Year: 2011
Location: Våler, NO
Size: 1.000 m2
Status: International competition

New Våler Church is gathered in a compact volume placed in the green cemetery as a sacred monument of architecture, as a new landmark for the village. The new church comes alone by virtue of its scale and location to be included in the Vaal cultural skyline along with the chapel, church ruins, the municipal and church grove. The establishment of the new church will thus enrolled in a strategy of strong public cultural center around the church farm’s green spaces as a series of distinct public buildings, with the forest as a backdrop and an adjustment to the village scale.

The simple, almost primal form, with their closed uniform facades appear with a subdued monumentality, as a quiet background in the open green cemetery. The ”quiet” building expression creates a contemporary aesthetic kinship to Mary’s Church, stave churches or cosmopolitian architecture with roots in Nordic building as a particularly Scandinavian timelessness. The inner life of the is not revealed. On the contrary, the simple building exterior together with the trees defines a peaceful image in proportion to the more exploratory inner structure that opens for spiritual expression and interpretation. The project wants to give the church a universal and timeless shape that fits the Vaal quiet building scale and style. In Våler one will not find big buildings, but the details are fine. By upscaling the  buildings basic shape of the roof, recognizable expression of a church are made.
The church appears to be both large, while small.