School of Architecture and Planning to Host Lecture by Norwegian Einar Jarmund

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning will host a slide lecture by Einar Jarmund, founder and principle of one of Norway's finest architectural firms, Jarmund/Vigsnaes Architects, who will present a slide lecture on Feb. 16 as part of the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning's 2004-05 lecture series.

The lecture, which will be free and open to the public, will take place at 5:30 p.m. in 302 Crosby Hall on the UB South (Main Street) Campus. It will be followed by a reception for Jarmund.

Since it was founded in 1995, Jarmund/Vigsnaes Architects has specialized in outstanding and meaningful projects, many found in strong natural settings in regions with harsh climatic conditions such as those in Norway's polar region.

As the Norwegian architectural journal Odin wrote, "The proximity to nature and intimacy with the inherent qualities of the materials run like a thread through Norwegian architecture, contributing to its distinctive national characteristics."

One such Jarmund/Vigsnaes structure is the headquarters for the governor of Svarlbad, a Norwegian archipelago in the Arctic Ocean half way between Norway and the North Pole. The low, flat building, now under construction on Longyearbyen Island, will serve a hybrid office, housing unit, tourist information center and jail, among other things.

The building's sharp metal facades draw a line back to machinery of the region's coal mines, a Svalbard tradition. The building's shape also reflects Svalbard's characteristic mountains, and is adapted from the tent form for a climate marked by precipitation that comes from the side, as well as from above.

The firm has designed an outstanding series of private houses highly valued by critics, as well as large and public buildings built as a result of design competitions. Among these are the Architecture School of Oslo (2000) and the Coastal Traffic Center at Kvitsoy, on the west coast of Norway, a center dedicated to the distribution of pilots and radar control of large ships.