Gjøvik Olympic Cavern Hall

Historie

Gjøvik Olympic Cavern Hall is an ice hockey rink located within a mountain hall in Gjøvik, Norway. With a capacity for 5,500 spectators, the hall also features a 25-meter swimming pool and telecommunications installations. Opened in 1993 and costing 134.6 million Norwegian krone, it was built for the 1994 Winter Olympics, where it hosted 16 ice hockey matches. It is the home of Gjøvik Hockey, has hosted the 1995 World Short Track Speed Skating Championships and is also used as an event venue. The structure is the world's largest cavern hall for public use.ConstructionBecause half the country's surface consists of exposed rock, Norway has a tradition of building mountain cavern halls for many purposes, from tunnels via power plants to sport centers. These often double up as bomb shelters. Gjøvik Municipality opened Norway's first underground swimming pool in 1974. The idea to build an underground ice rink came from Consulting Engineer Jan A. Rygh while having dinner with Municipal Engineer Helge Simenstad in 1988, after the latter said that Gjøvik had been awarded an ice rink for the Olympics. The first drafts were made on a napkin in the restaurant. An alternative proposal for a conventional rink was also made. Among the advantage of a cavern hall was that it would not take up valuable downtown property space or interfere with the town's cityscape, yet it would be centrally located which would reduce travel costs, and there would be a stable year-round natural temperature which would reduce cooling costs.