NOMU / Norwegian Mining Museum

The Norwegian mining museum is situated in a beautiful location between a strong flowing river, and a historic quarter in Kongsberg. The site for the new extension has been planed in close proximity to the older buildings. One of the big challenges was therefore to design buildings that respect the existing structures and the old beautiful trees of the park. The new extension building will host the more valuable parts of the mining museum exhibition including the silver ores and silver coins. The program therefore is divided in different security zones, including a lobby and shop connection in the old and new builing, a permanent exhibition space and an exhibition space for changing exhibitions as well as the education and library department. Our goal was to design a museum that could work as one organism without dead ends, but also respecting the security zones and the need of creating a building where all the different programs could work independently. Our solution became the triple loop. The loop can be operated as a single movement, or be cut up by shortcuts to miner loops creating new uses and movements within the building. The loop therefore creates a flexible and functional building, and allows a perfect adaption to the demanding site.