhibition rooms, a library, excavations where remains of the original medieval buildings can be visited, places of worship, and an open-air contemplation courtyard and garden located in the middle of the building.

Encompassing a total floor area of 1,750 square meters / 19,000 square feet, the sixteen exhibition rooms of the Kolumba are usually dim-lighted, almost private, gray spaces with polished concrete floors, conceived to underline the exposed artworks, and providing a general sensation of quietness and timeless permanence.

Along with an art museum, the Kolumba was indeed intended to be an ode to peace and life (in Latin, columba means dove, a traditional Christian symbol of peace).

The use of materials is truly notable, Zumthor conceived perforated brickwork facades, made in light-gray bricks handcrafted in Denmark, as a means to incorporate the medieval remains into a coherent whole, therefore establishing a dialogue between old and new architecture.

Text provided by the architect.