- Henning
- Larsen
Our Town Hall in the Faroe Islands wins the first award in the Public Building category of the 2018 Global Architecture and Design Awards. The awards are given by Rethinking the Future, which celebrates architecture and design that seeks solutions to climate change and takes sustainability “one step ahead.”
Previously, the Eiðis River marked a boundary between municipalities Leirvík and Gøta. Today, they are united under the municipality of Eystur, with the river Eiðisá running right down the middle. The new town hall bridges the two parts with a building design that – quite literally - doubles as a bridge over the water.
The green-roofed Town Hall is not just a building that serves as a bridge between communities, but one that reflects the lives of the community. The building pays tribute to the distinctive Nordic landscapes and traditional local grass-roofed houses. Difficulty distinguishing where the landscape ends and the building begins is a central theme in traditional Faroese architecture. The respect for the environment the building inhabits and its ability to bring communities together led the jury to call Eystur Town Hall a “truly special building.”