(1924-2009) 

The Norwegian architect Sverre Fehn earned public recognition at the Venice Biennial of 1962 thanks to his design for the Nordic Pavilion: a structure of reinforced concrete that blurs the limits between the interior and the exterior, and whose roof of deep beams is interrupted by the trunks of some existing trees. The interest in light as architectural matter, the repetitive and articulated rhythm of the structure and the respect for nature are some of the most significant elements of this work, and qualities always present in most of his oeuvre. Fehn had begun his professional career in 1949 with the competition for the Handicraft Museum in Lillehammer, and his long trajectory includes works like the Norway Pavilion for the International?Exposition of Brussels (1958), the Bispegaard Museum in?Hamar (1967), the Glacier Museum in Fjærland (1991) or the recent exhibition hall of the Norwegian Museum of Architecture in Oslo (2008), aside from several residential buildings. Among the many prizes he received, the most noteworthy are the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal and the Pritzker Prize, both in 1997.