Mortensrud Church
Jensen & Skodvin · Oslo, Norway · 2002
Mortensrud Church by Jensen & Skodvin is carefully inserted into a rocky, wooded site on Oslo’s outskirts rather than imposed on a cleared platform. Completed in 2002, the church uses stone walls, steel structure and large areas of glass to maintain a direct relationship with the existing terrain and trees. Natural rock remains visible within and around the building, while the sanctuary is defined by filtered daylight and layered construction. The project is widely admired for treating landscape preservation and architectural structure as a single design problem.