Emanuel Christ, Christen Sveaas, Christoph Gantenbein
Image by Albrecht Fuchs, courtesy of KistefosKistefos Museum, a much-admired art and heritage destination located an hour north of Oslo, and one of Europe’s leading sculpture parks, announced today [16 December 2025] that the Christ & Gantenbein-led team has won the international design competition for a new museum building.
Due to open in 2031, the museum will become the permanent home for Kistefos Founder, investor and art collector Christen Sveaas’ significant art collection via the eponymous Christen Sveaas Art Foundation.
Christ & Gantenbein’s winning concept design is a pure form that hovers between the natural and the unseen – an enigmatic shimmering presence in the landscape.
The structure’s radial design is intended to be simple and memorable, a rounded shape formed by the natural forces of the place, like a pebble in a riverbed.
The winning team (see Notes below for full list) met the invited competition’s call: ‘To create a leading zero-energy and zero-emissions building that is an exemplar of sustainable design and practices,’ with a proposal based on elemental principles: a compact, simple form; a logical, generous structure; simplicity of building services; flexibility of secondary walls; use of daylight; and use of wood from the region. As the team’s final presentation stated: ‘The beauty of the whole to be an expression of the responsible use of materials.’
The building’s distinctive roof will integrate photovoltaic shingles that reflect the sky and landscape, and a large central eye will bring Nordic daylight into the interior. Regionally sourced wooden columns will reflect the surrounding forest as well as the Sveaas family’s historical connection to wood.
A spacious exhibition floor will be highly flexible, enabling varied spaces with intuitive circulation, rhythm and regularity – these gallery spaces relating to the personality of the collection, which the designers imagined as a cosmos.
The initiative is expected to transform the visitor experience at Kistefos, drawing new and international audiences. The Selection Panel, which took the decision, was comprised of: Christen Sveaas, Kistefos Founder; William Flatmo, Director, Christen Sveaas Art Foundation; Svein Lund, Founding Partner, Chairman, and Architect, Lundhagem; Christian Joys, Engineer and Owner, Klipco AS; Peter Oscar Munthe-Kaas, Architect at Wood Arkitektur and Kistefos Museum Board Member; and Kari Roll-Matthiesen, Director, Kistefos Museum; as well as international luminaries, Max Hollein, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City; and Mark Lee, founder and principal of Los Angeles-based design studio Johnston Marklee and Chair of the Architecture Department at Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Christen Sveaas, Kistefos Museum Founder, said:
‘Choosing a winner of the international architectural competition is a major milestone for Kistefos. We wanted a sculptural building that people would travel from far away to see. A building that evokes wonder and excitement when you encounter it, that surprises you when you step inside, and that continues to inspire even after you have left Kistefos.
‘All eight finalists submitted excellent proposals, for which we are very grateful. Now we are very much looking forward to working with Christ & Gantenbein to create a peaceful and spectacular new home for art in the forest at Kistefos.’
Speaking for the Selection Panel, Max Hollein, Director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, said:
‘Kistefos represents an ambitious vision, extraordinary site and architectural opportunity. Each excellent entry in the competition reflected the singularity of location, collection and collector.
‘Christ & Gantenbein’s thoughtful proposal stood out in its elegant design, flexible spatial layout, strong connectivity to the environment, expert use of material and powerful architectural symbolism. We expect the new museum to become a unique place − convening art, architecture and nature.’
The competition’s runners-up included some of the most respected teams working in museum architecture today: BIG (DK), Ensamble Studio (ES); Jensen & Skodvin / Hølmebakk Øymo (NO); Kengo Kuma and Associates (JP); Lina Ghotmeh — Architecture (FR); Snøhetta (NO); and SO–IL (US/NL).
Christ & Gantenbein’s work is widely admired in architectural circles for its materiality, its ability to sensitively combine the contemporary with the existing and demonstrate versatility to each project’s context. Notable projects include the renovation and expansion of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich as well as of the Kunstmuseum Basel. The studio has received many awards including Dezeen Architect of the Year (2018); the Architizer Jury Award (2021); the Most Influential Project Award (2022); the 100 Architects of the Year award (2023); the Swiss Arc Award (2024), and most recently the German Design Award (2025). Founding Partners Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein are Professors of Architecture and Design at ETH Zurich. They have taught at Oslo School of Architecture and Design, Accademia di Architettura in Mendrisio, as well as at Harvard Graduate School of Design.
Emanuel Christ, Co-Founding Partner of Christ & Gantenbein, said:
‘We are thrilled to be selected. It feels good, but most of all, it feels right. Every so often in design, you experience a moment of fortune when things fall naturally into place.
