Samisk arkitektur

This article investigates public architecture in Sápmi from the 1970s until today, with particular emphasis on building materials and their discourse. Although the materials chosen for clothing or for revealed construction follow Nordic and inter¬national architectonic trends, the wood, stone, concrete and glass are ascribed a set of meanings to fit the Sami context. The question is to what degree these materials mediate conventional and even stereotypical understandings of Saminess, or produce awareness of new Sami architecture and identity.

This article investigates public architecture in Sápmi from the 1970s until today, with particular emphasis on building materials and their discourse. Although the materials chosen for clothing or construction follow Nordic and international architectural trends, the wood, stone, concrete and glass are ascribed a set of meanings to fit the Sámi context. The question is to what degree these materials mediate conventional and even stereotypical understandings of Sáminess, or produce awareness of new Sámi architecture and identity.

To achieve monumentality in contemporary public Sámi architecture seems to be a difficult task, as is the case in other indigenous cultures and regions all over the world. This challenge related to monumental issues is however not peripheral. It goes straight into the core of the architectural culture itself and turns the question back: What is monumentality at the end of the twentieth century? The aim of this article is double. On the one hand to investigate public buildings and concepts of crucial importance in the construction of Sámi identity in architecture, and on the other to point out general issues concerning the conception of monumentality in the late modern and contemporary architecture, which are actualized by public buildings in Sápmi.