Sverre Fehn

Villa Schreiner, Villa Bdtker, Villa Busk

To experience architecture is like going

through the ages painting a self portrait of our
spiritual thoughts and feelings

Fakultet for arkitektur

og billedkunst NTNU
Trekonstruksjon B
(AAR 4880) Knut Einar Larsen

Martin Roth
Trondheim, 26.11.04

Table of contents:

Life Career

S. 03

Main Works

S. 03

FehnsArchitecure

S. 04

Villa Schreiner

S. 05

Villa Arne Bdtker

S. 10

Villa Carl Bdtker

S. 14

Villa Busk

S. 19

Chosen Projects

S. 23

Learning Effect

S. 25

Appendix

S. 26

Frontpage, Picture 1:
Sverre Fehn working in his ofce
02

Life Career:

Main Works:
Besides many other projects, such as museums, schools,
pavillions etc., Fehn realized many housing projects during his
working period which are listed below:
1959
1959-1963
1960-1962
1961-1965
1962-1963
1962-1963
1962-1964
1965-1967
og 82-85
1965-1967
1968-1970
1972-1975
og 95-96
1982
1985-1987
1987-1990
1987-1990

Villa Noer, Svartsskog

Villa Schreiner, Oslo
Villa Underland, Ski
Villa A. Bdtker, Oslo
Villa Eek, Oslo (Project)
Villa Jerman, Oslo (Project)
Villa Skagestad, Oslo
Villa C. Bdtker 1 og 2, Oslo
Villa Sparre, Skedsmo
Villa Johnsrud, Brum
Villa Holme, Holmsbu

Sverre Fehn was born at the 14.08.1924

in Kongsberg. He was one of the rst
students at the Architectural School of
Oslo (SAKS) receiving his diploma after
World War 2 in 1949. Teachers at the
SAKS were at that time Arne Korsmo and
Knut Knutsen. Fehn was much inuenced
by Arne Korsmo who became Fehns
mentor and nally friend.
In 1950 Fehn joined the PAGON
(Progressive Architects Group of Oslo,
Norway). Members of the PAGON
were at that time among others Korsmo,
Norberg-Schulz and Mellbye.
During the years 1952 and 1953 he lived
in Marocco where he studied the primitiv
African architecture which had an lasting
effect on him during his whole career.
Between 1953 and 1954 Fehn got a
French scholarship to work together with
Jean Prouv in Paris after metting Prouv
at the C.I.A.M. congress at Aix. In this
time Fehn dealt with Mies van der Rohe
and Le Corbusier, whose atelier Fehn
visited often times. After these years
of traveling Fehn returned to Oslo and
opened his own ofce.
In 1971 Fehn became Professsor at
the Oslo School of Architecture and
teached until 1995. In addition Fehn
had an Saarinen Professorship at the
Yale University (USA) in 1986 and was
teaching at the AA School in London
between 1981 and 1989.
Fehn had always just a small ofce and
was dealing with rather small projects
even when he was getting more known.

Villa Gabrielsen, Oslo

Villa sttloe, Oslo (Project)
Villa Busk, Bamble
Villa Kise, Skien

03

Fehns Architecture
There are three main stages in Fehns
career: In the beginning, in the 50ies and
60ies, Fehns projects and buildings appear
as orthogonal organised wholeness and
distinguish themselves in a particular
uniformness. He was searching for his
origins in architecture and wanted to
return to basic forms.
In the second stage, during the late 60ies
and 70ies, Fehn shows a great variety in
architectonical solutions without loosing
the strictness signied in all of Fehns
buildings.
In his third stage Fehn nds the synthesis
between his undone styles and clearly
consciousness of traditional Norwegian
culture and the richness of that countrys
natural environment. In this stage his
projects emphasize on the choice of
materials for construction, adding
concrete and steel to his palette of wood
timbers.
All of his houses are built within the
relationship of environment, topography
of Norwegian landscape, light, shadow
and wind. In addition Fehn is writing
poetic stories and drawing sketches in the
process of designing his buildings.
Fehn always starts his project by talking
to his clients to discuss what they want
and how they see the site. Afterwards
he studies maps and pictures to get an
impression of the site or the topography
and makes a modell. Not until he gets the
rst ideas about the project he is going to
visit the site.
The most important issue in arcitecture
is the construction says Fehn and
is concerned about the honestly and
harmonic use of the material including
daylight which Fehn calls another
material of construction. Choosing a
material should never be selected because
of calculation but through intuition and
desire. He calls his details very primitiv in
comparasion to the details done by Carlo
Scarpa but designs his ones even in one
to one what he picked up at Le Corbusiers
ofce.

