PROJECT NAME: Smestad Recycling Centre
NAME OF CLIENT: Waste Management Authority, Oslo Municipality
PROJECT COMPLETED BY: Longva Arkitekter AS and Grindaker Landskapsarkitekter AS
Discipline: Architecture
Environmentally friendly recycling
Smestad recycling centre is an indoor recycling plant handling household waste. The project has two main objectives: to integrate a recycling centre into an established residential area while causing the least amount of nuisance to the neighbours, while also offering the public a new and positive experience of a visit to a recycling centre.
Panel remarks
Smestad Recycling Centre is a successful project that is innovative within its category. Perhaps the most striking thing in this regard is the fact that it’s indoors, but being integrated into a neighbourhood is also new in the Norwegian context. This is a demanding task on several levels: noise, traffic, and aesthetics are all challenges one has to pay more attention to here than at Grønmo or Brobekk, for instance. It is therefore impressive how they have created not only a functional and practical place to get rid of waste, but also an aesthetically pleasing building that fits well into its surroundings. This is a fine example of how good architecture can raise the status of a utility building of this type to make it an attractive workplace and a place you actually want to go to. In this case they really do practise environmentally friendly recycling.
Project participants
Knut Longva – Longva Arkitekter, project architect
Nils Köplin – Longva Arkitekter, project coordinator
Ewan Smith – Longva Arkitekter, employee
Michael Nordtømme – Longva Arkitekter, employee
Peter Bjørnebye – Longva Arkitekter, project planning manager
Heikki Granroth – Grindaker Landskapsarkitekter, landscape architect/project manager
Gunnar Vatnar – Grindaker Landskapsarkitekter, project coordinator