As the main consultant of the turnkey contractor, Ramboll has overseen the detailed project engineering of the Kistefos Museum. A close collaboration between Ramboll’s engineers, architects and architectural technologists internally, as well as with BIG and the turnkey contractor, Bladt, has rendered the project possible.
Kistefos Sculpture Park is located in the Southern part of Norway approximately 40 kilometres north of Oslo. Here, the river, Randselva, cuts through the hilly landscape of the park. The river rises in the Randsfjorden and was dammed at Kistefos, where the water power was used to operate a wood mill and power plant, which since then has become an industry and art museum as well as a sculpture park.
Inaugurated by Queen Sonja
Now, the park has been given a new spectacular museum bridge which spans 60 meters across the Randselva. The building was inaugurated in September 2019 by Queen Sonja of Norway, and it will add to the creations of the park as a sculpture in itself.
The building twists 90 degrees over its span across the river, hence the name The Twist, and it gathers the sculpture park in a harmonic loop with a low-lying woodland on the Southern side, as well as an elevated and more hilly area on the northern side. With its raw and minimalistic expression, the building adapts to the landscape and becomes a natural and integrated part of the existing sculpture park. The location and unique form offer the park’s visitors an impressing bridge which leads from one scenery to another.
As the client consultant, BIG Architects are behind the design of the 999 m2 sculptural building. BIG has been working in close cooperation with Ramboll’s architects and engineers on the detailed project during both the bidding and execution phases.
Ramboll has been acting as the main consultant for the turnkey contractor, and the job has drawn on Ramboll’s competencies within engineering, architecture and architectural technology in Denmark, Norway, UK, and India. Without the close interaction across various disciplines in the integrated design processes, facilitated by a detailed 3D-model, the process and cooperation, internally as well as with BIG and the turnkey contractor, Bladt, would not have been successful. With a mutual understanding of the task at hand, the buildability has been secured while the architectural intentions have been maintained.
