M a s s H o u s i n g a n d S u s t a i n a b i l i t y
75
As a result of the massive criticism from the authorities of the time, a growing claim to
expel Selvaag from the Norwegian Association of Engineers, Den Norske
Ingeniørforening, intensified. Some of the harshest critics came from research institutes
claiming that the house could not stand up.
Selvaag was challenged to document his ideas at full scale and the Oslo newspaper
Morgenposten put up the money to build a prototype. He finally managed to get
permission to build a demonstration house.
The house was completed in September 1948 and 8 221 interested buyers registered.
Selvaag had claimed that he could build cheaper than anyone and less than NOK 16
000 or Euro 2 000 including all foundations but excluding site costs. The house had
three bedrooms and measured 72m
2
. He managed to end 10 percent below the
estimated cost and this was still a prototype. Imagine what could be done if he did
several houses and rationalised the building process further. Through the demonstration
house it became clear to the majority that he could build three times as many units as
the government-supported establishment managed for the same amount (Fig. 1).
Figure 1: The prototype Selvaag-house completed in Oslo in 1948. Photo: Hasselknippe.
The prototype on show created interest from all over Europe. But in Norway there was a
tight link between the Government carrying Labour party and NRK, the Norwegian
Broadcasting Corporation. NRK was stuck in a misunderstood loyalty or neutrality.
Selvaag was hardly offered a microphone there. BBC in London on the other hand
broadcasted more about the house than NRK. During the opening NRK only sent one
report from the occasion while BBC sent over a building professional journalist that
produced three full programs about the remarkable house (HASSELKNIPPE 1982: 30).
The whole fight had been about housing the poor. It was a fight over building method, of
whether to go for a heavy expensive Rolls Royce or a light economical Volkswagen. It is
almost a universal issue even today, a generic one. It is all about choosing rational
construction methods for the many or extravagant ones for the few. Now - 65 years later
- the house still stands. It is still making the architectural and engineering establishment
at the time the laughing stock since the house later turned out to become a model for
how most of the housing in Norway was built from 1951 onwards.
The story of how Selvaag fought to become the housing supplier for the poorest, the war
stricken, in Norway was the beginning of a revolutionary prefabricated mass-housing
era. Later it really took off. When the authorities finally realised that Selvaag was right he
never received a public apology. His model of how to build affordable mass customized
housing was based on a very simple analysis: When building, where does the money
flow? Selvaag reasoned that it was the use of too many, too bulky, too costly materials
that brought the costs up. Houses where designed based on over-dimensioned
