7. Sketches, concepts and solutions

PRINCIPLE 2:

Critical mass and multifunctionality

• Building up a critical mass of businesses and entrepreneurs in close proximity to the university and research institutes

• Development areas and public transport hubs must be developed to create sustainable urban development, urban diversity and high density.

• Mixed-use buildings and areas will bring different actors and institutions together and stimulate creativity and innovation.

• A varied selection of housing and everyday activities will bring life to the area after working hours.

• Employees, users and residents must be offered a broad, attractive and multifunctional range of services

Oslo Science City is already being developed. A number of important projects that add capacity, expertise and research infrastructure to the area are now being completed or are in an advanced stage of planning. There is significant potential for adding necessary functions to the area, such as commercial activity, housing, possibilities for recreation and urban life, by viewing the area as an urban district planned with a holistic perspective.

A dynamic innovation district requires that there is sufficient breadth and depth in the scientific communities, that the start-up ecosystems have enough power, that different types of knowledge enterprises from multiple sectors are well represented in the area, that there is a sufficient amount of housing to establish good and varied residential environments – in short, that there is a critical mass of these key functions to reach sufficient diversity, power, depth and dynamics in the innovation ecosystem. It is therefore required to facilitate spatial and physical frameworks to strengthen the four power centres within a larger urban context where strong, multifunctional and distinctive neighbourhoods together create the unique innovation district.

A vibrant urban area with a critical mass of available services and cultural activities, experiences and restaurants will help to make the area attractive also outside normal working hours. Oslo Science City with 7,500 researchers and 30,000 students already has critical mass in most scientific disciplines. In recent years, the start-up ecosystems have grown, but there is still a potential for further growth and scaling. Oslo Science City lacks critical mass with respect to new establishment of businesses, housing and functions of urban life. At present, the area is characterized by single purpose buildings and a lack of urban qualities.

There are plans for a far stronger presence of multifunctionality: mixed-use areas where work, leisure, housing, industry, start-ups and urban life are represented, and multifunctional buildings where scientists, entrepreneurs, knowledge enterprises and public institutions can be co-located and share common functions. The four physical power centres are all based on such multifunctional concepts. Through size and design, they also contribute to critical mass for the expert communities and business and industry. Proposed solutions for the central area with a high degree of space utilization will also help to provide the critical mass that is needed for Oslo Science City in the years ahead.

dScience

The dScience Centre for Computational and Data Sciences, illustrated on the previous page, will bring together and display one of Europe’s strongest communities within machine learning and artificial intelligence. Localized at Blindern station, there will be a multifunctional building where specialized expert environments such as dScience, SINTEF Digital and the Norwegian Computing Center can be co-located, and where knowledge-intensive companies are invited to establish themselves next to some of Europe’s strongest digitalisation communities. Together with excellent research, leading companies and dynamic start-up ecosystems provide an ideal framework for the development and scaling of new ideas, business models and enterprises.

Digital solutions and computational science are used everywhere in Oslo Science City. The centre is therefore a natural gravitational field for a wide range of companies and expert groups.

By leading the Loop through the building, the centre is opened up. Bringing the green belt in from both sides and up onto the building we actively tie together the green belt. Otherwise, it would be interrupted at this point. Direct connections will be established to Oslo Science Park which is close to the new centre, providing direct access through covered walkways. Only a few minutes further east we find the Department for informatics and the business zone in the central area where large companies will have room to grow. Also these buildings can be reached through open and bright walkways, mostly glass roofed, yet underground.

The many computer centres and hardware labs in the building are located next to the large amphitheater on the ground floor. In the future, a centre for the Nordic virtual register database (NORVIREG) may be located here. Permanent collaboration partners in the Nordic region and across the country ensure regional insight and application.

The dScience Centre may have «recruitment for digital knowledge» as its motto. It will raise the knowledge level of the entire population, recruit the best young talents, forge close bonds between generations and ensure lifelong learning.

To realize the centre, national and local authorities must allow for multiple use within the framework of the university’s operations and in the regulation of the area. With a strong increase in the need for digital knowledge, the dScience Centre will fill obvious societal, academic and commercial needs. A multifunctional building allows for alternative financing solutions, and there will be significant investor interest to participate in realizing such a development. We envision that dScience Centre will be one of the first new elements along the Loop

Oslo Sustainability Centre

With an attractive and central location between Blindern, Marienlyst and Majorstuen, today’s buildings for chemistry, physics and mathematics have an enormous potential as driving elements and connecting links in Oslo Science City.

