These are two stations on the new Fornebubanen line, which will connect the city center with the Forneby peninsula in the southwest. Since Oslo is surrounded by natural borders - mountains, forests and a fjord, with a constant population growth, it is especially important to develop undeveloped areas, one of which was the Forneby airport, which was closed in 1998. The peninsula already has major facilities such as the Statoil headquarters and the Telenor indoor arena; these will be supplemented by residential buildings for 6,000 people, as well as public, commercial and cultural facilities for 25,000 jobs.
The metro line with a length of 8 km should be built in 2020–2025. An architectural competition has now been held for six of its stations, and the ZHA team and the Oslo bureau A-lab received an order for two of them - Forneby (formerly Forneby Center), the final one combined with the “operating base” of the metro line, and Fornebuportin (formerly Arena).
Forneby is inspired by the Norwegian landscape with traces of glacier paths, weathering and erosion. These processes are reminiscent of the "gorges" for streams of people, leading them through new squares to the entrances to the station. It was the attention to public spaces, according to the jury, that brought the authors victory.
Fornebuportin station received two entrance pavilions: a rectangular one among buildings on a regular grid, and an oval one in a small park. The overlaps of the platform hall on both sides are also different - flat and vaulted, respectively. Depending on the time of day, the architects proposed to illuminate the station in colors that are comfortable for passengers: the competition jury really liked this work with light.
