On the site of the 22 July 2011 terrorist attack, which traumatised Norway, the first phase of the New Government Quarter (Regjeringskvartalet) in central Oslo is now complete.

Nordic Office of Architecture led the architecture team, with Haptic Architects, Scenario, and i-d. Interiørarkitektur & Design, to deliver a ‘design for democracy’ that reopens the heart of Norway’s political centre, creating a new model for bringing government ministries together in an open yet secure civic landscape.

The Prime Minister of Norway, government officials and staff will move into the quarters, consolidating almost all Norwegian ministries in a single, flexible campus for approximately 4,100 employees.

Gudmund Stokke, Founding Partner and Head of Design at Nordic Office of Architecture, says:

“From day one, the question was how to create a place that symbolises Norwegian democracy and identity. We were asked to design a secure government district, but also a place where people feel welcome to walk, sit, protest and remember – a government quarter that belongs to the whole of Norway.”

Nordic Office of Architecture’s masterplan arranges five new buildings and two restored buildings as a ring framing a sequence of interconnected public spaces, stitching the New Government Quarter back into Oslo’s historic centre.

Phase 1 comprises three buildings: the restored Høyblokken and the new A‑ and D‑blocks. Høyblokken, the A‑block, with its striking Pyramid Hall, and the retained historic G-block form the public ‘front line’ of the New Government Quarter, directly facing the city and expressing different eras of Norwegian democracy in their architecture, while the D‑block and the future phases create a quieter backdrop that completes a compact, walkable campus. The first phase also includes the 22 July Centre, a public museum and learning space dedicated to the events of 22 July 2011, and new parks and plazas.

Bridges, atria and shared social zones form the Collaboration District, connecting ministries on the first floor and turning the campus into a “decision‑making machine” where people and ideas can move easily between departments.

Two existing plazas – Johan Nygaardsvolds plass and Einar Gerhardsens plass – have been refreshed and now reconnect previously closed streets, re‑establishing pedestrian and cycling routes between Hammersborg, the city centre and the fjord. The new park, Regjeringsparken, designed with landscape architects SLA and Bjørbekk & Lindheim, will form the green heart of the quarter, with open lawns, play areas, native planting and clear sightlines that maintain both security and a welcoming character.

The architecture responds directly to questions raised after 22 July 2011: how to balance necessary security with openness and trust in public institutions.

Façades emphasise transparency and daylight, with generous glazing, clear sightlines, and active ground levels that invite visual connection between institution and city. Public-facing cafés, accessible gardens and civic spaces are positioned along main routes to encourage everyday use by Oslo residents and visitors, making the quarter as much a public destination as a place of administration.

Every material choice has been conceived to tie the quarter to Norway’s landscapes, craft traditions and long-term sustainability goals. Larvikite, a silvery-grey Norwegian stone, is widely used on façades and public surfaces, chosen for its durability and patina over time. Internally, locally sourced timber from Nordmarka, a large forest region in northern Oslo, brings warmth and tactility to workspaces and public interiors, reinforcing a visual and cultural connection to the surrounding landscape.

The buildings in the New Government Quarter are furnished entirely with fine pieces by Norwegian designers from different eras. Classic pieces by Torbjørn Afdal, Rastad & Relling, Sverre Fehn and Fredrik A. Kayser are curated together with new contemporary design pieces by Andreas Engesvik, Anderssen & Voll, Jonas Stokke Tron Meyer and Daniel Rybakken.

Several of the furnishings in the Prime Minister’s Office, representative areas and the Collaboration District have been specially designed by the team’s architects and interior designers.

Norwegian craft expertise also informs the detailing, with boatbuilders Risør Båtbyggeri, in collaboration with Biko, helping to shape double‑curved wooden surfaces used across the interior spaces.

The buildings are designed to meet BREEAM‑NOR Excellent standards, integrating seawater-based heating and cooling, low‑carbon concrete and carefully detailed envelopes that reduce operational energy demand. Circularity extends to interiors: in Phase 1 alone, around 20 percent of approximately 15,800 furniture items are reused from previous government buildings, combining resource efficiency with Norwegian design quality.

Curated and produced by KORO (Public Art Norway), the New Government Quarter is Norway’s largest public art programme, with approximately 300 new and re-sited works across buildings and open spaces. The collection combines newly commissioned pieces with relocated and restored works from the former government quarter – including artworks bearing visible traces of the 2011 attack – so that art, architecture and landscape together form a living memorial.

Key works include: Pablo Picasso’s sandblasted concrete mural The Fishermen, carefully conserved and relocated from its previous location on the Y‑block and installed on the southwest façade of the A‑block; Do Ho Suh’s Grass Roots Square, relocated to the heart of the Einar Gerhardsens plass as a field of around 50,000 small bronze figures supporting stone slabs; Jumana Manna’s 800‑square‑metre mosaic Sebastia at Johan Nygaardsvolds plass, created from stone offcuts donated by municipalities across Norway that turns the plaza into a literal “city floor”, in line with the ambition to shape a New Government Quarter that belongs to the whole of Norway.

Inside the A‑block, a series of major works – including Picasso’s The Seagull and Outi Pieski’s 51‑metre‑high birch‑lined piece AAhkA (“Mother Earth”) – animate public interiors and address Sámi history, indigenous futurism and ecological awareness.

The New Government Quarter is commissioned by the Ministry of Digitalisation and Public Administration (DFD) with Statsbygg as the government developer, following an international competition launched in 2016 and awarded to the Team Urbis consortium in 2017.

Team Urbisis led by Nordic Office of Architecture and includes COWI, Rambøll, Aas‑Jakobsen, Asplan Viak, Bjørbekk & Lindheim and SLA, alongside specialist consultants including NIKU and Per Rasmussen.

Phase 1 was delivered on time and within the parliamentary budget frame of NOK 24.7 billion, and is expected to complete more than NOK 2 billion under this ceiling, demonstrating strict cost control on a highly complex national project.