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Exhibition news! Hand drawings by Arkitektværelset´s Grethe Løland and Jeff Forbes will be displayed and sold as part of the "Arkitektenes Tegninger" exhibition in Oslo between 5th-15th December. The exhibition, organised and curated by ROM for kunst og arkitektur, aims to shine a light on the architect´s most important tool, the ability to think, design and communicate ideas and possible futures through drawings. Grethe and Jeff´s drawings will sit alongside drawings from many of the wonderful architects and urbanists practicing in Norway. Proceeds of the sale will go to Arkitekter Uten Grenser Norge, the Norwegian branch of the international humanitarian organisation Architects Without Borders. Arkitekter Uten Grenser provide architectural and urban design skills and advice to communities and NGOs globally, with the aim of improving quality of life in the areas of education, housing and health through architecture. So please do come along, buy yourself some unique early christmas presents and support a wonderful cause. Opening night: 5th December, 6pm. Address: ROM for kunst og arkitektur, Maridalsveien 3, 0178 Oslo Exhibition details: https://shorturl.at/uQWEv

Arkitektværelset has become ISTADEN!   ISTADEN (e-star-den):   “In the city” The place we are passionate about being in and forming. Stad (Norwegian), Staðr (Norrønt), Stath (old Danish) Stede (old English), Stead (modern English), Stadt (German), Estat (old French) … a place, spot, city or town… where people meet, trade, settle and make community.   “Instead of” An alternative attitude torwads design, dialogue, architecture and urban development; we pursue alternative approaches to the normal ways of making cities.   New name = PARTY!! Last Thursday we gathered and celebrated with “La Familiga”: our dearest friends, fantastic colleagues, ambitious clients, peerless peers in the public sector, and a whole gang of some of the best architects and designers in Norway. Adorned in our carnivalesque Venetian finery, we celebrated our forthcoming exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia with co-exhibitors UNION and our Spilder brygge project. We also celebrated a new collaboration with Alison Brooks and Nelson Carvalho of Alison Brooks Architects, who joined us for a couple of days in Oslo´s spring sun to explore the city´s past and sketch ideas for the its future. The first quarter of 2025 has already presented us with a wealth of new colleagues, projects, clients, challenges, inspirations and deadlines: ♠️ We´ve grown from six to nine with smart new colleagues Annichen Fische, Henrik Haver and Karine Torp Bie. ♠️ We´ve begun work on new projects at Smestad and Thaulows vei with John Martin Pedersen and Harald Martin Gjøvaag at Gjelsten Bolig and UNION. ♠️ Designs continue to progress for a new neighbourhood at Gystadporten in Jessheim with Eirik Bergheim and Nåbo ♠️ We´ve been working hard designing and building the exhibition of our Spilder brygge project at the Venice Biennale with clients UNION. The whole office is gathering in Italy for opening night at the European Cultural Centre´s Palazzo Bembo next month. ♠️ We´re OMA´s newest members and are looking forward to becoming even more involved in conversations about Oslo´s future. And after a well-earned break for Easter, we´re so ready for Q2! Thanks especially to Stig Norderhaug, Erland Gram Simonsen and Kristin Lindhardt Norheim at U Oslo who guided us through the process of finding a new name and created our new visual identity. Thanks to our wonderful clients - we´re only as good as the challenges you set us and the opportunities you give us. And a special thanks to Tom Lund and Kristin Jarmund. Gentle, firm and expert steering!   Photograpghy by the expert eye of Torleif Kvinnesland. Thank you Torleif!

Vi ansetter og vil gjerne snakke med deg – eller noen du kjenner – som er en ekte allrounder: dyktig innen urbanisme, landskap, arkitektur, tidligfase og konseptutvikling, samt prosjektering. Minimum 5 års erfaring. Ja, vi vet – det er mye! Men vi har også store ambisjoner og mye å gjøre. Vi samarbeider med fantastiske og fremtidsrettede oppdragsgivere og offentlige partnere som utfordrer oss daglig til å skape steder med stadig høyere kvalitet. Vis oss hva du kan, og bli en del av vårt samkjørte og multitalenterte team med kontor ved Tullinløkka! https://lnkd.in/dqcMXBsP

