The glass barrier
Dropping at the tip so the platform seems not to end.
TomasEE — CC BY 3.0 · Superbass — CC BY-SA 4.0 · mendhak — CC BY-SA 2.0 · AUTOR.4200 — CC BY-SA 4.0
Eighteen roads the state selected for the beauty of what they pass through, backed since the 1990s by a full architectural programme: instead of a sign and a lay-by, architects and designers were commissioned to build viewing platforms, car parks, rest stops and toilets to serious contemporary designs. Stegastein is among the best known, as are the Vøringsfossen steps and the platforms on the Trollstigen road. The idea is that the road itself is a destination rather than a means — and it is among the most successful things Norway has done for its tourism.
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Stegastein is a timber platform running thirty metres out from the mountainside six hundred and fifty metres above the Aurlandsfjord, ending in a glass barrier that tilts downward and does not interrupt the view. The design idea — by the architects Todd Saunders and Tommie Wilhelmsen, opened in 2006 — is that the platform ends without ending. There is no metal railing and no clear edge: the timber floor walks forward and then the glass simply drops away, so anyone standing at its tip appears suspended in air over the water. The effect is deliberate, and it is what made this one of the best-known pieces of contemporary architecture in Norway. The view from it is the whole fjord from Aurland to its far bend, mountains on both sides and a small village below. Access is by a narrow mountain road of tight hairpins — **uncomfortable in a large vehicle, and tour coaches need a permit** — or by minibus from Flåm and Aurland. It is free.
Dropping at the tip so the platform seems not to end.
The whole fjord from the village to its far bend.
Above Aurland, Aurlandsfjord