(b Kongsberg, 14 Aug 1924). Norwegian architect. He graduated from the Oslo School of Architecture in 1949 and joined a group of young architects who, under the leadership of Arne Korsmo, founded a Norwegian division of CIAM. Their aim was to oppose the New Empiricism dominant in Scandinavia after World War II, and to continue the endeavours of the Modern Movement. From the beginning Fehn stood out as the most important talent in Norwegian post-war architecture. The House of Crafts (1949-56), Maihaugen, Lillehammer, and the ?kern Home for the Elderly (1955), Oslo, were both built in collaboration with Geir Grung (b 1926). The ?kern Home (since enlarged) was built as a large, low, concrete-and-glass block in an old manorial park. It enclosed two gardens, each c. 1 km square. The pensioners lived in rooms with direct access either to one of the gardens or to balconies with views out over the park. Villa B?dtker (1967), the B?ler Civic Centre (1972) and the Sk?dalen Residential School (1976-7) are all in Oslo. In contrast to the monolithic home for the elderly, the school was built as a cluster of small blocks, an arrangement that gave the students some variety when walking from their rooms to class. The variety and visual interest were enhanced by the mixture of building materials: wood, red brick and raw concrete. In the Hedmarksmuseet at Hamar (1973), Fehn harmoniously combined the remains of the medieval building with his own modern addition. Fehn's talent found a particularly convincing expression in the mounting of art exhibitions, including the Norwegian Pavilion at the Brussels Exposition Universelle of 1958 and the Scandinavian Pavilion at the Venice Biennales of 1959 and 1964.

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