Architects: Manthey Kula Architects
Year: 2015
Photographs: Manthey Kula
Textile/Pneumatics: Luft & Laune
Carpentry: Jens Posberg Mortensen
Steel: Varia AS – TinTin Motor AS
City: Oslo
Country: Norway
“Ode to Osaka,” designed by Manthey Kula Architects, is a contemporary installation at the Norwegian National Museum – Architecture that pays homage to Sverre Fehn’s competition entry for the Scandinavian pavilion at the 1970 World Fair in Osaka. Fehn’s original concept, which featured a breathing structure with projections of Scandinavian nature on its dynamic walls, was never realized. The museum commissioned Manthey Kula to reinterpret Fehn’s vision, resulting in an installation that includes an airlock building and an inflated moving space, designed to be dismounted and re-erected. The installation captures the essence of Fehn’s idea, creating a space that honors his concept of a breathing environment without displaying objects.
Architect Sverre Fehn’s design for the Scandinavian pavilion at the 1970 World Fair in Osaka, which is now part of the Norwegian National Museum – Architecture’s collection, featured a breathing structure with projected images of Scandinavian nature on its expanding and contracting walls. Although innovative, Fehn’s proposal did not win the competition and was never built.
The inflated structure is regarded as atypical within Fehn’s body of work, yet the iconic imagery of the flexible, moving form continues to hold its impact.
To activate its collection, the museum commissioned Manthey Kula Architects to develop a concept for realizing Sverre Fehn’s competition entry. The brief was open-ended, initially envisioning a functioning scale model. However, the idea of constructing the project within the museum pavilion—Fehn’s last built work—was proposed early in the process and gained the museum’s support.
The installation on display resulted from a design process that involved addressing key questions about the construction and its connection to the original competition entry. These questions included technical challenges, considerations of form and material, geometry, size, placement, and, ultimately, the exhibition content.
The installation currently in the museum is not Sverre Fehn’s original project for the Osaka World Fair but a contemporary reinterpretation that honors his concept of a breathing space. It features an airlock building and an inflated, moving space, with all details designed for easy disassembly and reassembly. The installation focuses purely on spatial experience, with no objects on display—only space itself.
Project Gallery
Project Location
Address: Oslo, Norway
Location is for general reference and may represent a city or country, not necessarily a precise address.
