Olaf Nordhagen


Johan Olaf Brochmann Nordhagen was a Norwegian educator, architect, engineer and artist. He is most commonly associated with his restoration designs for Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim, Norway.

Biography

Olaf Nordhagen was born in Christiania, Norway. He was a son of painter and artist Johan Nordhagen and Christine Magdalene Brochmann Johansen. He was a brother of botanist Rolf Nordhagen and through him an uncle of art historian Per Jonas Nordhagen. In April 1909 in Ådal he married Thora Hval.
Nordhagen was educated as an engineer at Christiania tekniske skole in Oslo and worked as an apprentice to architect Bredo Greve for several years before studying at the Royal Danish Academy of Art while also assisting Martin Nyrop with his designs for Copenhagen City Hall. Nordhagen returned to Oslo in 1906 and accepted a number of smaller commissions. His breakthrough, however, came when he won the competition to build the Bergen Public Library in Art Nouveau, for which he also won the Houen Fund prize.
Nordhagen designed a number of industrial structures including transformer stations and power plants, including Såheim Hydroelectric Power Station in Rjukan. He also designed several churches and completed considerable research around Norwegian traditional architecture. Dating from 1913, he was also a professor at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim.
Olaf Nordhagen is probably most famous for the restoration designs of the Nidaros Cathedral. He took over project management of this work following the death in 1906 of architect Christian Christie. Nordhagen carried it through until his own death in 1925. His tendency to reinterpret Gothic designs rather than seek a faithful reproduction of the original was controversial at the time but was carried out.

Notable projects