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These changes have improved the buildings functionality without affecting the architecture.
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To achieve a monumentality based on these notions we wished to make the opera accessible in the widest possible sense, by laying out a ‘carpet ’ of horizontal and sloping surfaces on top of the building.
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This carpet has been given an articulated form, related to the cityscape.
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Monumentality is achieved through horizontal extension and not verticality. the building connects city and fjord, urbanity and landscape.
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The conceptual basis of the competition, and the final building, is a combination of this three elements – the wave wall, the factory and the carpet.
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The operahouse is the first element in the planned transformation of this area of the city.
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In 2010 the heavy traffic beside the building will be moved into a tunnel under the fjord.
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Due to its size and aesthetic expression, the operahouse will stand apart from other buildings in the area.
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The marble clad roofscape forms a large public space in the landscape of the city and the fjord.
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The public face of the operahouse faces west and north – while at the same time, the building’s profile is clear from a great distance from the fjord to the south.
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Viewed from the Akershus castle and from the grid city the building creates a relationship between the fjord and the Ekerberg hill to the east. Seen from the central station and Chr. Fredriks sq. the opera catches the attention with a falling which frames the eastern edge of the view of the fjord and its islands.
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The building connects city and fjord, urbanity and landscape.
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The materials, with their specific weight, colour, texture and temperature, have been vital to the design of the building.
It is the materials which form the defining elements of the spaces.
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It is the meeting of the materials which articulates the architecture through varied detail and precision.
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Project: New Operahouse in OsloLocation: Oslo, NorwayTypology: OperahouseScope: Arch, L Arch, Int, Planning: Full ContractSize: 38,500 m2Client: Ministry of Church and Cultural AffairsSchedule: 1st prize int. comp. Built 2008