OSLO NORWAY

The roof of the Opera building is bright. It is this almost translucent white marble. The light reflects off the surfaces like winter sun on snow. That light combined with the steep roof slope brings to mind mischievous activities on the Opera’s winter rooftop. I personally think it would be perfect for a silver saucer sled. The guys in this video were thinking along the same lines.

Image courtesy of Oslo Waterfront Development Department

The master plan, for which the Opera building marked the first step, will change the Bjørvika industrial waterfront to a thriving commercial, residential and cultural area. The Opera quarter is one of five development areas that the City of Oslo has included in their Fjord City master plan. New work in Bjørvika, Aker brygge, Vippetangnen, Filipstad and Sydhavna will transform several kilometers  of coastline and hundreds of acres of waterfront on three separate bays to a thriving mixed use waterfront area tied together by a continuous pedestrian promenade and electric tram.

Opera Quarter (Bjørvika)

The Opera building’s design by Snøhetta has made this waterfront area extremely popular for visitors. It was constructed on a manmade island of beams on piles. The design introduces the broader public to the outdoor space, then lets their curiosity draw them inside to the performances. On any given day you will find the plaza area and the various levels of the roof busy with tourists. They come to experience the unique trek to the building rooftop that affords spectacular views of the Oslo fjord. It is just a few steps from the roof to the lobby where you can buy a ticket and see a performance.

The Opera has in itself proven to be an adequate magnet to the waterfront despite some significant obstacles between the city and the waterfront, namely the E18 motor way. Already the city has constructed a 675 meter long tunnel beneath the bay to divert the majority of traffic around the train station and the Opera quarter. The construction work is underway to demolish the elevated roadway and convert the four lane highway to a tree lined, boulevard with tram rails, bike paths and crosswalks. 

Many of the office buildings in the Bar Code development are already occupied. Residential buildings are under construction and more are on the way. By the time this quarter is completed, it will house 3,000 residents and provide offices for 10,000.

Bar code area in lower left

The "Bar Code" is an area developed around a concept that enables access to and from either end of the narrow building footprints. The resulting plan resembles its namesake. It encourages and enables day lighting and natural ventilation of office environments and, more importantly, the density and location of these buildings near the central station means that a majority of the people living and working in these buildings will take public transportation.

Oslo’s confidence is bursting and the drawing boards are full with new competition winning design schemes. Herreros Arquitectos won the The New Munch Museum competition with their scheme “Lambda”. 

Lund Hagem Arkitekter and Atelier Oslo took home the prize for their Daichmann Library design submittal “Diagonale” . Construction of these new projects, a new park at the mouth of the Alna river and hundreds of new residential units will complete the build out of that the Opera started. When 2030 rolls around the Opera Quarter will include 1 million square meters (10 million ft2) of new construction on 70 hectares (173 acres) of land! Bjørvika is a veritable playground of urban planning.

Aker brygge

For each exuberant and playful building in the Opera Quarter there is a corresponding bar, restaurant, condo building or museum on the eastern waterfront of the Pipervika - the Aker brygge area. At the head of the bay is the Radhus plassen town hall and plaza designed by Arnstein Arneberg and Magnus Poulsson and built between 1931 and 1951. Having just come from Stockholm I saw a connection between the design of their city hall and Oslo’s. 

In a display of wealth and power the interior flooring is patterned marble and the walls are beautiful, colorful frescoes layered with socialist optimism and historical references. 

Construction will start next year on the Town Hall’s new neighbor, the National Museum.  The firm Kleihues + Schuwerk Gesellschaft von Architekten won a lengthy competition with their entry “forum artis”. From this image you can see that it rivals the massing and scale of the Town Hall while making the Nobel Museum look like a miniature from a Holiday train set.

The port history for this bay dates back 1,000 years. To make way for new shops and condos, all the shipping activities were moved from this area in the '80's and '90's. In the course of the last two decades the waterfront warehouse and industrial buildings have gradually turned over to offices, shopping malls and restaurants. 

New residential buildings cropped up and the docks were converted to ferry terminals and a pleasure craft marina. The construction on Pipervika continues waterward with Tjuvholmen, a new manmade island replete with 140,000 m2 (1.4 million ft2) of high end condos, below grade parking, a 2 acre park and a new museum designed by Renzo Piano. 

This point of the pier will mark the completion of the Aker brygge development in 2014. There are so many people walking through this area on a sunny day that it feels more like a Southern California boardwalk than a city well above 55 degrees latitude.  

Vippetangen, Sydhavna and Filipstad

Centered and perched above the two bays Pipervika and Bjørvika, the medieval fortress Akershus stands watch over the city waterfront. The point of this peninsula will be developed as Vippetangnen, the ferry and cruise ship terminal. And the building won’t stop there. To address the some 200,000 new inhabitants in Oslo by 2025, there is another mixed use development on the way. West of Aker Brygge lies Filipstad, where acres of existing port/industrial area are ripe with development potential. Here the city master plan suggests moving the shipping and storage functions to a new modern facility south of downtown in Sydhavna to make room for more residential and commercial development. When completed, Sydhavna will be the largest and most modern shipping port in Norway. With the exception of cruise ships and ferry terminals, Sydhavna will be the only shipping port in Oslo. If this sounds familiar, then I thank you, because you’ve been reading my posts about Stockholm and Helsinki. For images of the waterfront and Oslo information go to this site.

Sustainabiity

In their Guide to a Green Capital, Oslo has pledged to reduce climate gas emissions (CO2, N2O nitrus oxide, CH4 methane) to 50% of 1990 levels by the year 2030. The chart below shows that they their emissions have actually gone up by 15% in the past 25 years. As a course correction they have set their sights on making the Fjord City project net zero energy and are targeting these specific areas to combat their emissions:

• Production of electricity from hydropower plants and development of district heating based on waste
• Economic aid to finance projects that increase energy efficiency
• The development of electric, rail based public transport
• A toll road system to finance the improvement of main arteries, to reduce traffic on local streets and to develop the public transport system
• Tax on the use of studded tires
• The prevention of urban sprawl by concentration of city development within the current city borders, close to nodes in the public transport network and identified local centres
• Programmes for reuse of waste, construction material and extraction of energy from waste