Brobekk

Location: Oslo, Norway
Client: The Municipality of Oslo
Team: Stig L. Andersson, Jonas Rune Sangberg, Thomas Kock, Kim Madsen, Malin Blomqvist, Annelie Håkansson, Veronica Cheann, Lone Nielsen
Collaborators: Cowi
Design phase: 2005
Area: 1,6 ha.

Industrial buildings are often closed and surrounded by asphalt for vehicular access. Upon arrival at a building the parking area is the first thing in view. The individual businesses display their name on signs on the exterior of the building and inside the nature of the business becomes apparent. The façade can have two functions. One is as a climatic shield that separates inside and outside. The other is aesthetic that signals the brand of the business.

SLA proposes a symbiotic connection between the two types of façade. The new façade of the Brobekk works signals energy, metabolism and production. The interior of the combined heat and power plant is a force, a heart that produces energy. Here the fire burns, the heart beats, the warm colours rule. Outside the plant has a skin that breathes and is part of the metabolism of nature. The new façade is bio-energy that from day to day, season to season changes expression and establishes ecological balance in the neighbourhood.

The façade is a wall of plants including clematis, ivy and honeysuckle. A plant community that varies in colour, density, character and texture. By combining the plant screen with lighting from inside the plant, the façade will, from the outside, be perceived as hot, cool, glowing or flickering and shinning white. Butterflies, song birds and insects will live in a vertical habitat.