Inspiration from the UK, Part 2! Cambridge After a deadline a day in January (not complaining)….we´re back! Cambridge has invested so much in architecture and landscape design, and for so many centuries, that it´s hard to find a bad building or public space. Knowledge institutions have taken a leading role in the construction, function and appearance of the city. The architect alumni emerging from Cambridge University´s architecture school suggests that Cambridge is as good at producing architects as it is producing architecture.   UNION´s Harald Martin Gjøvaag having been extolling the virtues of Cambridge for years. took Arkitektværelset AS, ELEMENT arkitekter AS, Haptic Architects and Novaform AS to meet the city, a gentle communication of the significant level of quality expected in our Spilder Brygge project. At Countryside Properties Accordia, Alison Brooks Architects, Maccreanor Lavington and Feilden Clegg Bradley Studios (FCBStudios) masterplan places 350 homes carefully amongst the streets, trees and common gardens of Grant Associates luscious landscape. Architecture and landscape is designed seamlessly. It´s hard to see where one starts and the other stops. An alley of mature trees has become the wonderfully overgrown heart of the community. Accordia shows how important a decent masterplan is, each building and place is allowed to shine while playing an even more important role in making the whole place sing.   We wandered through pleasant hinterlands, Proctor & Matthews Architects Adobe and Tate Hindle´s Aura at Great Kneighton. Cambridge University´s Eddington is “a plan to safeguard its future and maintain its reputation as a world leader.” AECOM´s masterplan places community at it´s heart, MUMA´s community center setting a new standard for investment in non-commercial indoor gathering spaces. Alison Brooks Architects Knights Park and Rubicon bring amongst other things street and residential design to a new level. We sneaked into Herzog & de Meuron´s astonishing AstraZeneca Discovery Center. We were calmed and seduced by the tranquil brutalism of Richard Sheppard, Robson & Partners Churchill College and 6A Architects recent timber-clad halls of residence. We lost ourselves in Gillespie, Kidd & Coia´s fortress-like Robinson College. We stumbled upon four classics: James Stirlings History Faculty (what a roof!), Foster + Partners Squire Law Library (what an atrium!), Neville Condor and Hugh Cassons Language and Linguistics Library (what columns!) and Ralph Erksine´s Clare Hall College (what balconies!). Cambridge delivers. The city´s investment in urban design, architecture and landscape will pay out for centuries to come. The UK government and Homes England want 150,000 new homes around Cambridge, investing £10 million in enabling funds. Knowledge Institiutions will continue to deliver huge swathes of city. That some of that development sits in the capable hands of the masterminds being King´s Cross, can only be a good thing.

The Image of The City, Image 5   “Mother of Pearl” 2024, Oslo Google Earth: https://shorturl.at/vNpcf ©️Jeff Forbes   Mother of Pearl clouds above Akerselva this morning. These vivid and lustrous waves of iridescent color are rare but luckily for Oslovians appear above the city relatively frequently, every few years during the winter. Nasa describe these nacreous clouds as “polar stratospheric clouds, they form when unusually cold temperatures in the usually cloudless lower stratosphere form ice crystals. Still sunlit at altitudes of around 15 to 25 kilometers the clouds can diffract sunlight after sunset and before the dawn.”

The Image of The City, Image(s) 4 “How to cross the road in Hanoi” Google Earth: https://shorturl.at/qx531 ©️Jeff Forbes   Chin up, walk straight forward, consistent speed, consistent direction. Do not stop, do not hesitate, do not run, do not second guess, do not panic. Nerves of steel. Your gift to the motorist is certainty. They know your speed, direction and intention and can…must…in a split second, decide how they will drive round you and not through you. It works! 😄

In this first photo series from a newly built detached house in Holmenkollen, we show the inside of the house through photographer @dagsandven's lens. Then we wait impatiently for the first snowfall to take pictures outside!

In this first photo series from a newly built detached house in Holmenkollen, we show the inside of the house through photographer @dagsandven's lens. Then we wait impatiently for the first snowfall to take pictures outside!

Exhibition news! Hand drawings by Arkitektværelset´s Grethe Løland and Jeff Forbes will be displayed and sold as part of the "Arkitektenes Tegninger" exhibition in Oslo between 5th-15th December. The exhibition, organised and curated by ROM for kunst og arkitektur, aims to shine a light on the architect´s most important tool, the ability to think, design and communicate ideas and possible futures through drawings. Grethe and Jeff´s drawings will sit alongside drawings from many of the wonderful architects and urbanists practicing in Norway. Proceeds of the sale will go to Arkitekter Uten Grenser Norge, the Norwegian branch of the international humanitarian organisation Architects Without Borders. Arkitekter Uten Grenser provide architectural and urban design skills and advice to communities and NGOs globally, with the aim of improving quality of life in the areas of education, housing and health through architecture. So please do come along, buy yourself some unique early christmas presents and support a wonderful cause. Opening night: 5th December, 6pm. Address: ROM for kunst og arkitektur, Maridalsveien 3, 0178 Oslo Exhibition details: https://shorturl.at/uQWEv

The Image of The City, Image 3   “Den blå butikken med den freaky fasaden” 2018, Oslo Google Earth: https://shorturl.at/YvIPh ©️Martyn Sutcliffe   Tram passing Scorpius Freak Fashion shop close to Birkelunden Park, Oslo. “Welcome to Scorpius! You´ve surely heard of us. The shop with everything strange and cool next to Birkelunden in Løkka. The blue shop with the freaky fasade. That´s us.”