The Nore II Power Station
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On the west side of Nore Fjord there is a small cultural heritage area comprising of Nore Power Station II and its associated residential area. The row of identical workers houses stands out from the surrounding agricultural landscape. Work on the Nore II power station was started during the war and was finished in 1946. The power station has its intake at the Rødberg dam, from where it runs through a nearly four kilometre long tunnel down to the power station at Gvammen. The power station is still in use and 2 large water turbines produce 320 GwH of electricity annually. Above the power station you can still see parts of the trolley line that ran up to the railway. The homes for the power plant workers next to Nore II were designed by the architect Bernt Heiberg. The drawings are in the digital museum and are dated 1941. The houses were for the machinists and engineers working at Nore II and are functionally inspired. Heiberg was a prominent figure in the Norwegian architecture community throughout much of the 20th century. He designed several detached houses and villas, but his passion was for social housing. Heiberg was a keen defender of functionalism which he believed was ‘architecture for the living people’. On behalf of the Norwegian water resource Heiberg produced designs for several officials’ residences, a dentists, and an infirmary for Nore I and Nore II.