Though architectural history is replete with bricks, stones, and steel, there is no rule that states that architecture must be ?solid?. Sverre Fehn, one of the most prominent architects of postwar Norway, regularly made use of heavy materials like concrete and stone masonry in his projects [1]. In this way, his proposal for the Nordic Pavilion at the Osaka World Expo in 1970 could be seen as an atypical exploration of a more delicate structure. Representing a very different aspect of ?Modernity? than his usual work, Fehn?s ?breathing balloon? pavilion stands not only in contradiction to Fehn?s design canon, but to that of traditional architecture as a whole.

Courtesy of Norwegian National Museum

Though architectural history is replete with bricks, stones, and steel, there is no rule that states that architecture must be ?solid?. Sverre Fehn, one of the most prominent architects of postwar Norway, regularly made use of heavy materials like concrete and stone masonry in his projects [1]. In this way, his proposal for the Nordic Pavilion at the Osaka World Expo in 1970 could be seen as an atypical exploration of a more delicate structure. Representing a very different aspect of ?Modernity? than his usual work, Fehn?s ?breathing balloon? pavilion stands not only in contradiction to Fehn?s design canon, but to that of traditional architecture as a whole.
Born in Norway in 1924, Sverre Fehn describ...