Many districts of the capital go to the Oslofjord, but not all of them have access to water: as in any port, over the centuries, a developed zone of docks, shipyards, and piers has formed in the city along the broken coastline. Now, when sea transport functions differently than before (container traffic prevails, automation plays a big role), the need for such an extensive harbor has disappeared, and the question arose about the reconstruction of the territories adjacent to it.
The revival and return of these spaces to the city began back in the 1980s: then a large shipyard was closed in the current Akerbrugge district, and within a decade a quarter of expensive housing, offices and shops with a convenient promenade where yachts stand at the pier grew in its place. In 1989, the Westbahnen station located between Akerbrugge and the Town Hall ceased to function, and in 1994 the square in front of the sea façade of the Town Hall became pedestrian thanks to a tunnel built under the shore. The public space thus formed has become the nucleus for the revival of the entire coastal zone with a total area of 225 hectares.
In 2000, it was decided to develop a comprehensive program "City by the Fjord" (now we are talking about its revised version of 2008): according to it, a wide promenade will appear along the water, public transport there will be presented in the form of an environmentally friendly tram, and all vehicles, which previously cut off the city from the sea, will go into underground or even underwater tunnels (the last of them opened this fall). In place of industrial buildings, highways and railways, housing, offices, various cultural institutions and, no less important, a variety of recreational spaces will appear. All new buildings will be energy efficient, reducing traffic flows and greening will also contribute to an improvement in the environmental situation, while new construction will revitalize the central part of the city, which is much preferable to sprawling suburbs; all these are the provisions of the recently adopted general plan for Oslo-2025.
It should be noted that Oslo, like any city by the water, has gravitated towards the coastline since its founding, therefore, in the center of the reconstructed strip (10 km long) lies the Akersneset peninsula with the medieval Akershus fortress, protruding into the space of the fjord: degree, but it undoubtedly plays the role of a kind of center of gravity for the entire project; other historical monuments associated with the reconstruction will be discussed below.
To the west of Akershus lies the developed area of the Town Hall, Westbahnen and Akerbrügge; to the east is the much less prosperous Bjorvika, where the problem of port facilities and highways is aggravated by the presence of the central station, or rather, its tracks. And it was the pier on its territory that in 2000 the Parliament chose as the site for the construction of one of the key structures in Europe of the last decade - the opera house of the Snohetta workshop. This building with its sloping roof is itself a public space, which immediately gave a new emphasis to the industrial environment.
To the east of the Opera, on the territory acquired by investors from the port authority and the railway authorities, the Barcode project was launched from a dozen parallel buildings (among the architects - a-lab, MVRDV and Snohetta): its name he received not only because of the different heights and widths of the buildings, but also because of the equal openings between them. Thanks to this solution, a visual connection is created between the fjord and the development behind the railway tracks, which will remain in the same place (but three pedestrian bridges will be thrown across them, and the station itself will be completely rebuilt according to the Space Group project). Nevertheless, opponents of the project from among the local residents believe that the impressive dimensions of the buildings negate the effect of the "gaps" between them and, rather, obstruct the sea than open it. But soon the situation will clear up: now half of Barcode's buildings are almost ready (60% of the area will be occupied by offices with a total of 10,000 jobs; the rest will be used for housing and shops).
But construction is now going on not only in the east: the former dock zone, the small Tuvholmen peninsula adjacent to Akerbrugge, has been turning into an area of expensive housing since 2005 (a total of 1200 apartments will appear there by 2013); in addition to offices and shops, it will also boast a museum designed by Renzo Piano: in 2012, the private Astrup-Fearnley Museum of Contemporary Art will move to its new building.
These are all projects that have already been completed or are currently being implemented; but much more ambitious plans have yet to come to fruition. First of all, we are talking about new residential areas - from the western and eastern "edges" of the selected territory. Instead of port facilities in Filipstad, Søreng and other sites, mid-rise houses will be built according to the designs of prominent Norwegian architects; In total, there will be thousands of new apartments, as well as infrastructure facilities, which is important for Oslo, where the population (today - about 590 thousand people) is growing at a rate of 2% per year.
Dense new development (moreover, on the "old" territory) meets one of the main provisions of the current general plan; the development of accessible public space, an important part of the City by the Fjord Project, also lies within the “party line”, as does energy efficient construction, environmentally friendly public transport, and reduced traffic flows. In addition, greening the city center, especially along the river beds, is also a common initiative for the master plan and for the City by the Fjord.
A large park near the water is planned to be set up in Filipstad, another one - in Vippetangen on the Akersneset peninsula. In Bjorvik, 7 green zones will be created at once, extending from the water deep into the city: among them there will be the estuaries of the Alna and Akerselva rivers, the zone between two of the Barcode buildings and even a loose sandy beach in Lohavn. This arrangement and configuration of open spaces will help create and maintain visual connections: for example, views from the eastern part of the coastline, where Oslo was located until the 17th century, towards the Akershus fortress, where the city was moved after a catastrophic fire.
Last but not least, City by the Fjord is cultural; this plan is known outside Norway primarily because of her, because judging by the astonishing scale and ambition of "cultural construction", it is easier to imagine in the Middle or Far East than in Europe. At the same time, fortunately, we are not talking about the creation of new institutions: they are all old, they are only transferred from different parts of Oslo to the fjord. But it is also known that there is dissatisfaction in society with this “washing out” of museums (mainly, we are talking about them) from the city.
The opera house, which fully justifies its location, and the Piano Museum of Contemporary Art under construction, have already been mentioned above; in addition to them in the harbor area are the Nobel Peace Center, for which David Adjaye reconstructed the historic building of the Westbahnen station, and the Akershus fortress. However, some preponderance in the number of monuments and museums in the western half of the "City by the Fjord" will soon be eliminated.
If there, on the site of the Westbahnen railway tracks, only the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design will be built according to the project of Jan Kleichus (although earlier they wanted to build the International Trade Center of the OMA Bureau and Space Group on this site), then in the east, in Bjorvik, as many as three new cultural institutions. Behind the opera house, a new building of the National Library will be built (workshops Lund Hagem Arkitekter and Atelier Oslo), and on the next pier - the new building of the Munch Museum and the Stenersen Juan Herreros Museum. To the east, behind the line of residential buildings near the water, on the territory of the Park of the Middle Ages (named in memory of the old location of Oslo) a structure will be erected for the Museum of Cultural History, where three Viking ships will be exhibited.
It should be noted that the situation with the Park of the Middle Ages causes concern among the critics of the project: in their opinion, the vertical volume of the building will block the view from the original city center to the current one, and this visual connection must be preserved. The most radical opponents of the plan are in favor of moving the structure from the end of the pier, where it should be located, to the Barcode hulls; but so far the city authorities are only talking about reducing the size of the building.
City by the Fjord will be fully realized in about 10-15 years; its budget is about $ 8.5 billion. Already, although the middle of the road has not yet been reached, Oslo can be compared with other European cities involved in the complex revival of port zones: Hamburg, Marseille, Barcelona, London, Copenhagen - the list goes on. But which of them will turn out to be the most realistic, prudent or simply lucky, only time will tell.
