Yesterday (April 4th) the city council announced that they endorse the plan for Økern Sentrum. This will be one of the largest zoning plans Oslo has had in recent time. It will become the city center of the Hovinby area. The somewhat elusive Hovinbyen is a large area between the inner-city center and Groruddalen. With Økern Sentrum Hovinbyen will become more tangible as an area and even a destination.

Today Økern Sentrum consists of a lot of unused spaces, a closed down mall (although not empty as there area few tenants there from creative and innovation fields), industrial buildings and a whole lot of roads. The plan we have been working on together with Civitas will transform Økern Sentrum to a place where people live, work and spend their leisure time. Some highlights: 5000 m2 will be dedicated to cultural purpose such as cinema, library and theatre. There will be an activity park for outdoor play in additional to spaces for indoor sport.

Økern will have capacity for 2000 homes. The verticality will be noticeable, one main reason is to better exploit the public transport system and existing infrastructure, not least increase the amount of homes which Oslo is in dire need of. To make good high-rise projects, the eye-level experience needs to be of high quality. Thus we are opting for re-opening two streams, the Refstadbekken and Hovinbekken, which will add some blue-green elements to an otherwise grey space. To make it more pedestrian friendly, all infrastructure will be solved underground. A mobility hub will provide solutions for parking, delivery and sanitation. There will be easier to use the bike, as lanes and routes will be established and refurbished.

The journey has been long and laborious, but very constructive as it resulted in a plan that we are very proud of. From a place where pedestrians haven’t gotten much priority to a place people, nature and business will be able to thrive. This has been a project of high level of complexity, which A-Lab enjoy and even thrive on. Not least, we want to acknowledge our client at Steen & Strøm and Storebrand, who owns the plot. They have been standing on the front line to attract exciting actors to Økern, really making the case to convince the public that there is something special here and that they have a lot to offer Oslo. Is it really so crazy to house the National Theater in Økern? We don’t think so!

Lets end with a quote from the counselor for urban development, James Stove Lorentzen:

By keeping the High-Rise, we are securing an important beacon in this area which is in an enormous transformation. We have allowed new high-rises around the High-Rise and this can become an interesting and modern urban area like what we accomplished in Bjørvika.

Økern Sentrum – one step closer to actualization

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