The new building of SR Bank's headquarters in Stavanger, the "oil capital of Norway", is named after the neighboring city park Bjergsted. Its sharp triangular nose, echoing the contours of the site at the fork of two streets, meets those approaching the city from the north. The authors, the local bureau Helen & Hard and the Norwegian-Serbian bureau SAAHA, call the building an example of the workspace of the future and one of the largest office buildings in Europe built of wood. Although on the outside it is rather glass: stained-glass windows and slats, and three underground tiers are cast of concrete. But the structures of the seven upper floors are made of wood, and the interiors are also solved in wood. Therefore, architects and customers needed a large wooden staircase in the atrium, which is located in the southern part and also has a triangular configuration.
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zooming 1/10 Bjergsted Financial Center Atrium Staircase Photo © Paul Masukowitz
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zooming 2/10 Bjergsted Financial Center Atrium Staircase Photo © Paul Masukowitz
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zooming 3/10 Bjergsted Financial Center Atrium Staircase Photo © Paul Masukowitz
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zooming 4/10 Left - Jorn Brenscheidt (hokon, construction of the staircase), right - Oddmund Thorüssen (Faber Bygg AS, construction of the building. Staircase of the atrium of the Bjergsted financial center Photo © Paul Masukowitz
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zooming 5/10 Left - Mr. Brenscheidt (hokon, construction of the staircase), right - Oddmund Thorüssen (Faber Bygg AS, installation of the building). Bjergsted Financial Center Atrium Staircase Photo © Paul Masukowitz
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zooming 6/10 Bjergsted Financial Center Atrium Staircase Photo © Paul Masukowitz
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zooming 7/10 Bjergsted Financial Center Atrium Staircase Photo © Paul Masukowitz
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zooming 8/10 Bjergsted Financial Center Atrium Staircase Photo © Paul Masukowitz
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zooming 9/10 Bjergsted Financial Center Atrium Staircase Photo © Paul Masukowitz
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zooming 10/10 Bjergsted Financial Center Atrium Staircase Photo © Paul Masukowitz
“Our material supplier came to us,” say the authors of the project, the hokon company, “and said that all companies refuse to take on the project, believing that this staircase cannot be built. It is currently the longest cantilever free-floating staircase in the world, made entirely of wood."
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zooming 1/6 Staged staircase design. Bjergsted Financial Center atrium staircase © Joern Brenscheidt
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zooming 2/6 Staged staircase design. Bjergsted Financial Center atrium staircase © Joern Brenscheidt
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zooming 3/6 Staged staircase design. Bjergsted Financial Center atrium staircase © Joern Brenscheidt
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zooming 4/6 Staged staircase design. Bjergsted Financial Center atrium staircase © Joern Brenscheidt
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zooming 5/6 General plan of the building. Bjergsted Financial Center Atrium Staircase © Helen & Hard + SAAHA
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zooming 6/6 General plan of the building. Bjergsted Financial Center Atrium Staircase © Helen & Hard + SAAHA
The structure is not one-piece, but consists of four staircases connecting the balconies of the atrium; each is 21.5 m long and 1.8 m wide. Each element in its upper part turns, so that a futuristic weaving of wooden "veins", emphasized by linear lamps, appears. The staircase structures are made of spruce.
