The City Factory
Oslo

The cities of the future needs in a larger extent to be places for production. The tendency of the last decades to put industry off shore to low cost countries is about to be replaced by an «onshoring», pushed forward by new small scale industrial businesses closely connected to innovators, the city and the local community.

The City Factory Oslo 2
Diagram

Diagram

Ground floor Plan

Ground floor Plan

First floor Plan

First floor Plan

Type

Architecture

Client

Avantor

Date

Spring 2016

Status

Invited competition, 2nd place

Team

Øystein Rø, Espen Røyseland, Håvard Skarstein, Emilie Bergrem, Fredrikke Frølich, Gauthier Durey, Søren Olav Saanum Bessesen, Phoebe Chu.

Collaborators

Asplan Viak (energy), Apeland (construction)

The Tool Factory in Nydalen can become a pilot for this new type of urbanity, uniting entrepeneurship and sustainable production wih housing and public space. What we see today is a breach of the former, internationally prevailing tendency where industry is moved out of the city centre to monofunctional areas in the periphery. However, the new small scale and technology driven industry seeks to the city centres due to the need for proximity to customers, innovative networks and knowledge sharing environments.

Our project proposal “The city factory” creates ideal physical frames for this growing business segment, and simultameously it establishes a facility where a symbiosis between living and production can happen. Being the last operational industrial facility along the Aker river, the Tool Factory carries a large responsibility as the communicater of Oslo’s central role in the industrialisation of Norway.

Through the establishment of a city integrated platform for small scale industry, innovation and business development, we can continue building the history and identity of the Tool Factory and at the same time create a new space in Oslo for the next economy.