A viewing tower for walkers on the mountain plateau.
Location
Hardangervidda, Norway
Completed
2024
Area
22 m²
Type
Viewing tower
Client
Vidda Trail Association
Photography
Kari Helland
The site
The tower stands on a low rise above the old trail between two mountain huts, where the plateau opens in every direction and there is no shelter from the weather.
The ground is thin moss over bedrock, wet through the summer and frozen for the rest of the year. We set the tower on four steel screw piles so the moor around it could stay untouched, and turned the base so the door faces away from the westerly wind.


The building
A square shaft of charred spruce, eleven metres tall, with a stair winding up the inside walls.
Walkers climb in near darkness, with light falling only through the gaps between the boards, until the stair arrives at one angled glazed opening that frames the distant line of the glacier. The charred cladding needs no treatment and will grey slowly in the wind. Every part was flown in by helicopter, in pieces two people could lift.
People used to walk straight past this rise. Now they stop, climb and stay.
Gunnar Moen, trail warden
Materials
Cladding
Charred spruce, left untreated
Structure
Glulam frame on steel screw piles
Stair
Pine treads on steel stringers
Opening
One angled pane in an oak frame
Credits
Architects
Eirik Fjellheim, Jun Sato
Engineer
Fjellstad Konstruksjon, Bergen
Builder
Eidfjord Tre og Bygg, Eidfjord
