page_title: Barcode Project
section_title: Planning and description
hierarchical_section_title: Barcode Project / Planning and description
caption_attribution_description: English: Closeup of PriceWaterHouseCoopers and Oslo S Utvikling (Oslo Central Station Development) office building. The building is the first building from the Oslo Opera side of the long row consisting of what is to be, 12 residential, commercial and office buildings.
context_page_description: The Barcode Project is a section of the Bjørvika portion of the Fjord City redevelopment on former dock and industrial land in central Oslo. It consists of a row of new multi-purpose high-rise buildings, that was completed in 2016. The developer is marketing the project as "The Opera Quarter." There has been intense public debate about the height and shape of the buildings.
context_section_description: The Barcode buildings occupy areas B10 through B13 of the general plan for the Bjørvik neighborhood that was adopted by the Oslo City Council in 2003—in the Bispevika section, east of the mouth of the Akerselva River. The general plan was based on an international competition to plan the new Bjørvika, which was won by Dark Architects (of Oslo), a-lab, and MVRDV (of Rotterdam).
  The general plan specified five high-rise buildings, the tallest in area B11, closest to the Station Common (a new public square and bridge giving access to Central Station), rising to 100 m above sea level ("contour 100") and having approximately 24 floors. The other towers were specified to be lower in height: 70 m in area B13, 78 m in B10, and 81 m in B12. The buildings were described as a geometric system of volumes based on penetrating strips of empty space. The building plan for the Barcode buildings was approved by the city in March 2008 with few changes from the 2006 proposal.
  The Barcode has been planned as a row of different buildings with views between them. The unbuilt spaces between the buildings are to be at least 12 m wide. Several of the buildings will have fewer floors facing the fjord than the railway. The buildings are long and narrow (for example, DnB building B is 21 m wide and 105 long). The stated purpose of choosing such dissimilar building forms is to avoid a massive wall between the fjord and the buildings behind the Barcode, and that the Barcode principle, with segmented construction, will contribute to openness, light penetration, and transparency in the built-up area. The buildings will have a shared basement, entered from Trelastgata.
  The Barcode buildings are, from west to east:
  PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) Building. 18 floors. Architects: a-lab. 12 floors. A glass structure of simple form with a central entrance five storeys high affording views through the building, and 3-storey voids within the building visible from the exterior. The first Barcode building to be completed. In April 2008 a-lab won the "Europe 40 under 40" prize in part on the basis of this design.
  Kommunal Landspensjonskasse (KLP) Building. 2 overlapping segments in contrasting materials and of differing shapes separated by a column of glass, varying between 8 and 18 floors. 31,700 sq. m. Architects: Solheim & Jacobsen (SJ). The western tower will contain 54 luxury apartments and the eastern the KLP offices. The building will have 5 roof surfaces, 3 of which will be gardens, the other two passive planting.
  Deloitte Building. 16,950 sq. m. Architects: Snøhetta. This building will be between the KLP Building and the Station Common and will provide services associated with the station, probably including restaurants, on its lowest floors. It will be tall and narrow and the surface realized half in glass, half in dense elements. Its form was inspired by a calving glacier and it was initially referred to as "the Glacier."
  Visma Building. Three office towers joined by two columnar glass atria, varying between 12 and 17 floors. 20,800 sq. m. Architects: Dark Arkitekter. The cladding is to make it hard to read the number of floors from the exterior, a so-called "pixel facade."
  DnB NOR Building. Architects: MVRDV, Dark Arkitekter and a-lab. Three buildings linked by a below-ground "street" area, with restaurants and other shared areas on the first and second floors. Building A: 37,000 sq. m., architect: MVRDV and co-architects Dark Arkitekter. The center building and the new headquarters of the financial company. Offices will be grouped around voids and the exterior cladding will be 6-meter square "pixels." Building B: 22,500 sq. m. Architect: a-lab. The eastern building, on the longest site, will be set back behind a plaza on Dronning Eufemias gate and have offices on the lower floors, apartments with terraces on the upper floors. Building C: 14 floors, 13,000 sq. m. Architect: Dark Arkitekter. The western DnB NOR tower will be stepped, with a restaurant, bar, and terrace on the top floor accessible from Dronning Eufemias gate. The building will be clad in 
caption: Closeup of PWC Building
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