OLD NEWS: THE DENSIFICATION OF FROGNER
Mari Nysveen Hellum
Architecture and the City
THIRD YEAR
|
ONE SEMESTER
Frogner is an area of Oslo with increasing
migration leading to high densification
coupled with housing shortages. This project
is both research and a proposal into how to
densify and preserve this 19th century villa
area of central Oslo. At issue is preservation,
restoration of the villas’ residential function
and the combination of existing and new
design. Here new volumes connect existing
villas. The adjoined residences are then divid-
ed into smaller units, within and across new
and old buildings. Strictly privatised property
divisions are re-opened and transformed
into common areas and public spaces. A new
public passageway leads through the housing
area and includes flower and fruit gardens,
a café and a playground. The objective is to
physically restore and thereby socially gener-
ate new life in the villas and the surrounding
environment.
