– A Social-democratic Show Window

The industrial community Årdal became a symbol of modern Norway after World War II. In the course of a few years Årdal was transformed from a scarcely populated rural community to a small town situated around the aluminium plant Årdal Verk.
Construction of the aluminium plant at Årdal started in 1941. The purpose was to build a large aluminium industry as a part of the German war effort. The Norwegian State confiscated the unfinished plant at Årdal in 1945. The plant was finished and production started in 1948.
The power-intensive industry, including the aluminium industry, was an important part of the social-democratic modernization project in the postwar years. The period was characterized by integrated planning where energy supply, industrialization and regional policy were considered as a totality. This led to a characteristic phenomenon in the Norwegian settlement pattern: remote small town communities solely dependent on a power-intensive smelting plant

The Aluminium Plant at Øvre Årdal in 1948. Industrial and rural society met when the aluminium plant opened. The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology

An Engineer at the Årdal Verk

The postwar years were the era of the engineer in Norway. Industrialization and electrification were essential parts of the Labour party’s plans to modernize the country. The engineers played a crucial part in helping to plan the changes and realize them.
Ole Georg Gjøsteen was born in 1916 and graduated as a chemical engineer in 1939. He was an assistant engineer at Årdal Verk from 1946 to 1949 and came back as a senior engineer at the Årdalstangen plant in 1955.
“Årdal must be a dream place for engineers. The engineers in Årdal happily admitted that they could hardly think of a more tempting task. Here they had the raw material for a large industry in keeping with the future that also has large currency-making possibilities – and also the chance to build two wonderful industrial communities from the ground up. What more could they want?”
(The Giant Factory in Årdal" in Aktuell no. 12, 1948)