Wings over Oslo.

Small temples to the spirit of expedition mark a local railway terminus and gateway to one part of Norway's wild landscape to the north of Oslo.

Frognerseter is the last station on the light railway up Holmenkollen, Oslo's tame mountain, and it has become a ritual, almost holy, gathering place for the large enthusiastic flocks of hikers and skiers who congregate before and after expeditions into the wilderness of Nordmarka. From the station set above the surrounding landscape, there are wide views over Oslo fjord and city.

Frognerseter station burnt down and Arne Henriksen, who had been responsible for the two stations at Sandvika and Slependen (AR February 1995), was asked to design a new one. Henriksen's previous structures, offering a series of promenades architecturales, were abstract extemporisations on the idea of motion. In particular, the curved canopy measuring the platform's length at Sandvika seemed emblematic of motive power.

The same qualities and poetic intention infuse Henriksen's structures for Frognerseter. As before, he has manifested his affinity for the spirit of the place in tectonic form, this time in the suggestion of small temples in honour of landscape and expedition. If their design appears high in symbolic content, and minimally comfortable, it must be remembered that Norwegians are used to their weather and know how to dress for it.

There are two kinds of structures: both are made of wood with a clarity that recalls medieval vernacular. Flying asymmetrically-shaped canopies of post and beam construction have a heraldic bird-like quality when seen head on, with long beams shooting out into the landscape to indicate paths at the ends of the platform. They are fitted with pegs for supporting skis taken from the train racks while their owners study the weather and snow. Rafters spanning the beams are laminated wood whose varying geometries are determined by the larger asymmetry of the roof plan.

The more elaborate structure has sheltering walls that describe part of a curve and open out to admit the landscape. These undulating screens, composed of vertical black stained wooden boards, glued and screwed together and set into a galvanised steel base, flow around a slate paved circle to create an open room in harmony with the nobility of the landscape.