04

Villa Schreiner

Picture 2

Villa Schreiner
Oslo, 1959 - 1963

Drawing 1

Drawing 2

The one family house is build at a hilly

plateau in one of the most demanded
residential areas of Oslo. Fehn planed
this one family house for ve persons, the
parents and their three children, within
a footpoint of 120 m. It is Fehns rst
one family house. The arrangement is
a very compact one and a play between
inside and outside. The commen rooms
are grouped around the bathroom and
the kitchen which are pooled together
to a core. Fehn picked this kind of
arrangement up at the ofce of Prouv.
The central rooms assume light through
the windows which are placed between
the ceiling (3,66m) of the room and the
roof of the veranda (2,44). But not just the
hight also the different material (brick)
used for the core is distinguishing the
core from the rest of the building which
is made out of pine. Fehn uses a skeleton
construction so that he can forego to build
a wall. Thus he closes the core towards the
other common rooms which form another
unit. The whole building is planned as
a post and mullion construction on a 1
meter modul and ts perfectly to the site.

Drawing 1: ground oor

Drawing 2: crosswise cross section

06

Drawing 3

Drawing 3: lengthwise cross section

Drawing 4: eastern elevation

Drawing 4

Details:

Sliding doors and windows:

The difference between the ordinary
architecure and Fehns novation are the
details such as the right use of the
slidingdoors which are placed between
the sleepingrooms and the working room.
Thus it is possible to change the roomsegments into one bigger room and to
open the house. All furniture is designed
by Fehn himself.

Sketches: principle use of the sliding

doors in closed and opened condition

07

The play between inside and outside

which was Fehnsmain design idea for the
Villa Schreiner is shown for example in
the use of sliding windows especially at
one corner of the building.

Sketch: detail of the sliding windows

Picture 3

Having the windows opened, the play of

inside and outside is nicely noticeable.
As the windows have quite large wooden
frames (see sketch), the desired perception
is not longer noticeable in closed
condition though.

The post and mullion construction:

Picture 4

This kind of construction which Fehn

used at most of his buildings is one of the
most simple wooden constructions.
The main principle of the construction
is the piling of the different posts and
mullions. That makes it easy to install
the wing unit without costly connection
elements. Further on the construction
has a easy geometry for fassades and
upgrading and can be used for bigger
wingspans because of the possibility of
using laminated wooden beams. The main
disadvantage are the different construction
hights and details of connections between
fassades and the main beams.

08

As Fehn always uses different hights

within one building he actually turnes
the so-called disadvantage of the
construction hight around and uses it
as an expression of his architecture. He
uses the construction hight by placing
small windows in between which provide
additionally daylight luminance.

Drawing 4: cross section showing

construction of the skylights
Drawing 4

Sketch: skylight within the

construction to provide additional
daylight

Picture 5

Picture 5: skylights providing luminance

09

Villa Arne Bdtker

Villa Arne Bdtker

Oslo, 1961 - 1965

Picture 6

Drawing 6

Drawing 7
Drawing 8

The building is placed at a nice plateau,

like the Villa Schreiner, north of Oslo.
From the site you have a nice view over
the Oslofjord.
Fehn was concerned about three matters
on which he wanted to work within this
project. First, the extraordinary view from
the property, second, Arne Bdtkers art
collection and last, the wife of Bdtker.
Fehn wanted to create a room where
people were able to experience all of this
three matters at the same time. So he
designed the triangle plan.
The buildingstructure is in comparison to
the outside of the building a compact one.
The play with this building constructions
allow continously changing roomqualities
because of the different roomsymmetries
and materials such as the wooden floor in
the living rooms and the brickwalls. The
wall is made out of red brick and is placed
within an 45 angel towards the overview
creating exhibition space and providing
simultaneously high luminance until the
deeper part of the building. The footprint
of the whole building amounts 280 m and
the ceiling heights varying from 2,20 m on
to 2,40 m. The living room is the highest
room within the building and about one
meter higher than rest of the building.

Drawings: ground plans and elevations:

Drawing 6: first floor
Drawing 7: ground floor
Drawing 8: east elevation
Drawing 9: west elevation (next page)
Drawing 10: south elevation (next page)

11

The entrance of the building is placed

at the backside which can be reached by
using a footbrigde. The common rooms
are therefor developed at the backside.
With this kind of organisation, Fehn lets
visitors experience the rooms in two
ways: the first experience of room is
an dynamic motion of the rooms in the
front and the second experience through
realizing the balance between every place
which is determined by the different
angles of the walls. Inner stairs lead to the
lower floor where the sleepingrooms and
bathrooms are placed.
Drawing 9

Drawing 10

As mostly in Fehns buildings, the

construction shows or underlines the main
direction of the building. Though the
construction material is mostly done in
brick, everything else is made out of wood
such as the balconies, handrails, roof
construction which head towards south.
Even the facade is made out of pine.

