Gudbrandsjuvet Service centre/Café Juvet

The site has a spectacular waterfall that has become a major tourist attraction. The Service centre contains a café, a kiosk, and restrooms. The cafe is only open in the summer season, from May to September. During the low season the Service centre is closed but is occassionally be used by the local population as a community centre.

The structure is based on a concrete element, with the same geometry as the element on the viewing platform on the roadside. The triangular prefabricated concrete element is floor, wall, pillar and roof in one element. This element acts as a suppert for the central roof. The elements define areas where tables can be placed, and the geometric flexibility resembling a bicycle chain makes it possible to give almost all these small rooms, contained in each element, the qualities of a corner space, usually the most sought after space in a café with a view. It allows for fine grained adjustmenst to the vulnerable topography at the site.

The yearly energy consumption is low because the building is mostly used when heating is not neccesary. The neighbouring Juvet Landscape Hotel, which is also a building only used during the summer season, uses the cafe as breakfast restaurant. In winter this high mountain pass road has to close at this point because of the heavy snow falls in the mountains, and the traffic is led on a condsiderably longer route by the sea.