You'll see it from the motorway - an 18-storey wooden tower rising 85.4 metres above the shore of Mjøsa. When Mjøstårnet opened in March 2019, it was certified as the world's tallest timber building. It lost that title in 2022 to a building in Milwaukee, but only by about a metre.
The man behind it was local property developer Arthur Buchardt, who grew up in Brumunddal. After the Paris Agreement on climate change, he wanted to prove you could build tall using sustainable, locally sourced materials. The spruce came from forests you can see from the top of the building, processed at Moelven Limtre just 17 kilometres away.
The project wasn't without controversy. Ringsaker municipality sold a 23,000 square metre prime waterfront plot for 4.7 million kroner - roughly what one mid-range apartment in the finished building cost. Critics said the planning committee fast-tracked approval without even visiting the site. One councillor reportedly justified his vote by saying he'd "driven past on the E6." The municipality also signed a 30-year lease for the swimming pool at around 17 million kroner per year - nearly 500 million total, close to the cost of the entire tower. And after all apartments were sold with a shared rooftop terrace in the prospectus, Buchardt filed to convert much of it into a private penthouse for himself. Nineteen of the 32 apartment buyers demanded it be demolished. Local newspapers have noted that in Ringsaker, Buchardt tends to get what he wants.
Still, the engineering is genuinely impressive. Massive glulam beams form the structure, assembled like a building kit - four storeys at a time, hoisted by crane, no external scaffolding. The timber is so substantial that in a fire, it forms a protective charcoal layer and the fire dies out by itself.
Inside you'll find the Wood Hotel with 72 rooms, offices, apartments, and a restaurant called Oak. The adjacent Mjøsbadet swimming pool is open to the public. Around the building is Mjøsparken, a well-designed waterfront park with beaches and playgrounds - which, whatever you think of the politics, has become genuinely popular.