Office of the future: this humane and environmentally responsive complex of work spaces for Norway's leading telecom company is an inspiring and enlightened vision of corporate life.The most vibrant new community in Oslo may be an office complex--the Telenor headquarters--where 6000 people come together to work and socialize so·cial·ize v. so·cial·ized, so·cial·iz·ing, so·cial·iz·es v.tr. 1. To place under government or group ownership or control. 2. To make fit for companionship with others; make sociable. , indoors and out, in free-floating groups. On plan, the 138 000 sq m development (that's net; gross is 158 000 sq m) resembles a tree, with an elliptical el·lip·tic or el·lip·ti·cal adj. 1. Of, relating to, or having the shape of an ellipse. 2. Containing or characterized by ellipsis. 3. a. piazza as the trunk, eight projecting wings as branches, and 30-person work pods as leaves. That image captures the organic quality of this bold steel and glass structure, and the shift of scale from expansive to intimate. Two 260m long arcs embrace the travertine-paved piazza; within, concourses link multi-level atria Atria The heart has four chambers. The right and left atria are at the top of the heart and receive returning blood from the veins. The right and left ventricles are at the bottom of the heart and act as the body's main pumps. , the 200 work pods, shared meeting spaces, shops and cafeterias. On summer weekends, families stream through the piazza on their way to the beach. Abundant natural light and ventilation, frugal use of artificial lighting, and a net surplus on energy use, make the building a triumph of sustainability. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Telenor, the leading Norwegian telecommunications company See telecom company. , expanded rapidly as it was privatized over the past decade, and wanted to consolidate its 40 scattered offices. It was offered a site at Fornebu, the former airport on Oslo Fjord fjord or fiord (fyôrd), steep-sided inlet of the sea characteristic of glaciated regions. Fjords probably resulted from the scouring by glaciers of valleys formed by any of several processes, including faulting and erosion by , which has been masterplanned as a residential community with high-tech plants. Telenor selected seven design teams to compete for the design of an 'office of the future'. It was to be an inspiring symbol of this cutting-edge company--open-plan, wireless, and paperless--where employees would interact freely, use work spaces as needed as needed prn. See prn order. , singly or in constantly shifting combinations and communicate on laptops and cellular phones. The competition was won by a project team formed from NBBJ NBBJ Naramore, Bain, Brady & Johanson (Seattle, Washington Architectural & Planning Firm) , the international Seattle-based firm, and two Norwegian offices, HUS and PKA pK a /pK a/ the negative logarithm of the ionization constant (K) of an acid, the pH of a solution in which half of the acid molecules are ionized. . Peter Pran, a Norwegian-American architect who worked with Mies in Chicago and is now with NBBJ, was design principal. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Several hands contributed to the original concept, which remained unchanged, even as the details and materials were modified. Pran extols the four-year collaborative process of design and construction in which the tension between two cultures and three different firms, plus a visionary client and expert consultants, created an audacious, richly layered complex. It occupies the end of the main runway, which runs east-west towards the fjord, providing a poetic symbol for a company that brings people together, as the airport did in the previous century. It also serves as a platform from which the ground drops away on three sides, allowing the wings to step down into the landscape. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The principal facades front the piazza. The south arc rises three stories and is tilted back to draw in more light; the north arc is five stories high and tilted forward to cut glare. Two levels of parking are inserted below the piazza, though the 1750 places are rationed to encourage employees to commute by bus. A customer service centre and auditorium/classroom block punctuate punc·tu·ate v. punc·tu·at·ed, punc·tu·at·ing, punc·tu·ates v.tr. 1. To provide (a text) with punctuation marks. 2. the elliptical axis, which is half boulevard, half gathering space. Artworks by Jenny Holzer Jenny Holzer (born 1950 in Gallipolis, Ohio) is an American conceptual artist. She attended Ohio University (in Athens, Ohio), Rhode Island School of Design, and the Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art. and Daniel Buren Daniel Buren (born March 25, 1938 in Boulogne-Billancourt) is a French conceptual artist. In 1986 he created a 3,000 m² sculpture in the great courtyard of the Palais Royal, in Paris: "Les Deux Plateaux", more commonly referred to as the "Colonnes de Buren enliven en·liv·en tr.v. en·liv·ened, en·liv·en·ing, en·liv·ens To make lively or spirited; animate. en·liv  en·er n. the architecture. