Jutting out from a dense stand of pines, high above the small Norwegian town of Aurland, is an extraordinary structure. The Aurland Lookout might be a modest project, but it transcends multimillion-dollar icons and rampant starchitecture. Designed by architects Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen, the lookout was the winning entry in a 2002 design competition held by Norway’s Highway Department. Saunders & Wilhelmsen (then in partnership, but now operating as separate firms) triumphed with their stripped-down design, despite being the youngest shortlisted team.
‘We did something completely different,’ explains Saunders, a Canadian who has lived and worked in Norway since 1997. The pair’s proposal (previewed in W*64) is heavy on spectacle but light on environmental impact. The steel frame is clad with heat-treated local timber to form an apparently seamless curve, which sprouts from the roadside into the void, before twisting back on itself and plunging into the mountainside. ‘Rather than make picnic tables and cut down trees, we did the opposite,’ says Saunders, who is justifiably proud that the new platform did not require the removal of any existing pines. ‘There’s only one place where the ramp meets the ground,’ he adds.
Figuring that it would be better if tourists parked their cars and got out to take stock of their vertiginous surroundings, rather than just stop in the middle of the road, the Highway Department has commissioned some 30 viewpoints in the past few years, and this is one of the first to be built. The lookout is around 600m above Aurland Fjord and the town, made rich by its hydroelectric power plants. Viewed from the town, the wooden curve can just be made out above the trees. Up on the old Laerdal road, the atmosphere is rare and the views are unbelievable. Saunders describes the landscape as ‘almost mind-numbingly beautiful’.
The architects’ design approach was simple: keep the structure light, to put ‘nature first and architecture second’. The 4m-wide walkway stretches out 30m over the pine tops and, although it’s raised only 9m above the steeply sloping mountainside, the walk is not for the acrophobic. This is chiefly due to the clear glass barrier at the end, which, according to Saunders, is designed to recreate the stomach-lurching sensation ‘of a child on a swing’. The whole structure has the feel of a giant diving board, ready to pitch you into the void above the sylvan slopes.
The sense of isolation and splendour was helped by the decision to locate the car park a little further along the road. This stretch isn’t busy, but with an expected seven or eight cars parking up at any one time, Saunders and Wilhelmsen wanted to preserve the atmosphere at the lookout itself as much as possible. ‘It keeps it more pristine,’ says Saunders.
In a world of hard-edged glass and steel constructions, the Aurland Lookout’s elegant lines, wood cladding and outstanding setting make it the year’s ultimate viewpoint. The architecture is far from overwhelming, but that’s the point: when you’re on the walkway, the entire structure seems to melt away.
The Aurland Lookout will be officially opened in June. Tommie Wilhelmsen, www.tommie-wilhelmsen.no
