Oslo: Gardermoen Aiport

Location: Oslo, Norway

Contact: Jo Kobro, Media liaison   jo.kobro@osl.no

Using a new business model, the Norwegian government created a consortium, OSL, for it’s largest building project, Gardermoen Airport, near Oslo, Norway. Requirements were broad: a high-tech airport, and a culturally respectful front door to the nation that would evoke “Norwegian-ness.”

But traditional architecture in Norway has used full round log or square log construction, which takes advantage to the mass of wood itself for passive solar heating in the cold climate.

So OSL commissioned an unprecedented lay survey, which resulted in broad guidelines about Norwegian-ness today that apply as much to modern as traditional architecture: 'Prudence, closeness to nature, an open and egalitarian society and good usage of local resources.'

OSL produced from this a mission-based design and construction handbook for contractors. Within the airport complex, there were to be varied use, yet complementary buildings by different architects: an airport terminal and control tower, hotel, customs building, railway station, and the airport’s infrastructure center. All buildings were to use renewable, sustainable materials from regional sources in building, and also in ongoing operations – truly holistic design and use.

As a result, the Gardermoen Airport, in Oslo, Norway is now the largest laminated wood structure in the world, and it produces its own heat and reserve electricity at a biomass-fuelled co-generation plant on site. Micro-grid infrastructure was built at the same time as the airport, and was activated during construction, mitigating overall building costs. Buildings use LVL and glulam engineered wood, a prudent and high-tech material.

This new technology starts with raw lumber harvested regionally, in Europe, where sustainable forest management is now typical and as a result, forest mass is increasing annually by an area the size of Connecticut.

In some cases, wood that was formerly not used for construction - small, residual pieces and tailings from other products - is used in these new construction materials. Laminated veneer lumber (LVL) is made from rotary peeled veneers, glued together into continuous panels. Glulam is made of parallel timber laminates and weather-resistant glue, formed under high pressure; this allows it to retain its structural strength if charred by fire. Both are engineered for specific tension, compression, and bending properties, and for greater load-bearing capacity than wood alone. Use of these materials allowed architects to create a vast, undulating roof with 136 meter long curved trusses that free span up to 54 meters.

These open, light-filled public spaces are more reminiscent of modern museums than of utilitarian transportation hubs.

For more about:

• Wood Laminate construction materials, see www.woodforgood.com
• Planning considerations and architectural description of Gardermoen Airport, see www.encyclopedia.com
• The State of European Forests, see The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Forestry at www.fao.org
• European Union Forest Management, see The EU Forest Strategy and Action Plan
• A comprehensive study of sustainable forest management in Europe by forest type, and recommendations of the European Environmental Agency, see it’s EEA May, 2007 report
  

Similar Businesses and Organizations:
• Coming Soon