Roof garden NINA

Between Lerkendal Stadium and The Norwegian University of Science and Technology campus Gløshaugen, NINA, the Norwegian Institute for Natural Research, has had a new office and laboratory building built. In collaboration with the architecture firm Pir II, Agraff has designed the new outdoor areas for the work premises. Building and landscape are strongly linked in that large parts of the site area consist of a roof garden above the building’s basement floor. The roof garden and the facade on the plinth will give the illusion of a glacier, on which the rest of the building rests.

The glacier is designed in white concrete and cracks open in crevasses filled with vegetation. The crevasses have natural vegetation from both the coastal and mountain areas in Norway and have been cultivated especially for this project. The glacier offers good places to rest, eat breakfast and enjoy the weather for the employees, while at the same time, it provides something great to rest your eyes on from the office premises that look down on the roof garden.

The glacier that spreads beyond the plinth is divided in two by a glass roof that lets the light down to an indoor hall. The glass roof holds some of the qualities of a glacier and gives the people in the hall the illusion of being under a glacier. The glacier itself was designed in collaboration with local concrete workers who approached the task with enthusiasm and smart solutions.

In addition to the design of the glacier, Agraff has designed a pedestrian and cycle path around the building, solutions for parking, delivery of goods, new vegetation and bicycle parking.