Lund+Slaatto Architects would like to share with you our winning proposal for the Arena Ulstein competition in Ulsteinvik, Norway.

The main idea of the project is to create a place of sports and activities, where the qualities of the magnificent surrounding landscape will merge with the bourgeoning urban live of the town of Ulsteinvik.

Ulsteinvik is a small town on the west coast of Norway. The town is growing and a new urban life is blossoming. A recent visionary plan for the development of the town connected a series of alleyways and courtyards into a pedestrian network which has given the town a new urban axis. Our project consists of a sports hall and a swimming pool with a local library and youth club. By dividing the program into two major volumes, which engage a folded ground plane on various levels, we are able to negotiate the difficult site to create a series of new urban spaces in-between the building volumes. This new urban space will create several important links between the original pedestrian network and the surrounding landscape and become a new meeting place for the people of Ulsteinvik.

Our aim is to develop an architecture which will enable these large volumes to fit in with the identity of Ulsteinvik, without mimicking the existing small-scale building fabric. We were inspired by the rich industrial history of for the shipping-trade in Ulsteinvik to design the buildings as three Corten-clad volumes, set into a tough granite base. The interior spaces will be surprisingly light, clad in local timber and white concrete.