Lilleakerbyen
How to transform a 150 year old industrial area into a bustling and future-oriented neighborhood near the third busiest transit hub in Oslo, with teeming life on the streets and direct access to a forgotten river course?
TYPE OF PROJECT: Urban development
LOCATION: Lilleakerbyen, Oslo/Bærum
CLIENT: Mustad Eiendom
COLLABORATORS: Civitas, LPO and Leonardo Design Architects
SIZE: ca. 580 000 m2
TIMEFRAME:
STATUS FOR PROJECT: Planning stage
With the Lilleakerbyen development, Mustad Eiendom wants to create a bustling and future-oriented city and a new destination in Oslo. A-lab has a special ground level team that have spent years studying what makes people thrive in an urban neighborhood. By putting the human perspective in the designing of the plan first, A-lab has created an urban structure that will feel atmospheric and inviting to people of all ages.
The Lysakerelven river is the key element around which the whole plan centers, from the transit hub in Lysaker and up to Lilleaker station. The entire river course is being opened up with a network of streets and squares with direct access to the water and its surrounding flora. New bridges and social activities on both sides of the river will incentivize new connections between Oslo and Bærum. The shopping mall will be replaced by ground floor stores of equal size in a series of shopping blocks. Accommodations have been made for a separate food and culture center and a designated promenade. The whole area will be car-free and adapted for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Mustad was established on the banks of the Lysakerelven river in 1875, when they moved their nail manufacturing plant from Gjøvik to Lysakerelven. The blossoming manufacturing industry along the river led to a huge influx of workers, and this small enclave on the city’s west side was developed into a working class neighborhood with its own identity. When the industrial activity was scaled down, the area was transformed into a business area full of buildings that had their backs to the river. The social hub and generator of identity was moved over to the indoor shopping mall CC Vest.
Today, Mustad Eiendom is the sole proprietor of a plot that covers the area between the Lysaker transit hub and central Lilleaker, on both sides of the municipal border. The historic roots that the company has here, and their plans to stay here the next 150 years, bear witness of a genuine desire to create something that can last, and offer distinct qualities.
«This is also a matter of sustainability. The things we build here, should be a good investment in 150 years. That means we cannot allow any shortcuts, neither for the environment we create nor the quality of the buildings. Legally speaking, Mustad is the owner of this property, but we want all of the people who live here and use the area to regard it as theirs and own it in their hears.»
CEO of Mustad Eiendom, Olav Line.
Lysaker is the third busiest transit hub in Oslo. This area has been neglected for years, and have no other qualities except being a transit hub. Mustad’s plans for a new city will elevate this hub to a destination in its own right. Where building volumes on a sketch may seem massive and dominating, the local plan for Lilleakerbyen is designed from the street level and up – in line with the core values of this project: the river, the nature and Lilleaker’s historic identity.
Civitas is responsible for the local plan. A-lab is responsible for the regulation of the area from Lysaker Station and up the river to where CC Vest is currently located, including the Bærum side up to Granfos. LPO regulates the area further north, called Granbakken, up to Lilleaker Station.
Today, Lilleaker is characterized by a steep landscape with a big elevation drop from Lilleakerveien and down to Lysakerelven. The current buildings have their backs against the river, and there is no natural and direct access to the water. Arriving from Lysaker, you have to climb a stairway to reach the back of CC Vest. Here, the terrain changes. The whole area will become more accessible from Lysaker Station. The ground will be evened out to establish a more direct link to the river, without destroying the dramatic qualities of the valley. A brand new road network will open up the area with direct access roads from Lilleakerveien to the river.
It will become easy to move around the whole shopping area, and stairways and elevators for people with strollers or wheelchairs will be established, in a similar fashion as in Vulkan in Olso.
The surface water problem associated with terrain as steep as this, will be turned into something positive with the integration of open water lanes and small ponds into the urban fabric. Planting around these waterways is an option, and they may develop into a home for everything from invertebrates to amphibians and salamanders.
One area of the property and the river course is shadowy and has several waterfalls that gush out water. Currently, this is viewed as a problem, but Mustad wants to change that. The main square is placed near the natural beauty of the Møllefossen fall, where the waterfall will in itself be an attraction. The Fornebubanen subway line will provide direct access to Mølletorget, either on the other side of the fall or in shape of a separate pathway to the square. The result is direct access to the new promenade that goes from Mølletorget and up to Kulturparken (The Culture Park), as well as to connecting streets and the path that follows the riverbank. The protected historic buildings will be restored and integrated into the public realm.
