Pritzker Prize-winning architect Peter Zumthor has designed the latest installation for Norway’s National Tourist Route (NTR) initiative, where the country’s most scenic roads are dotted with fantastic viewpoints and architectural rest stops.
Allmannajuvet, a commission that dates back to 2002, is finally set to open 8 September, just months after
the opening of Utsikten (the View), a precipitous triangle slab balanced on a dramatic mountainside.
Zumthor’s Allmannajuvet site consists of a small mining museum, a café and toilets – typically minimalistic – in commemoration of the abandoned zinc mines of the area, near Sauda, Rogaland. Zumthor’s designs are meant to portray the drudgery and strenuous nature of the miners’ daily lives.
This is not the first time the Swiss architect has designed for the NTR network. In 2011, the Steilneset Memorial opened in Vardø, which commemorates the people in Finnmark who fell victim to the government’s witchcraft persecutions in the 1600s.