Listed building and a historical cultural landscape: The Norwegian residential building project Veritas Have was a challenge, and today it is classic example of high-end, urban living in amidst greenery.
About half of the population in Norway live in the most densely populated region of this Scandinavian country, the Oslo Fjord around the country’s capital city. The population is increasing, and additional living space will continue to be needed. In Veritaspark, a short way outside the city of Oslo, in the Høivikodden District, a residential building project consisting of four new buildings and a total of 48 flats was recently created.
Since it is situated next to historical red brick buildings and surrounded by lush green areas, sensitive planning was required. The wooded area includes several buildings worth preserving, which had formerly been put to industrial use. “There is seldom the opportunity to plan on this type of lot,“ as Hans Bernhard Biserød, Project Manager at Make Arkitekter AS, enthusiastically affirms. “We have taken a great deal of care with the cultural landscape, the site and the buildings worthy of preservation. We intended for the new buildings to be varied and to fit in with their surroundings.”
For this new building, the architects chose the dark façade brick Linnaeus graphite black. The lightly embossed surface of the brick gives rise to a multi-faceted play of colours in different shades of grey and black, which is elegant and rugged at the same time. Biserød is evidently fascinated by the properties of the surface:
“The brick, with its fine texture and surface, is extremely beautiful. The brick façades make an impression that differs over the course of the day when light from different directions strikes them. The façade facing south is perceived differently than the one facing north.” The graphite-black colour theme is intended to give the façade depth. Moreover, the slender format of the brick emphasizes the intense, horizontal effect of the façade, which is divided by ledges and balconies.
In addition, the brick has a low weight due to a perforation in its core. “That was important in order to achieve the load-bearing solutions that we wanted,” says Biserød. The main factors in the choice of the brick were its long life and aesthetic qualities, as well as its load-bearing capacity and its natural raw materials. “The special thing about clay bricks is that they age in a very pleasant way: In contrast to many other materials, their aesthetic qualities increase over time.”
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