“Selv om vi ikke har kommet så langt som til detaljtegningen av bygg enda, synes jeg A-lab er gode på å knytte uttrykket opp til historien, og unngå at man ikke får glassbygg fra Manhatten midt i løsningen, for å sette det på spissen. “
Olav Line, Administrerende direktør Mustad Eiendom.
Accommodations are being made for building volumes in a variety of architectonic designs to help give the different urban spaces a sense of identity. In terms of material use, the new buildings will be linked to the historic building mass. Durable materials such as tile, steel and zinc have always been used as the building materials in this valley, and the new architecture will adhere to this scheme, albeit in a modern version.
In addition, the buildings will have green roofs to manage surface water. The transition from your own home to the common outdoor areas should feel natural, with accommodations being made for everything from swimming areas and fishing spots to multilevel sunbathing areas.
There is no doubt that the current CC Vest shopping mall is a success, and it is used as much as a hangout spot as a place of shopping. Despite its success, the future predicts that shopping malls are a thing of the past. A lot of shopping is now done online, and people will be drawn to the urban centers, where shopping can be combined with activities. The goal is to create the shopping experience of tomorrow, where a stroll through different stores is accompanied by beautiful plants and real daylight. All of the thousands of square meters worth of shopping floorage in CC Vest have been meticulously transferred to our new drawings, but the stores have been moved to the ground floors of the residential buildings. Our detailed plan is more thorough than what is normally the case on regulation level, only to make sure that a satisfying multitude of facilities are in place: from areas where you can go from store to store without getting your shoes wet to cozy seating where you can relax, to cafes and social hubs – all of the above with ample daylight conditions and in close contact with the green vegetation.
«In Norway, the general view is almost that the seasons are a problem. But what if we accentuate the seasons and plant apple trees along the shopping streets? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to experience a blossoming city that smells of spring flowers, and where you can reap fruits during the fall?»
CEO of Mustad Eiendom, Olav Line.
Culture park
Kulturparken (The Culture Park) straddles the river with a green area on both the Oslo side and the Bærum side. Beautiful bridge structures tie the river banks together and dissolve the feeling of crossing a municipal border. On the Oslo side, the vegetation on the river bank grows far into the urban zone and becomes part of the cultural square, where the food and culture center will be located.
Today, the green areas along the river are split up, and as it turns out, the biodiversity here is under threat. The border areas along the river will be replanted, and the natural elements of the river will be made a part of the urban zone and the streets and become part of the experience in the new city. Here, you can be standing in the middle of a city and experience salmons and seatrouts spawn, watch river mussels in the waterways between Fåbrofossen and Møllefossen and take your children to identify water plants like the common yellow lake sedge and mannagrass.
This work has already been started, with the development of the Fåbro farm, where 90 apple trees have been planted and a farmer has been hired full-time and is living in one of the historic workmen’s houses. At the farm, apples are harvested, apple juice is being produced, and passersby are welcome to relax outside one of the oldest buildings in the area: Christian Braunmann Tullin’s summer home from around 1750.
Currently, 80% of the building mass in Lilleakerbyen is used by businesses. The aim is to make a transition into a residential share of 40%. The size and design of these residences will be adapted to people of all ages and life situations. The basis for the design is a building grid inspired by cities like Barcelona and Paris. Grids such as these have the advantage of being able to be adopted to changing needs without compromising the universal atmosphere of the area. The city blocks will have various designs and be adapted to the sloping terrain, and the buildings will open up towards the river and embrace the nature there.
We have also made a more meticulous detail plan than what is normal on the regulation level, as we have designed each angle in the placement of the buildings to make sure that sightlines can interconnect the different facades and attractions on the ground level. Light and shadow conditions have also been thoroughly studied in order to create open and airy streets and urban spaces.
Mustad is adamant that a city needs culture in order to survive and flourish. The plans include a separate food and culture area that will house everything from a multimedia library to a network of stages. This building is lower than the surrounding residence buildings, enabling daylight to flood this area all day – a quality that will in turn inspire to a blossoming social scene in Kulturparken.
Fun-fact
Did You Know That:
Lysaker is the third busiest transit hub in Oslo.
The train rides from Lysaker to Sandvika and Oslo S take nine minutes.
Today, 80% of the buildings in Lilleakerbyen house businesses; by 2035, 40% of the buildings will be residences.
Today, 70% of the outdoor area is covered in asphalt; by 2035, 64% will be transformed into blue-green structures, squares and social hubs.
The broadleaved forest along the Lysakerelven river is full of linden, elm, ash, hazel, alder, oak and maple trees.
Rare aquatic plants such as mannagrass and the common yellow lake sedge grow on the riverbanks.
There are lots of salmon and seatrout in the river, as well as endangered species such as eels and black sea bream.
The shopping streets will have a total floorage that equals that of CC Vest’s.