Details:

Wooden Facade:
Drawing 11
Picture 7

The facade of the Arne Bdtker house is

made totaly out of untreated pine. It gives
almost the impression of some sort of a
tree house because of the back and forth
of the facade which the triangle plan
forces the facade to. The patio on the first
floor is added on this building structure
and is intensifying the impression of an
almost organic facade which has a strict
grid though.

Picture 7: South facade of the building

12

The connection point between the wooden

colums and the soil is usual causing mould
and the rotting process through moisture
of the soil. This problem is nicely solved
by additional wooden elements which are
wraped around the wooden colums and
can be easely changed and replaced.

Picture 8: conection between the building

and the soil
Picture 8

The post and mullion construction (see

Villa Schreiner) is offering the possibility
of adding elements on the wing unit.
Fehn uses this possibility in adding the
patio with its railing at the end of the load
bearing beams. He just adds two pine
boards at each side of a beam (bypass
construction) and combines them by using
screws.

Sketch: construction principle of the patio

and the railing

Support of the wooden beams:

Picture 9

Another interesting detail is the conection

point of the wooden beams and the brick
walls which are the supports of the beams.
As Fehn turned the brick walls within an
45 angle, the conection point is placed at
the corner of the walls.
Therefor it was necessary to have a small
recess in the wall where the wooden
beams are put down.

Picture 9: conection between the brick

wall and the wooden beams.
Sketch: functionality of the the conection

13

Villa Carl Bdtker

Picture 10
Drawing 12

Villa Carl Bdtker 1 and 2

Oslo, 1965 - 1967
and 1982 - 1985
The site of the Carl Bdtker Villa is
located in the same area than the Villa of
his brother Arne Bdtker. Fehn started
to develop and build the rst part of the
Carl Bdtker Villa right after nishing the
project of Arne Bdtker. The second part
was nished almost 20 years later on.

Drawing 12: site plan

15

Drawing 13

Drawing 14

The building reects very much Fehns

understanding of architecture and the
contradictions between proportion
and dimension, inside and outside,
craftsmanship and nature.
In the rst part, built between 1965
and 1967, there are two volumes
which determine the draft: the rst is a
rectangular volume, following the contour
line. It contains a terrace, the entrance
area, the kitchen and the bathrooms.
A garage is afliating on this structure
within an 45angle. The second is a
quadratic volume containing mainly
the living room with a replace and a
staircase to attain the lower oor. Within
this quadratic volume Fehn placed a two
story high patio which is turned off in
an 45 angle so that the corners of the
quadratic volume get a high emphasis.
The lower oor contains sleeping rooms
and working rooms. The total area is 320
m and the hights of the ceiling varying,
as usual in Fehns projects, from about
2,30m to 2,40. The patio is 3,20 m high.

Drawing 13: rst ground oor

Drawing 14: second ground oor
Drawing 15

Drawing 16

Drawing 15: southern elevation

Drawing 16: western cross section view

16

Picture 11

Picture 12

Twenty years later, Fehn was asked to

afliate another building section within
the site. Fehns basic musings were the
questions of addition, the relationship to
the already existing building, the material
and the construction. The result became
another cubic brick volume turned off by
45. The entrance of the three story high
building (the rst part has just two stories)
is located at the top oor. In the lower
oors are kitchen, dining room and the
sleeping rooms located.

Picture 11 and 12: post and mullion

construction outside and inside of the
building

Details:
Post and mullion construction:
As in the Villa Schreiner and the Villa
Arne Bdtker, Fehn uses the post and
mullion construction and places again the
skylights between the different wooden
beams of the construction. The largest
room hight is just above the center where
the staircase leads down to the lower oor.
This kind of use of the skylights is very
impressing and much more noticeable
than the skylight in the Villa Schreiner
where they are placed just above the
windows, where it is already quite daylit.
Over here Fehn is using the skylight in the
middle of the room providing daylight in
darker areas of the building and thereby
making it much more noticable.

Balcony:
Another comman construction detail of
Fehns architecture is the construction of
the balconies.
Fehn always adds the balconies on the
volume of the building. Therefor the
balconies have to cantilever. The load

Drawing 17

Drawing 17: Detailed cross section and

ground plan of the balcony construction
17

bearing beams of the building go through

the facade and constitute the main static
element of the balcony. The railing is
made out of two wooden boards which are
mounted together with the load bearing
beam (like at the Arne Bdtker Villa).
But there is a second statical element
which Fehn is using often times and
which is quite conspicuous. It is the
slanting column which is supporting the
load bearing beams.

