Reconstruction of North Norway after the Second World War – New Opportunities for Female Architects?

Abstract

Female architects took part in the reconstruction of North Norway after the Second World War, rebuilding the scorched-earth area as well as the bombed towns. For the first time in Norway they were visible both as individual architects and as a group, and the aim of this paper is to uncover evidence of their contribution, which has been somewhat overlooked until now. The female architects can be related to different forms of architectural practice – some designed buildings, e.g. small and large schools for the public sector – but more important was their contribution to work in the public reconstruction offices, especially in the housing debate and the modernization of housing. These women made an architectural impact on the everyday environment and landscape of the north. Even though the female architects of the 1950s had a marginalized experience as practitioners in the north, they paved the way for generations of female architects to come and the latter's struggle for access to professional status in Norway.

Keywords:

• Female architects
• North Norway
• post-war reconstruction

Thanks to Mary Katherine Jones for language consultation and partly translating from Norwegian. I am grateful to the following for discussions regarding this paper: Kirsten Sand 1982, 1989; Kurt Jørgensen 1982, 1989, 2005; Inger Ullern 1985; Kirsti Knudsen 2004; Asbjørg Knutssøn 2005; Siri Berner 2005; Øyvind Lind 2005.

Notes

1. Kirsten Sand and Sigrid Buch.

2. Kirsten Sand (1895–1996, exam NTH 1919).

3. Helene Støren Kobbe (1915–1988, exam NTH 1939), Wenche Böckmann (b. 1914, exam NTH 1939), Ina Margrethe Danielsen Backer (1916–1996, exam NTH 1940), Wenche Holtermann (b. 1918, exam ETH Zürich 1947).

4. Kirsten Wleügel Knutssøn (1890–1979, exam TTL 1910, temporary student NTH 1910–12).

5. Lisa Gjessing (b. 1913, exam NTH 1937), Bitte (Dina) Bergh Sewell (1917–2000, exam SAK ?), Inger Ullern (1924–1994, exam NTH 1947), Ellen Margrethe Lind Astrup (b. 1920–, exam SAK 1946).

6. Sigrid Buch (1898–1981, exam TH Dresden 1923), Kirsten Sjøgren-Erichsen (1922–1989, exam SAK 1946).

7. Jenny Kummeneje (1893–1965).

8. Anne Margrethe Haug Skjævesland (1915–2000, exam NTH 1942).

9. Norsk kunstnerleksikon volume II, p. 497. Under Jacob Christie Kielland, “some of the projects done in collaboration with architect Gunnar Bjerke, e.g. Holtet garden village in Oslo . . . after competition in 1923”.

10. Lilla (Georgine) Hansen (1872–1962, exam The drawing school/SHKS ca. 1905). Brockmann, 1986, p. 38, second prize in competition for the design of small flats in 1907. Findal, 2004, p. 90, first prize in a housing competition for Thomas Heftyes gate 42, Frogner in Oslo in 1912. Sauge, 2003, volume II, p. 33, in 1920 a second prize and a third prize in a competition for a garden village at Ekeberg in Oslo.

11. Karen Berner Brochmann (1908–1987, temporary student NTH 1928–1930). Sauge, 2003, volume II, p. 44, first prize in a competition for a Polar exhibition in Bergen in 1940 (1937), first prize in a competition for the Norwegian pavilion at the World Exhibition in New York (1938) and second prize for Asker town hall (1939).

12. Confirmed in conversation with architect Kurt Jørgensen (b. 1912) 13 April 2005. Jørgensen worked in the reconstruction office in Honningsvåg, in the State Housing Department in Oslo, and at the State Housing Bank in Oslo until his retirement.

13. Laila Løken Rolfsjord (1917–1990, exam NTH 1942).

14. Sigrid (Solberg) Berner (1923–2002, exam SAK 1947).

15. Lise Sonne-Nilsen worked later at the Greenland Office in Copenhagen, on housing in Greenland amongst other things.

16. I have found the mezzanine design first used in Norway in 1951, in one single-family house in Oslo, designed by P. A. M. Melbye. (Aktuell 5/1951, p. 14).

17. Turid Bernhoff Evensen (b. 1918, exam NTH 1942).

18. A survey of student membership of NAL shows that in 2004 there were more women than men training to be architects, so the percentage of women should increase considerably in future years.

19. Else Thorp Larsen (1919–1989, exam SAK 1946).

20. Virginia Woolf had an extra room converted for her own use when she wrote this essay – it gave her the necessary freedom.

21. Olaug (Kosberg) Kaasen (1911–2003, exam NTH 1936).

22. Anne (Midthaug) Myklebust (1920–2004, exam NTH 1946).

23. Siri (Friis) Jacobsen (b. 1924, exam NTH 1948).

24. Molle (Heyerdahl) Cappelen (1922–1986, exam SAK 1946). (Norsk kunstnerleksikon volume I: Bergliot Ambrosia (Molle) b. Heyerdahl married Cappelen in 1946).

25. Told 4.6.05 by architect Øivind Lind, born in Alta in 1956, when his father architect Thor Andersen (1925–2004, exam ETH Zürich 1952) worked 1954–1956 for Kirsten Sjøgren-Erichsen.

26. Kirsti Knudsen (b. 1942, exam NTH 1966).