For 30 years now, the corner building opposite the city hall in Oslo has formed the gateway to the Aker Brygge residential, office and shopping district which was developed in the mid 1980s on the site of a former inner-city shipyard on Oslo Fjord. In 2011, the architectural office Ghilardi + Hellsten, in collaboration with Spacegroup, drew up a new master plan for the area. The principal aims were to improve pedestrian access and street-based commercial activity. The plan foresees a covered pedestrian route running diagonally through the head structure and two of the neighbouring blocks.

In the office and commercial building itself, the existing atrium was enlarged, and the facades and technical installations were renewed. By moving the mechanical services to the two basement floors, the architects were able to create space on the flat roof for a new set-back ­storey in a steel form of construction. The precast concrete floors and columns in the existing structure did not have a particularly high load-bearing capacity. They were, therefore, reinforced at many points with steel elements.