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] From afar, the fragmented perimeter of Telenor reads as a cluster of disparate structures rather than as a unified whole, and a lack of signage leaves first-time visitors searching for a point of entry. Project leader Scott Wyatt characterizes this as a 'typically Norwegian sense of understatement', but it's perplexing per·plex tr.v. per·plexed, per·plex·ing, per·plex·es 1. To confuse or trouble with uncertainty or doubt. See Synonyms at puzzle. 2. To make confusedly intricate; complicate. that so huge a structure should be hidden in plain view. It's the inevitable consequence of designing from the inside out and candidly expressing the product of that strategy. Each of the eight wings has a separate entrance, though one has been leased to another company during the economic downturn that has compelled Telenor to trim its staff. You enter at a middle level, looking up and down into a glass-roofed atrium used both for vertical circulation and as a winter garden in the months when the piazza is covered with snow. The vertiginous ver·tig·i·nous adj. 1. Affected by vertigo; dizzy. 2. Tending to produce vertigo. vertiginous adjective Related to vertigo, dizzy drama of these skylit volumes might accommodate an open sushi bar Noun 1. sushi bar - a bar where sushi is served bar - a counter where you can obtain food or drink; "he bought a hot dog and a coke at the bar" or a meeting room enclosed by walls of poured concrete. Exhilaration, not awe, is the dominant feeling, as you gaze up at the sky or out to the fjord. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The programme called for 6000 workstations for 7500 employees: a generous allowance, since this is a virtual office in which employees are grouped by division but move freely within each pair of wings, using workstations as needed, but conducting much of their business on the move in casual encounters, sitting at a cafe table, or even at the beach. The pods can be reconfigured in two hours by a crew installing or demounting partitions on a 2.4m module to create a group work space or 30 separate workstations. Each pod has its own service and meeting areas and is largely autonomous. The Norwegian mandate that no one may work a full day more than 9m from natural light dictated the 15.6m width of the pods. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In a cold climate, heating is taken for granted Adj. 1. taken for granted - evident without proof or argument; "an axiomatic truth"; "we hold these truths to be self-evident" axiomatic, self-evident obvious - easily perceived by the senses or grasped by the mind; "obvious errors" , but protection from the brief summer is something of a novelty. Much of the floor-to-ceiling glass the architects proposed in work areas as a way of connecting the interiors to the landscape was eliminated as an economy, but also because of the client's concern about heat build-up. Woven synthetic blinds installed behind frosted glass Frosted glass is produced by the acid etching of clear sheet glass, or sand-blasting. It has the effect of rendering the glass translucent, obscuring the view while still passing light. Applications:
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In winter, sea water is electrically heated and the steam is compressed as high-pressure vapour circulated through radiators. Lighting ('barely one light bulb per employee', according to management) and internal climate are controlled by a centralized energy management system, but staff can make minor adjustments with a few strokes on their keyboards. Construction costs were estimated at $400 million ([pounds sterling]250 million) before the drop of the dollar against European currencies, which translates into a surprisingly low figure of $2000 ([pounds sterling]1250) per square metre for offices, mechanical and parking areas. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The American half of the design team absorbed the spirit of place before the project began, and the client provided staff with 3D simulations of the new offices to avert unpleasant surprises. The outcome of this meticulous preparation and daring leaps into the unknown is a structure and spatial organization of great originality; a glimpse of the future that is bound to exercise a persuasive influence on other forward-looking corporations. The overwhelmingly positive response from Telenor staff, the reduction in operating costs and increase in productivity are all evidence of the project's success. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] COMPANY HEADQUARTERS, OSLO, NORWAY ARCHITECTS NBBJ, HUS, PKA Architects NBBJ, HUS, PKA Project team Peter Pran, Jan Storing, Jonathan Ward, Jin Ah Park, William J. Nichols, Thomas J. Morton, Erik Lind, Bjorn C. Sorum, Annema Selstrom, Christian Sundby Structural engineer Scandiaconsult Mechanical engineer Techno Consult Landscape consultants Asplan Viak, Hang Kjaerem Interior architect Spor Dark Design Lighting Vesa Honkonen, Julle Oksanen Photographs Christian Richters |
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