Lead. A permanent shelter for one of Norway's oldest open-air fish markets, on a site at the head of Bergen's historic inner harbour. The design problem was contained but unforgiving: how to weather-protect a centuries-old market tradition without enclosing it, and how to add a contemporary structure to a setting that won't tolerate competition with the wooden warehouses of Bryggen.

Site & brief. Bergen's seafood market sits between the cruise quay and the Bryggen warehouses, at the symbolic centre of the city's waterfront. The open-air format has worked for centuries, but leaves traders and customers exposed to coastal weather year-round. The City's competition asked for a permanent sheltered facility — without losing the open, transactional character of the market.

Idea. A roof, more than a building. A simple steel structure on a flexible column grid leaves the ground plane open and reconfigurable; the architecture lives almost entirely overhead, in an undulated steel form that references the maritime context by silhouette rather than ornament.

Resolution. At 1,300 m² the project is more pavilion than building. The flexible column grid lets the market reorganise day to day; the undulated roof handles weather, daylight, and identity in a single move. The relationship to Bryggen is one of contrast through restraint — the new structure is light, contemporary, and tonally different from the wooden warehouses, but quiet enough not to fight them for attention.