Allmannajuvet | Architekturbüro Peter Zumthor

Allmannajuvet in Sauda and the abandoned zinc mines from the late 1800s has inspired world renowned architect Peter Zumthor to create yet another art installation along the National Tourist Routes in Norway.
Allmannajuvet with its characteristic landscape and rich cultural history, is one of the tourist route initiative’s particular attractions. In 2002, the Norwegian Public Roads Administration commissioned Peter Zumthor to design an installation in Allmannajuvet for the purpose of welcoming visitors and bringing the old mining history back to life. Zumthor’s buildings are inspired by the mining operation, the drudgery and the workers’ strenuous everyday lives.
On 8 September 2016, the installation in Allmannajuvet officially opens - with a museum building, a café building, toilet and parking facilities, paths and stairs. The construction started in 2010. Through a challenging process, architects, engineers, electricians, painters, carpenters and other professionals have contributed to a unique architectural artwork with non-traditional solutions and uncompromising standards of accuracy.
With his spectacular buildings in Allmannajuvet, Peter Zumthor once more erects a historical monument in Norway to the people who faced terrible hardship and cruel fate. In the summer of 2011, Her Majesty the Queen opened Steilneset Memorial in Vardø; the first of Zumthor’s installations commissioned by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration. While Allmannajuvet emerges as a monument of the mining operation and the workers’ life of hardship in the late 1800s, Steilneset in Vardø was raised in memory of the people in Finnmark who fell victim to the government’s witchcraft persecutions in the 1600s.