The Meridian Tower

The Brief

A tower that earns
its place on the
Oslo skyline.

The Meridian Tower began as a commission from the Oslo Harbour Authority to develop a landmark mixed-use tower on the waterfront edge of Bjørvika — a district already defined by the Oslo Opera House and the Munch Museum.

The brief was demanding: 42,000 square metres of residential, commercial, and civic programme, in a location where every neighbouring building was already a cultural statement. The question was not how to compete — it was how to belong.

Our response was to design a building that is quiet at the base and generous at the top — a tower that holds its ground at street level and opens itself to the city and the fjord as it rises. The result is a structure in genuine conversation with its context rather than in contest with it.

01 / Design challenges

Three problems.
One answer.

Every project has its knots. The Meridian Tower had three that shaped every decision from concept to construction.

Contextual pressure

Sitting between the Opera House and the Munch Museum meant every facade decision was in dialogue with two of Norway's most significant contemporary buildings. We chose restraint over spectacle — a deliberately quieter material language that lets the building read as anchor rather than accent.

Programme complexity

42,000 m² of mixed programme — 180 apartments, 8,000 m² of commercial floor space, a public cultural hall, and rooftop gardens accessible to the city — demanded a structural logic that could separate without segregating. The solution was a stacked section with shared vertical circulation at the core.

The waterfront edge

Oslo's revised waterfront accessibility plan required the building's ground floor to be entirely publicly accessible. We treated this as a gift, not a constraint — dissolving the boundary between building and city with a covered public arcade at street level that draws people through rather than around.