Since 22 July 2011, Norway and Norwegians stood together in the belief that one must meet terrorist and terrorist threats with more transparency and more democracy.
Construction of a new government quarter is an important step in this direction for Norway, to advance, to grow – physically and mentally, but also symbolic.
Instead of a monumental and symbol heavy government quarter we want to create a government quarter, which is a city block in the extension of the urban context. Today perceived quarter as an island in the city, as one moves outside.
In the new government quarter there activity at street level with the same density as that found in the rest of downtown. We propose to create a government quarter which will be a completely new type urban – which is both a green landscape and a dense urban environment.
We propose a park around H-block and the Grade I buildings, which becomes a tridimensional landscape as waves up and down and includes cafe, restaurants and city life. The landscape grows up and forms a mountain range of jobs. The range consists of a number of buildings that are not high-rise – rather tall houses.
A form of democratic tower blocks where one can see all the jobs when coming in at street level and where all employees can see each other. The crystal-like forms are based in sight lines from the street level, as well as optimization in relation to the interception of solar and minimization of wind influence on street level.
At that volumes withdrawn from street environment and neighboring buildings, minimized shading and the visual impact on the surroundings. In the neighborhood perceived buildings, in spite of its size, as adapted in scale – while they emerge as a new urban mountain range in Oslo City skyline. Text of BIG source by Statsbygg.