Curvaceous, elegant and boldly captivating, like a diva onstage, the Oslo Opera House comes to life as the first rays of morning light reach down to the tranquil waters of the city’s namesake fjord and bounce off its acute angles of white Italian marble. Unveiled in 2008, in typical Norwegian style – ahead of schedule and US $52 million under budget – the complex boasts 1,100 rooms and seating for almost 2,000, as well as captivating views across the water to the harbour islands of Hovedøya and Bleikøya.
Chic and modern without a hint of pretention, the Opera House has helped propel the Norwegian capital to the forefront of Scandinavian cool, while serving as a vital anchor in the ambitious redevelopment that is forever changing the face of the city’s waterfront.
Leaving the tranquillity of the fjord behind and making my way up the structure’s ramp-like slopes to the main auditorium and towards the city, the reality of this metropolis-changing project is everywhere. Between the Opera House and Oslo’s central train station, construction crews carve out new subterranean highways that will plunge below the waterfront, leaving an unprecedented green belt – already dubbed OperaKvarteret – in their wake.
Much of the development is taking place in the port neighbourhood of Bjørvika, a waterfront precinct in Oslo’s city centre – known as the Sentrum – that is reinventing itself with avant-garde architecture, revitalised warehouse properties and plenty of wide-open spaces. A row of eye-catching apartment buildings affectionately known as the Barcode Project (due to their monochrome facades and irregular heights) will soon be finished, and the government is already proposing to move the city’s famed Munch Museum, the Oseberg Ship exhibit and city library to the new-look foreshore.
“It’s a great opportunity when cities reinvent themselves,” says Alex Popescu, a Romanian design student sipping espresso and sketching the Opera House from the quayside. “Oslo’s reinvention is driven by the people, by intelligent design, and by urban planning that’s not about making money, but about shaping a city for its future. It’s about making a place where people want to work and live, and revitalising neighbourhoods that were all but forgotten. It’s an exciting time to be in Oslo.”
Oslo’s waterfront was traditionally industrial, with cargo ports, warehouses, railway lines and shipyards – a testament to the country’s seafaring heritage – providing a physical barrier to development on the banks of the fjord. To reinvent Oslo, it seemed, its past would have to be radically changed and potentially lost.
But in 2000 the government made the tough decision, empowered by an upwardly mobile, forward-thinking populace and fuelled by Norway’s substantial oil reserves, to create Fjord City, or Fjordbyen, a 225-hectare, 10-kilometre long strip of urban renewal that would herald the emergence of a new persona for Oslo.
To the west is Aker Brygge, another waterfront neighbourhood that’s seeing dramatic changes. Once run-down and empty, Aker Brygge’s shabby warehouses are now being populated with art galleries, book stores and cafés with sidewalk seating. There are fine dining restaurants hidden behind thick velvet curtains, cocktail lounges that close late, and polished marble lobbies at the base of revitalised office blocks.
The morning sun struggles to reach the narrow streets until I arrive at Oslo’s City Hall, where the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded each year. The open square before the City Hall’s two towers is a hive of early morning activity as Osloites walk or cycle to work.
Crossing the tramlines that wind along the waterfront before delving deeper into the city, I pass joggers and office workers walking beneath the towering oak trees of the parklands that surround the Akershus Fortress, an ancient castle and former prison that hugs the fjord. The castle has watched over the city’s evolution since it was built in the 1290s and is now used by the royal family for formal occasions.
Much of Vippetangen, the small knob of land on which the castle sits, is now reserved for official use; the Armed Forces Museum has its home there, as does the Museet for Samtidskunst (National Museum of Contemporary Art), the Nasjonalmuseet (National Gallery), and the royal stables. This means that the new attractions of Oslo, from opera houses to galleries and restaurants, will link perfectly with the city’s past and its rich maritime traditions.
Further along the foreshore, Tjuvholmen is where much of the new building is taking place. A former criminal commune where executions once took place, Tjuvholmen has turned chic as luxury apartment complexes compete for space on the coveted waterfront with the offices of Norway’s corporate elite. Below, at pavement level, gourmet restaurants like Lofoten Fiskerestaurant, which specialises in modern Norwegian cuisine, boutiques and even a Fisker dealership vie for the attention of pedestrians bound for the new Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, located on the tip of a finger of land which reaches out into the glistening waters of the fjord.
The museum is to Tjuvholmen what the Opera House is to Bjøvika, an architectural anchor; a rationale for visitors to venture off the beaten path, to explore the new neighbourhood and its ambitious designs. Established in 1993, the private collection of contemporary art, which features works by Tom Sachs, Cindy Sherman and Jeff Koons, among many others, opened in its new waterfront location at the end of 2012, in an elegant timber and steel building designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano.
By the time I arrive on a brilliant spring morning, the sun is already out in full force, and the pier’s timber boardwalks and al fresco restaurants are bustling with brunch-goers and sun worshippers. Ferries toot and dart between the docks at Aker Brygge, across from the museums of Bygdøy on the opposite side of the fjord, and the water is a deep, entrancing blue.
There is a steady stream of pedestrians bound for the new museum, and above the canal bridges and boutique-lined walkways, stylish visitors to Oslo stretch on the balconies of The Thief, a new design-savvy hotel perched overlooking the peninsula’s latest incarnation.
The 119-room boutique wonder is a member of Design Hotels and boasts a collection of heavenly suites overlooking the fjord, complete with a curated art collection and furnishings by Antonio Citterio, Tom Dixon, Anne Haavind and Stokke Austad. The hotel’s stunning penthouse has its own rooftop terrace, the perfect spot to perch and drink in the progress of Oslo’s evolving urban persona.
THE GOLDEN BOOK
The Thief
Tel: +47 24 00 40 00
www.thethief.com/en
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art
Tel: +47 22 93 60 60
www.afmuseet.no/en