New Munch Museum won the voting for the ugliest building in Norway

Oslo – The new museum of the famous painter Edvard Munch, which recently opened to the public in Oslo, has won the poll for the ugliest new building in Norway. The results of the competition organized by the movement Arkitekturoppröret were reported by the newspaper Aftenposten.

More than 11,000 people participated in the voting, choosing the ugliest and most beautiful buildings in Norway from ten candidates each time. The organizers initially received 300 to 350 proposals, from which they made a shortlist.

Arkitekturoppröret is a grassroots movement that fights for more traditional architecture to be created in Norway. The best architectural project became Nygaardsplassen square in Fredrikstad.

"The Munch Museum is so ugly that it causes physical nausea. It is incredible that art from Norway's most beloved painter resides within such a repulsive, enormous public building," said psychologist and one of the representatives of the Arkitekturoppröret movement, Saher Sourouri.

The building, called Lambda, stands on the shore of the Oslo fjord and offers visitors five times more exhibition space than was available in the previous Munch Museum in the Töyen district. Various versions of the artist's most famous work, The Scream, can also be viewed here.

Although the creation of new space for exhibiting the works of one of the world's most famous artists is generally welcomed, the new futuristic building with a striking curve resembling the Greek letter Lambda, designed by the Spanish studio Herreros, has become a target for numerous criticisms.

"The lobby looks like an airport, a warehouse, a hotel, or some commercial building," art historian Tommy Sörbö stated earlier. "Nothing in the choice of colors and materials suggests that this place is home to one of the greatest artists in the world," he added. The institution's management has a different opinion – they believe that the museum must provoke, just as Munch's paintings did in their time.

Architect mnal & partner: Nygaardsplassen, Fredrikstad