City The Art Mountain creates a new Urban Park in the centre of Oslo which rises up to give views of the city and harbour. Beneath this new sloping landscape stepped levels of galleries obtain natural light and views on all levels. The form of the building generates a new axis of culture across the city, visually linking the two fjords of Oslo while asserting the uniqueness of each: the new Museum of Art & Design echoes the formal relation of the Opera House and the proposed Munch Museum to the city with its own sloped landscape and tower. The Art Mountain also frames the nearby City Hall and Square by mirroring the park and Fortress across the adjacent bay. The Design by echoing the Opera House and Munch Museum with a new sloped landscape and tower at the site;
Site Two historic listed buildings on the site are conserved by being framed within a new park-like setting. A shared sculpture park that wraps around the existing buildings engages with these buildings and the programmes of the new Museum. The new building improves the links within this part of the city by making the Museum lobby into a public “street" which crosses the site diagonally linking the cultural area to the northeast with the new docklands area to the southwest.
Building Inside, the stepped layout of the galleries below the sloping park roof allows visitors to maintain continuous visual connections with the city, the landscape and the sky while viewing the collections of the Museum. A rooftop Arena for ice-skating and other activities overlooks the harbour creating a new public outdoor space; The internal layout of the museum doesn't impose a fixed gallery design on curators, instead it provides a building with a strong identity and urban form but an inner flexibility --leading to a process of discussion and collaboration during design development rather than a fixed solution. Almost all galleries receive natural North light from above, the folded form of their ceilings bouncing and diffusing the light to give a soft even light within. The Library and Workshops obtain natural light from a series of courtyards and a new street created across the north of the site.
Sustainaibility This proposal creates a Low Carbon, Sustainable Building with a green roof, extremely high thermal mass and low-energy, efficient heating and cooling via a heat-pump system. Natural light is maximized on a tight site and rainwater is collected and recycled. The building layout provides maximum security and stable climate conditions for the Vaults by placing them under the rest of the museum.
