With 26,700 artworks, this £235m tilting tower is a mighty tribute to the tormented Norwegian artist
How fitting that a building dedicated to the life and work of Edvard Munch may make you want to scream.
The £235m mega museum of the tormented Norwegian artist stands as an ominous grey tower on the Oslo waterfront, lurching out at the top like a military lookout post, keeping watch over the fjord. It is a location scout’s dream for the ultimate villain’s headquarters, an almost comically menacing structure, bent over the pristine white iceberg of the city’s beloved opera house with a thuggish hunch. It may seem like an apt container for the tortured soul of Munch, whose shadow looms large over the city – but the anxiety-inducing effect wasn’t wholly intentional.
“We wanted to create a welcoming vertical symbol,” says Juan Herreros , the Spanish architect behind the 13-storey complex. “It may be against the local tendency for modesty, but we thought the city needed a statement in a prominent location for this astonishing artist. It creates a new vantage point where people can discover a different view of the landscape.”
