Lead. A pair of slim residential towers in Nydalen, Oslo — paired wedge volumes rising from a shared plinth that opens onto the Akerselva river park. The project's two ambitions sit in the same envelope: compact, affordable city dwellings inside, and an active ground floor that gives something back to the neighbourhood around it.

Site & brief. The site sits at the southern edge of Nydalen, where the post-industrial district meets the Akerselva green corridor — between a transit-served urban core and a continuous river park heading north. The brief asked for compact urban housing across a wide range of unit sizes, shared resident amenities, and ground-floor functions that knit the building into the neighbourhood rather than seal it off.

Idea. Two towers, one base, and a public threshold between them. The wedge-shaped towers — one taller, one shorter — sit on a triangular plinth that steps down toward the river as an outdoor amphitheatre, opening the river park into the city block. Both towers are braced by an exposed cross-bracing system that doubles as the building's identity, with green roof terraces stitched into the tops.

Resolution. A modular prefabricated steel exoskeleton handles structure on the perimeter, freeing the interior of columns so the plan can absorb a wide mix of unit types — more than ten apartment configurations, from 23 m² studios to 65 m² family flats, stacked within the same envelope. The plinth is the project's public face: a neighbourhood living room, a neighbourhood café, shared laundry, youth centre, and bicycle parking at ground level, used by residents and non-residents alike. Outside, a park-brygge terrace folds the plinth down into the riverside as an outdoor amphitheatre.