Speech at Sverre Fehn’s funeral

Translated from the Norwegian.
Check against delivery

 

Relatives, friends and colleagues of Sverre Fehn,

In the middle of the last century, Sverre Fehn travelled to Morocco. He summed up this experience with the comment that this gave him a greater understanding of the Nordic atmosphere: “trees, grass, rain and snow”. Typical of his singular and thoughtful observations.

Sverre Fehn worked as an architect for 60 years. And as a teacher and guide for almost as long.

He belonged to the generation that built this country. He designed buildings, shared his knowledge of architectonics and made his own contribution to the art of architecture. He was a visionary and progressive master builder who started his career just after the war.

With pencil, chalk, ruler, drawing board and models, Sverre Fehn designed Norway.

He based his designs on the country and the landscapes he saw.

At one with nature and mankind.

The New York Times obituary describes how Fehn – “the architect of modern Nordic forms” – regarded building as “an act of brutality” and quotes from Fehn’s own words: “When I build on a site in nature that is totally unspoiled, it is a fight, an attack by our culture on nature. In this confrontation, I strive to make a building that will make people more aware of the beauty of the setting.”

Fehn’s buildings harmonise with the landscapes they are situated in. Nature was not to be harmed. Let the trees stand, he said.

Follow the lines in nature closely, and draw those lines out. Make the concrete float.
Sverre Fehn did not seek simple solutions. Or the easy way out.

He looked for clear, original concepts. He looked for a good storyline.

And a distinctive use of materials.

Sverre Fehn took up the fight against the general, the conventional, the obvious.

He brought forth diversity. And he lingered on detail.

Questioning, thoughtful, Sverre Fehn was uncompromising in his work.

He wanted to bring the past into the present.

*****

It is a fact that architects – particularly those of Fehn’s stature – really do leave something behind after they have gone. Something physical, that we can touch with our hands, that we can see. Buildings, sketches, drawings.

I think we can all call to mind one or more of his buildings.

For his life’s work was work for our lives.

We all know his museum buildings – Lillehammer, Hamar, Horten, Alvdal, Ørsta, Fjærland – the Norwegian Pavilion in Brussels and the Nordic Pavilion in Venice, his community centres, his villas, and most recently the premises for the publishing house Gyldendal – Gyldendalhuset – and the  National Museum of Architecture, which were opened last year. Just to mention a few. And of course we must not forget Villa Busk.

Sverre Fehn was also an outstanding lecturer. For a whole generation of students at Yale, in Oslo, and elsewhere.

He belonged to that historic group of citizens of the world with strong Norwegian roots. Winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, as well as prizes and distinctions from Germany, France, Norway and other countries.

He was inspiring to listen to. Deeply committed. And modest.

And with deep roots in these essential features of Norwegian nature: trees, grass, rain and snow.

*****

Sverre Fehn taught us that architecture is not just a technical discipline relating to the building process, but also an interaction with the forces of nature, a matter of identity, the bonds between human beings, and a means of giving form to our narratives.

Perhaps that is why he complained of the loss in many modern buildings of the passageway between the street and the inner courtyard. For, as he once said, “This used to be where we put our umbrellas, met our neighbour or kissed the girl we had followed home. Today we have to say goodbye in the rain...”.

*****

Houses in Norway are few and far between. As are architects like Sverre Fehn.
We are proud of him. He works no longer. But his lifework remains, as does the mark he has made on our surroundings.

On behalf of the Government of Norway, we commemorate him with respect, and with gratitude for all that he has given us and continues to give – architecture as a form of art, architecture as a narrative. May he rest in peace.