Sverre Fehn
Pritzker Architecture Prize Laureate
1997
Citation from the Pritzker Jury
The architecture of Norwegian Sverre Fehn is a fascinating and exciting combination of
modern forms tempered by the Scandinavian tradition and culture from which it springs. He
gives great primacy in his designs to the relationship between the built and the natural
environment.
Eschewing the clever, the novel and the sensational, Fehn has pursued his version of
twentieth century modernism steadily and patiently for the past fifty years. With one
carefully designed project after another, he has displayed a virtuosity and creativity
that now ranks him among the leading architects of the world.
The Norwegian Pavilion at the 1958 Worlds Fair in Brussels gave early notice of his
special talents. The Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale a few years later was a
confirmation. Since those early works, Fehn has proven that he is an architect for all
seasons with many dimensions, allowing him to be as comfortable with the design of
furniture, exhibitions and objects as he is with architecture. His eloquence with
materials is easily matched by his poetic command of words.
The geography of place and time, with a range of diversity that includes primitive
Morocco and today's New York City, as well as an amalgam of a multitude of influences have
played an important role in Fehn's development. Some of the great architects of the
century Louis Kahn, Frank Lloyd Wright, LeCorbusier, Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe, Jean
Prouvé, as well as his fellow countryman and mentor Arne Korsmo have provided
inspiration, but Fehn's results have a singular individuality and originality.
He has avoided fads and fashions that have influenced much of contemporary
architecture, patiently evolving his own individual style, always seeking improvement.
He has broken new ground in giving modern architectural form to elements of his native
Norwegian landscape northern light, grey stone and verdant green forest blending fantasy
and reality into buildings that are both contemporary and timeless.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the museum at Hamar where in addition to
balancing the requirements of site and program, the combination of ancient and
contemporary had to be in harmony.
Sverre Fehn's body of work stands as testament to the talent, creativity and
sensitivity of one of the master architects of the world It is fitting that he should be
the 1997 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.
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