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Erik Rolfsen

Norwegian architect (1905–1992)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionMar 26, 2026
Entity authorityQ5388803 ↗
Source-derived summary

Erik Rolfsen (24 July 1905 – 27 September 1992) was a Norwegian architect. He served as urban manager of Oslo, Norway from 1947 to 1973.

Biography

Erik Rolfsen was born at Ålesund in More og Romsdal, Norway. Rolfsen took his final exams at Kristiansund Public School in 1924. He attended the Drawing Academy in Paris during 1926. In 1930 he took his final exam in architecture at the Norwegian Institute of Technology in Trondheim. While studying in Trondheim he was also a member of Mot Dag.

He worked in Kristiansund from 1940, but from 1942 to 1945 he was a consultant for the Norwegian government-in-exile in London. From 1947 to 1973 he was the director of city planning in Oslo and put their mark on the city during a period of intense development. After the merger of Oslo Municipality and Aker Municipality in 1948, Rolfsen prepared a general plan for the new large municipal area.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Erik Rolfsen” is norwegian architect (1905–1992). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Erik, Rolfsen and Norwegian, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1905, 1992, 1947, 1973—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1905-07-24. For this dossier, Erik, Rolfsen and Norwegian is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “norwegian architect (1905–1992)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 26, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5388803. VIAF identifies the subject as 7976149068424765730000. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1905, 1992, 1947 and 1973.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Erik Rolfsen”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Erik Rolfsen primary sources, Erik Rolfsen archive and Erik research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Erik Rolfsen”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Erik Rolfsen” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.