National Museum Oslo Hosts First Monographic Show on Wenche Selmer

The National Museum in Oslo has opened "Wenche Selmer: What Can You Live Without," the first monographic exhibition in its series dedicated to a female architect. On view through October 4, 2026, the show features original drawings, personal items, lecture notes from Selmer's professorship, and full-scale building components. Wenche Selmer (1920–98) was a leading Norwegian architect known for over 30 summerhouses and cabins on Norway's southern coast, as well as detached houses in Oslo. Her practice emphasized simplicity, harmony with nature, and blending modern architecture with Norway's vernacular wooden cabin tradition. Selmer often slept on project sites to study wind, light, and airflow, incorporating these observations into her designs. The exhibition marks the first retrospective of this scale on the architect.