The Twist Museum in Norway by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG)

For their first project in Norway, the Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) present The Twist Museum, a contemporary art destination characterized by its dramatic twisting structure. The architects describe the building as an ‘inhabitable bridge’, stretching across the winding Randselva river that divides the Kistefos Sculpture Park in Jevnaker. Connecting two forest riverbanks, the museum effectively doubles as infrastructure that completes the cultural route through northern Europe’s largest sculpture park.

The double-curved geometry of the museum is comprised of straight 400mm wide aluminium panels, with the namesake twist inspired by a stack of books arranged in a fanning motion. Built around a historical pulp mill, the structure is conceived by BIG as a beam warped 90 degrees near the middle, allowing the volume to lift from the lower forested riverbank in the south up to the hillside perch of the north. Both sides of the building serve as the main entrance, allowing a continuous path in the landscape. Visitors cross a 16m aluminium-clad steel bridge when entering from the south, while the north end is similarly linked with a 9m pedestrian bridge.

The aesthetic of the aluminium panels that line the exterior is continued inside, with 80mm wide, white-painted fir slats cladding the floor, wall and ceiling as a uniform backdrop for short-term Norwegian and international exhibitions. From either direction, visitors are intended to experience the twisted gallery as if walking through a camera shutter. A full height glass wall offers panoramic views to the historic pulp mill and river, continuing up to the ceiling to form a sliver of the skylight.

A glass stairway leads down to the lower level, where the building’s aluminium underside forms the ceiling for the basement and restroom area. Another full-width glass wall brings visitors even closer to the river below, enhancing an overall immersive experience of being in the idyllic woodlands outside of Oslo.

Visitors who roam the park’s site-specific works by artists such as Anish Kapoor, Olafur Eliasson, Lynda Benglis, and Yayoi Kusama must cross The Twist to complete their art tour. A natural extension to the park, the museum enhances visitor experience while doubling the indoor exhibition space available to the Kistefos park.