‘Our aim was to create a synthesis − bringing together all the impressions of Kistefos − and this led us to the idea of a generous roof that establishes both equilibrium and harmony. The spatial experience offers a sense of intimacy and familiarity, yet at the same time reveals surprising, spectacular, and subtly mysterious moments shaped by the building’s unique form.
‘We are grateful and look forward to working with the ambitious and wonderful team at Kistefos.’
After 30 years in development, Kistefos, set in a wooded and riverine landscape, has forged a highly original identity. Integrating art, architecture, nature and people, its expansive sculpture park encompasses 56 world-class pieces by luminaries such as Yayoi Kusama, Claes Oldenburg, Olafur Eliasson, Pierre Huyghe, and Nairy Baghramian, many of which are site-specific.
Kistefos also hosts an iconic contemporary art gallery, The Twist (by BIG): a bridge, gallery and sculpture all in one. A short walk away is an industrial heritage museum which preserves the last intact wood pulp mill in Scandinavia, built by the Sveaas family in 1890, and now offers additional space for art, mediation and industrial history. (See Notes for more detail.)
The invited competition was managed by international competition specialist, Malcolm Reading Consultants (MRC). MRC is currently running the high-profile international design competition for Jesus’ Baptism Museum at Bethany and ran the competitions for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Qatar as well as the Queen Elizabeth II National Memorial, London and The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City.
Christ & Gantenbein will now work with Kistefos Museum to develop the initial concept design.
Notes to editors
Kistefos
Kistefos was established in 1996 by Norwegian businessman and art collector Christen Sveaas on the former site of his grandfather’s pulp mill. Today, Kistefos offers world-class architecture, industrial history, art exhibitions, and an expansive sculpture park in scenic surroundings.
Every year, Kistefos presents new art exhibitions by highly recognised national and international artists in its two galleries, The Twist and Nybruket Gallery. The Twist has won several prizes for its cutting-edge design and is a gallery, a bridge, and a sculpture, all in one. Nybruket Gallery is located in one of the old factory buildings of the wood pulp factory. The industrial heritage has been preserved and creates a beautiful framework for contemporary exhibitions.
The sculpture park expands with one or more sculptures each year. Today there are 56 works by prominent contemporary artists such as Pierre Huyghe, Carol Bove, Ida Ekblad, Yayoi Kusama, John Gerrard, Claes Oldenburg, Lynda Benglis, Tony Cragg, Olafur Eliasson, Anish Kapoor and Nairy Baghramian. All recent sculptures are site-specific, inspired by the cultural heritage, nature and history of Kistefos.
Christen Sveaas
Christen Sveaas is a private investor through his wholly owned investment company, Kistefos AS, and A/S Kistefos Træsliberi, which owns approximately 40,000 acres of forestry properties and industrial sites. Sveaas is a Commander of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Italy and a Knight, First Class of the Order of St. Olav, and one of ARTnews’ Top 200 Collectors.
In 1996, Sveaas founded Kistefos. The intact pulp mill is at the centre of a contemporary sculpture park – one of the best in Europe – that Sveaas has created. Kistefos AS donates unique site-specific sculptures to the park each year. Sveaas funded “The Twist”, by the Danish architects BIG. In 2019 he established “Christen Sveaas’ Art Foundation”, and in 2020 he donated around 800 artworks from his private collection.
Christ & Gantenbein with Atmos Lab, Bollinger+Grohmann, Mosbach Paysagistes, Steensen Varming, and Richard Venlet
Christ & Gantenbein is an acclaimed practice headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. Founded in 1998 by Emanuel Christ and Christoph Gantenbein – both professors of architecture at ETH Zurich and critics at the Harvard GSD – the firm is recognised for mediating academic research and architectural practice in projects across Europe. Their work is admired for using materials to sensitively combine the contemporary with the existing, versatile to each project’s context.
Prominent projects include the expansion and transformation of the Swiss National Museum in Zurich, and the award-wining extension of the Kunstmuseum Basel – two cultural landmarks with a global reach. Currently under construction is the firm’s new addition to the Wallraf-Richartz-Museum in Cologne to accommodate an outstanding gifted collection, the extension of the Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), and projects to convert both the Kunstmuseum’s main building, Basel and the Swiss National Library in Bern. Since 2022, Christ & Gantenbein have created the exhibition design for the Paris Internationale art fair.
Along with the Dezeen Architect of the Year Award (2018), the firm’s awards include the Design Miami/Panerai Visionary Award (2017), the Essence Award – Gold Prize (2016), the Red Dot: Best of the Best prize (2016), the Architizer Jury Award (2021), the Most Influential Project Award (2022), the 100 Architects of the Year award (2023), the Swiss Arc Award (2024), and most recently the German Design Award (2025).
