Meridian Cultural Centre

The brief asked for a civic building that could hold a concert hall, a public library and a winter garden under one roof — and still feel open to the city on the coldest Oslo morning. Our answer was a single folded timber canopy that lifts at the corners to draw people in, and settles low over the reading rooms to keep them quiet and warm.

Because our architects and structural engineers shared the same model from week one, the roof is both the form and the structure: there is no hidden steel doing the real work. Every glue-laminated beam you see is carrying load, and the whole assembly was prefabricated off-site and raised in just eleven weeks.

A landmark that runs 40% under its energy budget — proof that low-carbon and civic ambition belong in the same building.

Engineering the canopy

The 42-metre clear span over the main hall is resolved with a network of tapered timber ribs, tuned so that the deepest sections fall exactly where the acoustics demanded mass. Ground-source heat pumps and a labyrinth of thermal mass beneath the foyer let the building coast through the shoulder seasons with almost no active heating.