Location:
Oslo
A Shared Oasis on the Roof
A rooftop that holds back rainwater, supports biodiversity and invites families to live in dense urban areas
This rooftop is one of the most celebrated and well-used spaces in the building Nordre Gate 22, a housing block in central Oslo made with the ambition of broaden the notion of how – and for whom – a residential environment in a dense city can work.
Kenneth Harstad, project leader from Aspelin Reitan the real estate company behind this project said once in an interview that "We are trying to find out how people can live well with children in the middle of the city” and “we (want to) offer an alternative to the garden”. This rooftop was that space that wanted to compensate for the big outdoor areas that families have in the outskirts
Low maintenance, rich in biodiversity and the feel of being in a lush park at ground level
Known for its sustainability standards (BREEAM Excellence), Nordre Gate 22 needed a functional rooftop but also a green space made to handle stormwater and to enhance local biodiversity.
Half of the 550 m² of the rooftop is dedicated to vegetation, and a quarter of those green areas have enough soil to sustain medium-sized trees and shrubs. This design decision increased rainwater retention capacity. But beyond stormwater management, having enough soil made it possible to create a feeling of abundance that everybody highlight when visiting the place, with lush vegetation all around, as if you were in a park with trees rooted in the ground.
Functional: a space for everyone, activities, privacy and community life
Journalist Ellen Heier, writing for the Norwegian architecture magazine Arkitektur, described it as “green and full of life” and highlighted how the project had solved functionality problems she had detected in other shared spaces, like lack of intimacy.
"The problem with communal roof terraces is often that they go unused, perhaps because their design does not allow for screening and privacy. This roof terrace has exactly that
The entire layout of the project was planned to allow simoultaneos use, privacy and community life. The planting area and pergolas thoughtfully divide the roof into zones. The idea was that someone could read quietly in one zone while someone else is celebrating a gathering in another zone and children jumping on the trampoline in a third one.
I remember well how Harstad, project leader from the Real Estate company, insisted that we had to build the most beautiful rooftop of Oslo but, most importantly, that we had to make it functional so people used it. He wanted us to include activities for everyone: training machines, trampoline for kids, planting beds to grow vegetables but also quiet and private areas to sit and relax while reading a book or having a coffee.
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Water-Adaptive Landscape Architecture Studio for Heritage, Hospitality and Holistic Architecture and City Planning. Based in Oslo and Madrid, working internationally