Projects Built and Unbuilt

Manthey Kula strives to manifest the potential for architectural expression in every task. The search for an adequate structural concept starts from a formal idea, in which an effort is always made to create buildings with a clear sculptural quality. When starting a project, special attention is paid to the context. The site is an important resource and performs a crucial part in the search for a potential for architecture. Context is crucial, the focus is always on the integration of each individual project in the site-specific design. A complex narrative of form accommodates and reveals the poetic nature of the place where a project is accommodated.

Hølmebakk and Tamsen are concerned about the way architecture can contribute to life and life between people. They embrace the width of architectural competence and practice. A well-considered choice of materials and forms show this intentionality. The construction plays an important role in this and takes on a narrative and poetic role. Their research into what architecture should be results in a unique fascination for tectonics and functionality. The work intrigues through its apparent contradiction of the complex and the essential. These contradictory elements find a balance in their projects. The architecture of Manthey Kula can be included as a brutal multiplicity which leaves flawless impressions and which moves the bystander by its fragility.

Manthey Kula's repertoire consists of a series of smaller projects, often unbuilt, but always with great added value for the landscape. The agency was recently selected together with Bureau Bas Smets and Matthias Ekman to help shape the memorial place for the victims of Anders Breivik on the island of Utøya. The studio was founded by Beate Hølmebakk and Per Tamsen and is located in Oslo.