Background
Fehn, Sverre was born on August 14, 1924 in Kongsberg, Norway.
Fehn, Sverre was born on August 14, 1924 in Kongsberg, Norway.
Diploma, Architectural School Oslo, 1949.
He received his architectural education shortly after World World War II in Oslo, a crisis course that would later become an independent school under various names during the next decades, today known as the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. He quickly became the leading Norwegian architect of his generation. In 1952–1953, during travels in Morocco, he discovered vernacular architecture, which was to deeply influence his future work.
Later he moved to Paris, where he worked for two years in the studio of Jean Prouvé, and where he knew Le Corbusier.
On his return to Norway, in 1954, he opened a studio of his own. At the age of 34 Fehn gained international recognition for his design of the Norwegian Pavilion at the 1958 Brussels World Exhibition.
In the 1960s he produced two works that have remained highlights in his career: the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1962) and the Hedmark Museum in Hamar, Norway (1967-1979). Fehn"s other notable works include Schreiner House in Oslo (1963) and Busk House at Bamble (1990).
However, few of his projects were effectively built.
He taught in Oslo"s School of Architecture from 1971 to 1995 as a professor and principal from 1986–1989, as well as at the Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. Fehn designed over 100 buildings. However, by the time he received the Pritzker in 1997 only 11 had been built.
Some of the most notable are:
1958 Norwegian Pavilion at the Brussels World’s Fair, Belgium
1962 Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, Italy
1963 Schreiner House, Oslo
1963-1964 Villa Norrköping, Sweden
1967-1979 Hedmark Museum in Hamar, Norway
1990 Busk House, Bamble
1991-2002 Norwegian Glacier Museum, Fjærland
1993-1996 Aukrust Centre in Alvdal
2000 Ivar Aasen-tunet in Ørsta
2007 Gyldendal House, Oslo
2003-2008 National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo.
Member Progressive Architects Group Oslo Norway (co-founder).
Married Ingrid Loberg Pettersen, 1952 (deceased 2005). 1 child, Guy.