“Below ground”, the permanent exhibition of the archeological museum in Bergen

Authors’ Comment

The aim of the exhibition is to convey life in the middle Ages in Bergen, Norway. New communication was established between the entrance area and main plan with shop, cafe and service rooms that are opened up to get light from all directions. The exhibition area is a "black box" where artificial lighting and environment can be controlled and a dramatic atmosphere can be created.
The exhibition is based on the actual drawings in soil layers made by archeologists at the excavation in 1955, which is best explanatory of what was found and later exhibited. An abstracted world of the Middle Ages was created where visitors meet objects from that time. Another inspiration came from Nordic Runes, which were taken by the technique of engraving in a material or as graphic element. (David Andrei Bach - Scandinavian architecture)

The Architect's conceptual idea:

 The exhibited excavations are nothing but splinters of a past that once was. Small fractions that leave us guessing what the past might have looked like. 
To make these fractions tell a story, the gaps can be filled by a ghost town. The archaeological findings are real, physical and tactile and the imaginary town – the ghost town – help them come alive.
Instead of making a museum as merely a house stuffed with old items, it can be an imaginary world, with the archeological findings as our link to a forgotten time.