A+U 644 — Manthey Kula documents thirteen built works and five unbuilt projects by the Norwegian architecture office, tracing how programme, site sensitivity, and construction method converge into a practice grounded in storytelling and making.
About This Book
This issue of A+U is dedicated entirely to Manthey Kula, the Oslo-based practice founded in 2004 by Beate Hølmebakk and Per Tamsen. Their architecture resists reduction to a single formal language; instead, it emerges from the particular conditions of each project — the grain of a site, the logic of construction, the narrative potential of a brief. The work presented spans scales and typologies: a ferry port, a hydro power station, memorials, a rest area, and private houses. What connects them is a commitment to words, drawings, and materials as equally valid instruments of design. For practitioners interested in how built work can carry genuine conceptual and poetic weight, this monograph is essential reading.
Key Features
- 168 pages of built work documentation, unbuilt project drawings, and architectural photography
- Practice founded by Beate Hølmebakk and Per Tamsen
- Notable projects include a ferry port, hydro power station, memorials, rest area, and houses
- Published by Shinkenchiku-sha, 2024
What You'll Discover
- How Manthey Kula negotiates the relationship between a given programme and the specific character of each site, producing architecture that is neither generic nor self-referential
- The role of storytelling and imagination in a practice that targets what it describes as the public realm of fiction — and what that means for built outcomes
- A diverse typological range, from infrastructure such as a hydro power station and ferry port to intimate memorials and domestic projects, each treated with the same depth of inquiry
- The interplay of words, drawings, and material thinking as parallel design tools within a single coherent methodology
About the Author
Manthey Kula is a Norwegian architecture office founded in 2004 by Beate Hølmebakk and Per Tamsen. Their practice is built on the intersection of site sensitivity, construction logic, and narrative — using language and drawing alongside material investigation as instruments of architectural production.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 168
- Dimensions: 220 x 290 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9786000006693
- Publisher: Shinkenchiku-sha
- Publication Date: 2024
Perfect For: Architects and design researchers drawn to Nordic practice, narrative-led design methodologies, and the intersection of infrastructure, landscape, and memory.