Holmenkollen overwhelmed with architectural prizes

on 2011-11-10

Since the new Holmenkollbakken in Oslo was completed in 2010, the ski jump project of the Danish firm JDS Architects has been awarded with numerous architectural prizes.

Over weeks and months plans for the destruction and new-construction of the time-honoured ski jumping hill at Holmenkollen for the Nordic WSC 2011 had been one of the trending topics in Norway, until the draft "Nye Holmenkollen Fyr" by Danish architecture firm JDS / Julien De Smedt Architects was announced as the winner on 2008-08-14. From the start of deconstruction works of the old concrete tower in September 2008 to the inauguration of the new HS 134 in March 2010 for 73m Euro an impressive ski jumping facility was created which will continue the myth of Holmenkollen in the future.

For the fantastic World Championships in Oslo 2011 the new Holmenkollen was a magnificent scenery and is still one of the main tourist attractions of Norway. A visit of the WSC and Holmenkollbakken was even recommended by Lonely Planet in its "10 things-to-do in 2011" list.

After that a spate of awards for the ski jumping hill followed. At the WAN Awards for civic buildings in August 2011 Holmenkollen was short-listed, while on September 21/22 the ECCS Structural Steel Design Award was won in Potsdam. The prize of the Golden ICO/IAKS Award, the only architectural prize for sports facilities, followed on October 26 in Cologne and on November 3 the structure was awarded with the Prize of the Norwegian Steel Day in Oslo.