Videseter by Jensen & Skodvin
Landscape architect: Jensen & Skodvin (Jan Olav Jensen (pl), Børre Skodvin, Torunn Golberg, AnneLise Bjerkan, Torstein Koch )
Static consultant: Dr. Techn. Kristoffer Apeland
Designed: 1996
Completed: 1997
Area: 55m2
Cost: 0,05 Million Euro
A scenic spot at the edge of the precipice at Videseter Falls required new railings. Annual avalanches had damaged existing railings repeatedly. The rock on which the vantage point stands had been blasted long ago to improve accessibility. The railings are constructed of 90 mm long steel rod, cast in holes drilled to the exact same datum in the rock. With steel plates acting as a horizontal truss, this technique resulted in a highly stable geometry. A “repairing” concrete surface has been cast on top of the rock that forms the vantage point, but the horizontal datum admits ”islands” made by the ridges left by blasting. The handrails on either side of the cliff leading down to the waterfall are generated in a very different way. We made principal sections of three types of railings (according to building legislation requirements) and placed the railings in plan according to the curves of the site. Then we gave some simple instructions to the welder, requiring him to build the railings on site; with the poles not closer to each other than 0.6 meters, and not further apart than 1.5 meters. They were placed on stones, the height of the vertical posts being 0.9 meters and the vertical curves of the railings forming continuous curves in conformity with the terrain directly below the railings. These instructions, combined with this particular process, made detailed working drawings of these quite complex three-dimensional curves redundant. The curves might actually not even be expressible when done this way, but a close likeness could have been produced had we chosen to use very advanced technology and had access to the resources needed for such a planning process. It would have required a great number of drawings, advanced programs and highly skilled architects and engineers to plan and build it. It would have been much more costly and the chances of getting things wrong during a complicated and uncertain process would have been much greater.
By This Studio