Arabic

Profeesor Dag Tvilde

Head of Institute of Urbanism and Landscape .

The Oslo School of Architecture and design, Norway

The Waterfront of Oslo as Part of a New Urban Logic

Through the last decades, Oslo is probably the city in northern Europe with the highest degree of transformation. The re-urbanization, the deindustrialization and a boosting Norwegian oil economy are the main reasons for this rapid city development. The transformation of the waterfront may be the most significant part of the emerging formations.

However, the waterfront does not distinguish from transformation in other parts of the city, apart from being an eloquent space where the city represents its new role and position in global economy. If one takes a closer look into the new urban fabric, one will find that there are other areas that have experienced similar transformation processes, even if less spectacular, and that some of these emerging structures may become more important for the city development and for future economic growth.  

The new city formations do not follow an overall coherent conceptual idea. They may sometimes appear as footprints of various often contradictory logics. In order to understand their genesis and the logic they reflect, one has to investigate the underlying forces and the contextual conditions, physical and institutional, that have been decisive for generating the various formations. This, with Oslo as a case; I will focus on in my speech.