Lofoten Service Area by Vatn Architecture and Jørgen Tandberg

Norway's tourist routes have been enriched by an architectural attraction: at Brunstranda in the far north of the country, Vatn Architecture and Jørgen Tandberg have designed a small service building with toilets and a heated lounge. The coastline, which belongs to the municipality of Flakstad, lies directly on the European route E10, which runs 880 km from Luleå in northern Sweden to Å on the south-western tip of the Lofoten Islands. The bright sandy beach, surrounded by the mountains of Flakstadøy, makes Brunstranda a popular destination all year round. Many cyclists and surfers come here to experience the wild surroundings.

Unusual roof construction

The architects' new building replaces an older, somewhat dilapidated service building. The space programme is very simple: four toilets and the heated lounge area are arranged in a straight line under a flat roof with massive concrete beams. The roof juts out towards the street to provide shelter from the rain. On the opposite side, facing the sea, a bench runs the length of the building. On warmer days, visitors can sit here in the sun.

Five precast concrete beams, each 14 m long, support the roof and are the main design feature of the building. They are 12 cm wide, 1 m high and have a span of 11,5 m each. They are supported solely by two prefabricated core-insulated concrete walls at the gable ends of the building. Where the beams penetrate the building envelope, they are thermally decoupled. The concrete beams run through all the rooms and thus also characterise the interior of the building.

White concrete with marble powder

The white, bush-hammered concrete used for the building was produced using marble as an aggregate. According to the architects, the colour and texture is intended to evoke the sand of the nearby beaches. The precast elements were bush-hammered at the factory and are unusually sharp-edged for precast concrete, without the usual chamfered edges. The architects used a concrete retarder on the underside of the roof panels to achieve a similar surface effect. Threaded sleeves are inserted into the wall panels at the factory so that they can be anchored to the foundations with threaded rods on site. 

The outer shell and roof structure are made of white concrete, coloured with marble powder. © Johan Dehlin

Stainless steel for durability

To keep the roof beams as slim as possible and to extend their life in the harsh climate, they are reinforced with individual stainless steel bars. Robustness was also a priority for the other surfaces of the building: in addition to exposed concrete, glass and stainless steel were mainly used.