Eggum Tourist Route
The Eggum Tourist Route is one of 18 National Norwegian Tourist Routes, commissioned and managed by the Public Roads Administration to allow travelers to enjoy the country side’s spectacular vistas with amenities such as service buildings, hiking trails, and public art. The Eggum project consists of a service building within an amphitheater, a hiking trail, car park, and stairs build in gabion walls.
The terrain determined the location of areas for camper cans, cap parking and the buildings, all sited in an excavated hill. The car park was designed so that every parked vehicle will have a view of the sea. Gabion walls were used to define the car park and to create a unifying ffect for the designed spaces. The construction materials used in the project were largely local to the site. All gabions were filled with stone from the site excavation, and the building’s wooden walls were built from drift logs found on the nearby beach. The emphasis has been on using rough, natural materials with consistent detailing.
Eggum is a community which lies on the seaward side of Vestvågøy in Lofoten. The former fishingvillage faces directly out to sea, on a small, level strip of land between steep cliffs and the sea. Thereare not many fishermen left at Eggum, but a good many people still live there. During the summer season Eggum is a very popular place to come to see the midnight sun.
Apart from North Cape, Eggum is claimed to be the best place for such observations. The tourists gather in the area round Kvalhausen, which lies a little way past Eggum itself. Kvalhausen is a hill which was used as a radar station by the occupying German forces during the Second World War. The foundation wall around the old radar station still stands. ”The Fort” as the locals call it, is a local landmark.
In winter 2004 Snøhetta won the parallel commission at Eggum, which is part of the Norwegian Public Roads Administration’s E10 tourist route project through Lofoten. The task was to solve the traffic situation around Kvalhausen, where a fine summer night will see very many campervans, some cars and a few buses. In addition a service building was to be designed to suit this special site. Snøhetta’s project won with its sensitive approach to the site and its strong and consistent focus on conveying the qualities of the place as an attraction rather than primarily supplying an architectural attraction.