This article was taken from the September 2013 issue of Wired magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Commissioned to design offices for 2,500 employees at oil and gas company Statoil, architects at Norwegian firm A-Lab decided to build five -- and stack them on top of each other. "We thought of it as a big sculpture," explains principal designer Odd Klev.
The result looks a little bit like a giant game of Jenga. Each of the blocks is three storeys high and 140 metres long. They are angled to maximise daylight and give most offices a view over the park and fjord in Fornebu, just outside Oslo. The cantilevered modules required strong metal trusses, which were put in place using northern Europe's largest mobile crane and welded together in situ. Aluminium-clad façade were then mounted piece by piece in three-metre-wide sections. "[It's] a lot of prefabricated elements put together like a big Meccano set," says Klev. Inside, the space is designed to adapt easily to new projects.
A flexible ceiling grid made up of three-metre squares can be subdivided in different ways while providing constant access to lighting, ventilation and power points. "They can create a whole new office layout in a matter of weeks," explains Klev, "with new types of rooms -- so instead of three-by-three-metre rooms, they can have nine-by-nine-metre rooms."
Although each of the blocks can function as a separate office, their combined arrangement creates a large central atrium that people have to use when accessing the lifts, canteen and underground car park. The architect says this is one of the building's most important features: "In that way, everyone will have a chance to meet during the day."
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
