| Vennesla Library and Culture House | |
|---|---|
Vennesla bibliotek | |
 Interior in the library part of the building | |
 Interactive map of the Vennesla Library and Culture House area | |
| General information | |
| Type | Library |
| Location | Vennesla, Norway |
| Coordinates | 58°16′13″N7°58′13″E / 58.27028°N 7.97028°E |
| Elevation | 48 m (157 ft) |
| Construction started | 2010 |
| Opened | 2011 |
| Cost | 80 million NOK |
| Owner | Vennesla Municipality |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 2 |
| Floor area | 1,900 m2 (20,000 sq ft) [1] |
| Design and construction | |
| Architecture firm | Helen & Hard |
| Awards and prizes | Statens byggeskikkpris, 2012 |
The Vennesla Library and Culture House (Norwegian : Vennesla bibliotek og kulturhus) is a public library serving the inhabitants of Vennesla Municipality in Agder, Norway. The new library building completed in 2011 has won several architecture prizes and has been praised both within Norway [2] and abroad. [3]
Contents
The Municipality of Vennesla decided in 2005 to relocate the library to the city centre, linking together an existing community house and learning centre into a cultural centre. A café, open meeting places and a small scene were incorporated into the plan of the new building, making it a combined library and house of culture. With the new building, the municipality sought both to establish a public meeting place and to increase the quality of architecture in the urban area of Vennesla. An architectural design competition was initiated in 2008; it was won by the firm Helen & Hard from Stavanger and the new building was ready in 2011.
The main building material is wood, and the building is dominated by the 27 glue-laminated timber arcs that support the roof and give associations to ribs of a whale skeleton. The building has attracted much interest and won several prizes, among them Statens byggeskikkpris for 2012 (the Norwegian state prize for good buildings). [4] The building has, however, also received criticism for lacking functionality for its main purpose, namely being a library building. The author of an opinion piece in the Norwegian weekly Morgenbladet maintained that the library building was beautiful, yet inconvenient for normal library use. [5]
