Vennesla Library and Culture House

The Vennesla Library and Culture House (Norwegian: Vennesla bibliotek og kulturhus) is a public library serving the inhabitants of Vennesla Municipality in Agder, Norway. The new library building completed in 2011 has won several architecture prizes and has been praised both within Norway^[2] and abroad.^[3]

Facade and main entrance of the Vennesla Library and Culture House August 2017.

Vennesla Library and Culture House
Vennesla bibliotek
Interior in the library part of the building
General information
Type	Library
Town or city	Vennesla
Country	Norway
Coordinates	58°16′13″N 7°58′13″E
Elevation	48 m (157 ft)
Construction started	2010
Opened	2011
Cost	80 million NOK
Owner	Vennesla Municipality
Technical details
Floor count	2
Floor area	1,900 m2 (20,000 sq ft)[1]
Design and construction
Architecture firm	Helen & Hard
Awards and prizes	Statens byggeskikkpris, 2012

The Municipality of Vennesla decided in 2005 to relocate the library to the city centre, linking together an existing community house and learning centre into a cultural centre. A café, open meeting places and a small scene were incorporated into the plan of the new building, making it a combined library and house of culture. With the new building, the municipality sought both to establish a public meeting place and to increase the quality of architecture in the urban area of Vennesla. An architectural design competition was initiated in 2008; it was won by the firm Helen & Hard from Stavanger and the new building was ready in 2011.

The main building material is wood, and the building is dominated by the 27 glue-laminated timber arcs that support the roof and give associations to ribs of a whale skeleton. The building has attracted much interest and won several prizes, among them Statens byggeskikkpris for 2012 (the Norwegian state prize for good buildings).^[4] The building has, however, also received criticism for lacking functionality for its main purpose, namely being a library building. The author of an opinion piece in the Norwegian weekly Morgenbladet maintained that the library building was beautiful, yet inconvenient for normal library use.^[5]