Porsgrunn, Protestant Church [Norway]

— new organ —

The new church, finished in 2019, was designed and realised by the architectural studio Espen Surnevik in collaboration with architectural studio Trodahl, both based in Oslo. This became necessary after the previous white rococo-style wooden church was destroyed by fire in 2011.

When designing and planning the new church, a special niche was already planned for a possible new pipe organ.

Our design of the new organ shows clearly structured, symmetrically arranged pipes in the front and gives an idea of the structure of the divisions behind. The vertical slanted lines contained in the church design were included in the organ design. The organ case was made from solid, fine-quality oak wood to match the other wooden internals and was finally treated with a pigmented oil.

The console, set up on a mobile platform, is freely movable and can be connected to the organ at various connection points in the room. A modern action system enables the organist to operate the organ in a variety of ways. All windchests, with the exception of the windchets for the pipes in the front, are constructed as classic slider-chests with electrical key and stop action. The wind supply has a total of three large-volume parallel bellows. The sound concept is based on an organ with three independent, well-founded divisions in a classic romantic style. In addition to the Swell, the Positiv – Echo is also housed in a separate swell box.