Various Architects turn an industrial Oslo building into contemporary offices – Inhabitat

A historic building in Oslos locomotive industrial zone has been transformed into contemporary offices filled with natural light. This adaptive reuse project, called Lokomotivstallen, has been praised as a positive example of recycling and historical restoration in the city. Designed by Various Architects, the modern offices house the rail-based intermodal company CargoNet.

The 3,000-square-foot building has a peculiar rectangular footprint thats much longer than it is wide with a 205-meter-long facade and seven-meter width. To break the structures narrow monotony and to widen the footprint of the floors, the architects inserted timber boxes into the facade. Meeting rooms are located in the wooden boxes. The timber additions are of varying sizes and heights, and each are faced with a south-facing floor-to-ceiling glazed wall to let in maximum daylight. The largest wooden box houses the cafeteria that serves as the buildings central meeting area.

Related: Various Architects Stunning Collapsible Stadium

The original brick facade was preserved although the interior was largely gutted to make way for the modern office spaces. A new elevator tower that connects all the floors is also clad in brick and topped with a trademark railway clock. The office building comprises eighty desks distributed between five open landscape areas and can be rearranged to fit different needs. Micro spaces are interspersed throughout the office and provide quieter private working spaces.

+ Various Architects

Images by Ibrahim Elhayawan, Dawid Nowak

See the rest here:
Various Architects turn an industrial Oslo building into contemporary offices - Inhabitat