Pritzker-Architektur-Preis 1997

Kommentar
Citation from the JuryThe architecture of Norwegian Svcrre 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 Norwcgian Pavillion at the 1953 World´s Fair in Brussels gave early notice of his special talents.TheNordicPavilion 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, exhihitions and objects as he is with architecturc. 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 Marocco 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. Sorne of the great architects of the century Louis Kahn, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Alvar Aalto, Mies van der Rohe, Jean Prouve, 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 rnuch of contemporary architecture, paticntly evolving his own individual style, always seeking improvement.He has broken ncw ground in giving modern architectural form to elements of his nativc Norwcgian landscape - northern light, grey stone and verdant green forest - blending fantasy and reality into buildings that are both contemporary and timclcss.Nowhere is this more evident than in the museum at Hamar where in addition to balancing the requirernents of site and program, the combination of ancient and contcmporary had to bc in harmony.Sverre Fehn´s body of work stands as testament to the talent, crcativity and sensitivity of one of the master architects of thc world. It is fitting that he should be the 1997 Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize.

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