JEVNAKER.- Kistefos Museum announced today that the Christ & Gantenbein-led team has won the international design competition for a new museum building.

Due to open in 2031, the museum will become the permanent home for Kistefos Founder, investor and art collector Christen Sveaas’ significant art collection via the eponymous Christen Sveaas Art Foundation.

Christ & Gantenbein’s winning concept design is a pure form that hovers between the natural and the unseen – an enigmatic shimmering presence in the landscape.

The structure’s radial design is intended to be simple and memorable, a rounded shape formed by the natural forces of the place, like a pebble in a riverbed.

The winning team met the invited competition’s call: ‘To create a leading zero-energy and zero-emissions building that is an exemplar of sustainable design and practices,’ with a proposal based on elemental principles: a compact, simple form; a logical, generous structure; simplicity of building services; flexibility of secondary walls; use of daylight; and use of wood from the region. As the team’s final presentation stated: ‘The beauty of the whole to be an expression of the responsible use of materials.’

The building’s distinctive roof will integrate photovoltaic shingles that reflect the sky and landscape, and a large central eye will bring Nordic daylight into the interior. Regionally sourced wooden columns will reflect the surrounding forest as well as the Sveaas family’s historical connection to wood.

A spacious exhibition floor will be highly flexible, enabling varied spaces with intuitive circulation, rhythm and regularity – these gallery spaces relating to the personality of the collection, which the designers imagined as a cosmos.

The initiative is expected to transform the visitor experience at Kistefos, drawing new and international audiences. The Selection Panel, which took the decision, was comprised of: Christen Sveaas, Kistefos Founder; William Flatmo, Director, Christen Sveaas Art Foundation; Svein Lund, Founding Partner, Chairman, and Architect, Lundhagem; Christian Joys, Engineer and Owner, Klipco AS; Peter Oscar Munthe-Kaas, Architect at Wood Arkitektur and Kistefos Museum Board Member; and Kari Roll-Matthiesen, Director, Kistefos Museum; as well as international luminaries, Max Hollein, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; and Mark Lee, founder and principal of Los Angeles-based design studio Johnston Marklee and Chair of the Architecture Department at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Christen Sveaas, Kistefos Museum Founder, said: ‘Choosing a winner of the international architectural competition is a major milestone for Kistefos. We wanted a sculptural building that people would travel from far away to see. A building that evokes wonder and excitement when you encounter it, that surprises you when you step inside, and that continues to inspire even after you have left Kistefos.

‘All eight finalists submitted excellent proposals, for which we are very grateful. Now we are very much looking forward to working with Christ & Gantenbein to create a peaceful and spectacular new home for art in the forest at Kistefos.’

Speaking for the Selection Panel, Max Hollein, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, said:

‘Kistefos represents an ambitious vision, extraordinary site and architectural opportunity. Each excellent entry in the competition reflected the singularity of location, collection and collector.

‘Christ & Gantenbein’s thoughtful proposal stood out in its elegant design, flexible spatial layout, strong connectivity to the environment, expert use of material and powerful architectural symbolism. We expect the new museum to become a unique place − convening art, architecture and nature.’

The competition’s runners-up included some of the most respected teams working in museum architecture today: BIG (DK), Ensamble Studio (ES); Jensen & Skodvin / Hølmebakk Øymo (NO); Kengo Kuma and Associates (JP); Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture (FR); Snøhetta (NO); and SO–IL (US/NL).

Christ & Gantenbein’s work is widely admired in architectural circles for its materiality, its ability to sensitively combine the contemporary with the existing and demonstrate versatility to each project’s context. Notable projects include the renovation and expansion of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich as well as of the Kunstmuseum Basel. The studio has received many awards including Dezeen Architect of the Year (2018); the Architizer Jury Award (2021); the Most Influential Project Award (2022); the 100 Architects of the Year award (2023); the Swiss Arc Award (2024); and most recently the German Design Award (2025). Founding Partners Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein are Professors of Architecture and Design at ETH Zurich. They have taught at Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, as well as at Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Emanuel Christ, Co-Founding Partner of Christ & Gantenbein, said: ‘We are thrilled to be selected. It feels good, but most of all, it feels right. Every so often in design, you experience a moment of fortune when things fall naturally into place.

‘Our aim was to create a synthesis − bringing together all the impressions of Kistefos − and this led us to the idea of a generous roof that establishes both equilibrium and harmony. The spatial experience offers a sense of intimacy and familiarity, yet at the same time reveals surprising, spectacular, and subtly mysterious moments shaped by the building’s unique form.

‘We are grateful and look forward to working with the ambitious and wonderful team at Kistefos.’

After 30 years in development, Kistefos, set in a wooded and riverine landscape, has forged a highly original identity. Integrating art, architecture, nature and people, its expansive sculpture park encompasses 56 world-class pieces by luminaries such as Yayoi Kusama, Claes Oldenburg, Olafur Eliasson, Pierre Huyghe, and Nairy Baghramian, many of which are site-specific.

Kistefos also hosts an iconic contemporary art gallery, The Twist (by BIG): a bridge, gallery and sculpture all in one. A short walk away is an industrial heritage museum which preserves the last intact wood pulp mill in Scandinavia, built by the Sveaas family in 1890, and now offers additional space for art, mediation and industrial history. (See Notes for more detail.)

The invited competition was managed by international competition specialist, Malcolm Reading Consultants (MRC). MRC is currently running the high-profile international design competition for Jesus’ Baptism Museum at Bethany and ran the competitions for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qatar as well as the Queen Elizabeth II National Memorial, London and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.

Christ & Gantenbein will now work with Kistefos Museum to develop the initial concept design.