Picture 13: balcony of the Villa Carl

Bdtker

Picture 13

Picture 14

Sketches: construction principle of the

balconies
Picture 14: balcony of the Villa Carl
Bdtker

18

Villa Busk

Villa Busk
Bamble, 1987 - 1990

Picture 15
Drawing 18

Close to a touristic town at the Oslofjord,

almost 200 km away from Oslo, Fehn was
asked to build a one family house for a
musician. The most difcult question was
to nd the spot where to build the house
because of the large, hilly and rocky site.
On the other hand Fehn wanted to build
within the context of nature and decided
to use nature as material and construction
concept.
Finally the house was built upon a rock
plateau which pretended Fehn the scale
of the building. While the rock plateau
pretended the width of the building, the
trees pretended the hight and the structure.
The building is designed for four persons,
the parents and their two daughters and
consists out of two main elements: the
rst and largest element is the main
body, a ca. 6 meter wide and 35 meter
long rectangle. Fehn calls this main body
a ridge associating the surrounding
mountains. This rectangle contains all
basic functions such as entrance, living
room, dining room, kitchen bathrooms
and the bedroom of the parents. Fehn
wanted to let the family live between the
elements. That is why the rectangle starts
with a replace in the livingroom and
ends with a swimmingpool behind the
parental bedroom.

Drawing 19

Picture 15: Villa Busk built upon a rock

fomation
Drawing 18: Ground oor
Drawing 19: main elevations of the Villa
Busk

20

While the north-west fassade of the main

body opens towards the trees and assumes
their structure, the south-east fassade is
dominated by the concrete wall which
aflites the qualities of the rocksurface.
The second element is the tower which
contains the rooms for the daughters. The
bathrooms are placed at the foot of the
tower while the rooms come further up.
The upper oor is one large room having
an overview over the whole landscape
in every direction because of the totally
glassed fassade. The rest of the tower
facade is made out of untreated pine.
Picture 16
Picture 17

Details:

Construction material:
The Villa Busk is one of Fehnsrst one
family houses using concrete as main
construction material.
He decided to use concrete because of the
relationship to the rocks which are the
foundation of the building and dominate
the whole site.

Picture 18

The way Fehn uses the concrete is very

special, as you can see on the pictures,
and has almost an appearence of some
kind of wood because of the shuttering
framwork.
Though concrete is the dominating
material Fehn still uses wood and the post
and mullion construction. The concrete is
just used on the one side of the building
towards and upon the rocks. On the
other side, where the trees are the most
dominating element of the site, Fehn uses
wood.
The roof of the building is also made out
of pine, associating the crown of the trees.

Picture 16-18: showing the principle of

the construction idea
21

Bridge:
The second element of the building are
the two towers. One of them is conected
with the main building by a brigde which
is made out of wood and glass.
The construction of the brige distinguish
itself by small diameter of the wooden
columns and thereby appears as a
very light construction. Fehn uses the
quality of wood and the craftsmanship
of connecting the single wooden beams
together to create this impressing bridge.

Sketch: construction system. the horizontal beams are passing through. The vertical columns are placed in between and
are connected with the transversal wooden
beams which carry the tractive and compressive forces.

Sketch: connection point of the middle

column
Picture 19-21: the brige as the conection
between the main building and the tower
22

Chosen Projects

The main idea of choosing these four

projects were the thought of picking
projects which are build in different times,
materials and architecture and nally to
analyse and to compare them.

Picture 22
Picture 23

As Fehn had three main architectural

stages it was obvious to choose projects
out of every stage.
In the beginning Fehn built the Villa
Schreiner, few years later the two Villa
Bdtkers, which already relied strict
architecural forms, and in the ninties the
Villa Busk. The architecture of Villa Busk
is a synthesis between the rst two stages.
Fehn also used different materials during
these three architectural stages.
The Villa Schreiner is almost entirely
made out of untreated pine which was
Fehnsmain material in the beginning of
his career. The construction, the facade
and even the furniture is made out of
wood. Just for the core Fehn used brick
which is not noticable from the outside
though.

Picture 24

The most dominating material of the Villa

Arne Bdtker is still wood although the
main element in the inside of the building
are the 45 turned brick walls. The facade
is totaly covered by untreted pine not
showing any brick. As the Villa Schreiner
has big glass elements within the facade
and developes thereby a play between the
inside and outside, the Villa Arne Bdtker
makes a rather closed impression.

