Description of project by Snøhetta
In the peaceful ambience of the forests only a short walking distance from two of Norway’s largest hospitals, Snøhetta has designed secluded wooden shelters aspiring to make hospitalization easier for patients and their families. Designed on behalf of the Friluftssykehuset Foundation, the first two Outdoor Care Retreats are located in vicinity to Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet and Sørlandet Sykehus Kristiansand in the South of Norway.
The space can be used for treatment and contemplation, and for spending time with relatives and friends away from the hospital corridors. The cabins are open to every patient connected to the hospitals regardless of disease group, and reservations are managed through a booking system.
The Outdoor Care Retreat is initiated by the Friluftssykehuset Foundation and developed in collaboration with the Department of Psychosomatics and CL-Child Psychiatry at Oslo University Hospital and Snøhetta. The aim of the project is to help somatically sick patients and their relatives get the best possible disease management.
The cabins are donated as a gift by the Friluftssykehuset Foundation to the hospitals. The project has received funding from private and public supporters, including Sparebankstiftelsen DNB, Gjensidigstiftelsen, Bergesenstiftelsen, the Children's Foundation OUH and the Norwegian Parliament. In addition, a number of suppliers sponsored the first cabins with building materials, amongst others Kvadrat, Kebony and Lindal Gruppen.
The vision is to build more Outdoor Care Retreats in vicinity to hospitals in Norway and abroad. The cabins are always adapted to the specific location in a way that requires minimal intervention in nature.
The Snøhetta architecture firm has designed isolated wooden shelters near the University Hospital in Oslo that aim to facilitate the hospitalization of patients and their families. The space can be used both for treatment and contemplation, as well as to spend time with family and friends away from the hospital environment.
The cabins designed by Snøhetta are donated as a gift by the Friluftssykehuset Foundation to hospitals with the aim of helping patients with somatic diseases and their families to have a better management of the disease. The project has the advantage of adapting to the requested location with minimal intervention in nature.
More information
Snøhetta is an architecture, landscape, and interior design studio with offices in Oslo, Norway, and New York City, USA. Founded in 1989, it is led by Craig Dykers and Kjetil Thorsen. The studio, named in honour of Mount Snøhetta, the highest peak in the Dovrefjell mountains of Norway, has approximately 100 collaborators working on large-scale international projects across a wide range of typologies. Their approach is deeply collaborative and transdisciplinary, bringing together architects, designers, engineers, and landscape professionals to explore multiple perspectives depending on the nature of each project.
Snøhetta has completed a series of world-renowned cultural and landmark projects, including the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, the Oslo Opera House and Ballet, and the Lillehammer Art Museum in Norway. Current projects include the National Pavilion of the September 11 Memorial Museum at the World Trade Center site in New York, as well as urban and landscape developments that aim to merge local identity, sustainability, and public experience.
In 2004, Snøhetta was awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and in 2009, the Mies van der Rohe Award. The studio is the only practice to have won the World Architecture Award for Best Cultural Building twice in consecutive years: in 2002 for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and in 2008 for the Oslo Opera House and Ballet, consolidating its international prestige.
Kjetil Trædal Thorsen (born 1958 on the coastal island of Karmøy, Norway) is a co-founder of the studio and a multiple award-winning architect. He is a visionary and humanist designer who has redefined the boundaries of contemporary practice. Under his leadership, Snøhetta has produced iconic, sustainable structures that are highly sensitive to their cultural context, combining technological innovation with a profound environmental awareness. Thorsen’s work is recognized for its focus on social interaction, sustainability, and the creation of spaces that foster human connection and sensory experience, establishing a benchmark in contemporary global architecture.
Craig Dykers (born 1961 in Frankfurt, Germany) is also a co-founder of the studio and director of its New York office. Snøhetta has earned a reputation for maintaining a deep integration of landscape, architecture, and urban experience across all its projects. Key works include the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt, the Oslo Opera House and Ballet, the National Pavilion of the September 11 Memorial Museum in New York, and the redesign of Times Square. Professionally and academically active, Dykers has been a member of the Norwegian Association of Architects (NAL), the American Institute of Architects (AIA), and the Royal Society of Arts in England. He has served as a diploma juror at the Architectural College in Oslo and as a distinguished professor at City College, New York. He has delivered numerous lectures across Europe, Asia, and the Americas, and has undertaken public art installation projects, many of which explore the interplay between context, landscape, and human experience.
Published on:
February 12, 2019
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"Outdoor Care Retreat by Snøhetta" METALOCUS.
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ISSN 1139-6415