Here, it is possible to gather institutes, enterprises and start-up ecosystems that focus on climate, climate adaptation, renewable energy, ecological diversity and protection of the environment. The goal must be for the centre to house some of the world’s leading research communities within CCS, CCU, blue and green hydrogen and ammonia, smart power grids, battery technology and electrification. Oslo Sustainability Centre may become a Nordic power centre within nature protection and biological diversity, and develop leading solutions for climate monitoring and adaptation. The centre should also provide space for the inclusion of key expert communities from disciplines within the humanities and social sciences, which inspire discussions about a socially fair transition to a low-emission society and inclusive green growth. The centre should be able to accommodate everything from large interdisciplinary units, intra-faculty initiatives, large scientific projects, to research groups and individual researchers who want to collaborate.

A key inspiration is Stockholm Resilience Center, and it is especially important that the knowledge communities work for closer interaction with businesses and the public sector inside the centre. Again, multifunctionality is at the heart of our concept.

The park forms a green belt that runs right through the centre of the building and continues via Blindern station, up to Gaustad, across Ring 3 and into Nordmarka. This is how Oslo Sustainability Centre becomes part of a green connecting link that makes Oslo Science City the greenest innovation district in the world.

By revitalizing and activating Tørtebergsparken and bringing it into the courtyard and the patios of the existing buildings, we also link the green belt to the central loop and activate the buildings as a central point in the area. By transforming the underground parking lot into a space for exhibitions and public use, the synergy between the green surroundings and urban life at street level creates a perfect stage for exhibitions, restaurants, educational pavilions, urban agriculture and an annual festival with a focus on innovation, nature and science.

We propose to expand the top of the buildings to ensure that the buildings are multifunctional with both academic activities, commercial elements and housing.

House of Democracy and the open square

The centre is designed to attract the leading researchers and the clearest contemporary voices to illuminate the most central and up to date questions: inequality and fairness, democracy, the importance of technology for social trust, the Nordic model, international development within law, inclusion, polarization, fake news and trust in science. The square will be built over a democracy centre that becomes a house for social innovation, research on democracy and studies of inclusion, freedom of speech and co-determination.

The centre will raise important topics for a broad audience, placing democratic development and climate challenges high on the agenda. The centre will bring together researchers from the humanities, social sciences, law, education, theology and technology subjects. The principle of openness is meant to help attract guest researchers and research communities from Norway and abroad.

Through University of Oslo and several strong research institutes in Oslo, Oslo Science City has internationally leading research communities within a number of relevant disciplines in the field, which will provide a clear identity to Norway’s first innovation district. The House of Democracy will be an important meeting place and destination for outstanding researchers, committed students and other relevant expert communities from the whole world.

The House of Democracy will be an open and inclusive space for innovation in close collaboration with business, interest groups and public authorities involved in shaping the field. In the buildings surrounding the square, space is dedicated to media companies, interest organizations, suppliers of communication platforms, political actors, artists and influencers who wish to interact with the professional expertise in Oslo Science City, as well as being part of a vibrant and dynamic innovation environment in this field.

The Democracy Square is planned as a square for everyone, founded on the principles of openness, accessibility and inclusion. The square must also be suitable for debate and public discussion during winter through the use of flexible architectural solutions.

The House of Democracy will function as a gathering place and an engine of identity for an academic field and an area of innovation few other innovation districts in the world devote attention to. Oslo Science City will thus establish a highly distinct identity by actively investing into societal innovation.

The Life Science Building

Oslo University Hospital and the University of Oslo have joined forces to realize the Life Science Building. It will be Norway’s largest and probably most advanced building for research and teaching. The building is planned as a joint facility for life sciences, pharmacy and chemistry, designed for interdisciplinary collaboration in line with the ambitions and objectives of the institutions.

The project constitutes a joint solution for the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital, where the Division of Laboratory Medicine (KLM) moves in with significant research and operational activities in an expanded building (estimated to almost 100,000 m2).

The Life Science Building is being developed for future users, mainly employees and students at the University of Oslo and Oslo University Hospital, but is also meant to facilitate extensive collaboration with the business sector, including the healthcare industry, entrepreneurial ecosystems and technology suppliers, implying high accessibility for external actors and partners. The solutions of the building facilitate this form of interaction. The strongest expert communities within medicine in Norway are joining forces to establish a professional power centre with world-class laboratories and research infrastructure, an infrastructure that can be shared, also with the business sector.

The Life Science Building represents a massive national effort within health and life sciences, placing Norway on the map internationally in earnest. It demonstrates a strong will to facilitate growth in the health industries in Norway. This will generate strong positive ripple effects for students, the research communities and start-up ecosystems and will attract the pharmaceutical industry to locate in the immediate vicinity, including the central area.

Many of the commercial successes within the life sciences are based on proximity between basic research and the clinical research communities. As of today, it is this axis between Oslo University Hospital and the University of Oslo that creates the most value and constitutes the biggest attraction for the major industrial players that want to find their place in Oslo Science City.

The Life Science Building offers a large number of meeting places and will be viewed as an open arena for those who are not located in the building themselves. The interaction with enterprises located in the neighbouring buildings is at the centre of the principles of openness and multifunctionality.