Bispevika residential area in Oslo: Urban luxury living that dreams are made of

It doesn’t get much more central than this in Norway’s capital: Oslo’s new upscale residential area Bispevika has the Opera House as a neighbour, lies close to the Munch Museum and is within a stone’s throw of the city library. The highlight: Some flats and apartments have private water access, including boat mooring. The innovative architectural firm Vandkunsten Architects have realised an urban development project that’s attracting worldwide attention. The development consists of single buildings of various heights which are distributed over the site in an asymmetrical arrangement. Made of light-coloured slate, the façades and roofs in particular give the residential complex a unique look and create an intriguing vibrancy. The randomly jumbled sloping roofs of slate shimmer differently at every time of day and form a single aesthetic whole with the expanse of water comprising the former inner harbour. Each building has a central staircase connecting all of its floors with the ground floors that house boutiques, restaurants and cafés. This lets Bispevika residents enjoy a congenial city-centre atmosphere without ever leaving the neighbourhood.

Three hundred residential units with living space of 50 to 150 square metres

Not only is the exterior design of the buildings spectacular – the floor plans and the layout of the flats and apartments also play a role in the absolutely innovative living concept. In this top location, it goes without saying that the flats also feature interior design of the highest quality. The Norwegian HARO retail-partner branch made a crucial contribution to realising this: Exclusive HARO parquet floors have been installed in most of the living areas with the sand-grey and light-white Plank 1-Strip and the sand-white extra-wide Plank 1-Strip Plaza chosen for some selected luxury residential units. Parkettpartner, HARO’s Oslo-based partner, not only had their hands full with the installation, but also needed to supply an extraordinary amount of premium parquet. In fact, they laid an impressive total of around 25,000 square metres of parquet flooring.