Picture 22: Villa Schreiner

Picture 23: Villa Schreiner
Picture: 24: Villa Arne Bdtker
23

The Villa Carl Bdtker is a further

development in using brick. All main
construction elements are made out
of brick. Wood is no longer the main
material. Only the roof construction, the
balconies and the construction of the patio
are made out of wood.

Picture 25

By choosing exposed concrete at Villa

Busk instead of brick, Fehn returnes
somehow back to the structure of wood
because of the form and structure given
by shuttering framework. The exposed
concrete adopts the structure of a wooden
cladding and is some kind of synthese
between the wooden elements in the
building and the rocky site.
As brick is the dominating element in
combination with wood, the exposed
concrete is more reserved because of
the lesser structure and color intensity.
Therefor the wood gets a higher attention
which is Fehnsconcern.

Picture 26

Picture 25: Villa Arne Bdtker

Picture 26: Villa Carl Bdtker
Picture 27: Villa Carl Bdtker

Picture 27

24

Learning Effect

Building within nature, to accept and

even use the inspiration and scale given
by nature, is most impressing in studying
Fehnsarchitecture (The determination of
scale is an order of continuity).
The sense of designing by using the
construction to create the desired room
and its structure.
Picture 28

The persuasion that no task is too small,

not necessarily to build the cheapest,
fastest or most crazyest building (Be
patient and never nd a job too small and
do not lose the dimension of the human).
Listening to the needs of clients and
thereby makeing the building personal and
unique.
And further on to design within
understanding the certain qualities of
material.
Picture 29

All these persuasions of Fehn have a

quality which are nowadays not longer
appreciated in the world of economic
architecture - building boxes everywhere
- but which I think would lead us to better
architecture and sustainable environment.

Picture 28: Villa Busk

Picture 29: Villa Busk

25

Appendix

Literature:
-

a+u Architecture and Urbanism No. 340 1999:01

Fjeld, Per Olaf: Sverre Fehn, The Toughts Of
Construction, 1983, Rizzoli International Publication,
New York
Fehn, Sverre: The Poetry of the Straight Line, 1992,
Museum of Finnish Architecture, Helsinki
Norberg-Schulz, Christian: Sverre Fehn, Samlede
arbeider, 1997, Orfeus Forlag AS, Oslo

Digest:
-

Title: Villa Wessel, Villa Sparre, Villa C. Bodtker

Source: Byggekunst 6, 1985, s. 333-348

Title: Villa Busk

Source: Arkitektguiden 2, 1990, s. 14-47

Source: A & U: architecture and urbanism, Jan.,

1999 ISSN: 0389-9160
Title: A sense of the horizon.
Source: Architects Journal, 187: pp. 38-45;
Nov.9, 1988 ISSN: 0003-8466

Title: Unappreciated architects: 5: Trees and horizons:

the architecture of Sverre Fehn.
Source: Architectural Review, 170: pp. 102-106;
Aug., 1981 ISSN: 0003-861X

Title: Confrontation with nature: the clarity and

precision of Sverre Fehns architecture.
Source: Building Design, 1987 Oct.9, no.856,
p.16-19 ISSN: 0007-3423

Picture 01: a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 3

Picture 02: a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 72
Picture 03:
Picture 04: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 86
Picture 05: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 87
Picture 06: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 100
Picture 07: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 101
Picture 08: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 94
Picture 09: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 96
Picture 10: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 68
Picture 11: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 69
Picture 12: a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 120
Picture 13: a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 117
Picture 14: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 123
Picture 15: a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 125
Picture 16: Fehn, Poetry of the Straight Line p. 8
Picture 17: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 193
Picture 18: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 192
Picture 19: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 191
Picture 20: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 191
Picture 21: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 191
Picture 22: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 85
Picture 23: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 73
Picture 24: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 85
Picture 25: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 102
Picture 26: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 119
Picture 27: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 123
Picture 28: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 192
Picture 29: Fehn, Poetry of the Straight Line p. 8
Drawing 01: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 166
Drawing 02: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 167
Drawing 03: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 167
Drawing 04: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 167
Drawing 05: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 167
Drawing 06: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 171
Drawing 07: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 171
Drawing 08: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 171
Drawing 09: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 171
Drawing 10: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 95
Drawing 11: N.-Schulz, Samlede arbeider p. 95
Drawing 12: Fjeld, Toughts of Construction p. 173
Drawing 13: a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 110
Drawing 14: a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 110
Drawing 15: a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 112
Drawing 16:a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 113
Drawing 17: a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 118
Drawing 18: a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 129
Drawing 19: a+u No. 340 1999:01 p. 129

26