Atelier Oslo began this project with an idea of confrontation, the confrontation between the urban and the rural, between man and nature. They discussed moving living elements into the gallery. How would it be to experience the gallery filled with butterflies? They were curious to see how the living world would interact with the gallery space.

The built environment is generally intended to shelter us from nature. The exhibition Common Ground by Atelier Oslo proposes a reversal; the gallery space will shelter a piece of nature - the forest. The visitor will be asked to enter the forest and walk around barefoot. There are no designated routes to follow and no particular object to see, only the physical and sensory experience of being in the forest. Through smells, sounds and textures the visitor will be placed in direct and intimate contact with a borrowed landscape. The installation will be lit throughout the night, so that the forest can be seen anytime. The captured nature will start to decompose in response to the interior climate, and in return it will weather the gallery.

Common Ground is a fantastical landscape that embodies the dream of a perfect hideaway. The olfactory, auditory and tactile experiences prevail the visitors´ mind to travel to an imaginary place: far away from the busy urban life. By being placed in the city, the trees take on a mythical status. The fragile living flora and fauna in this delicate forest draws your attention to the vulnerability of life. Common Ground offers a place to repose and inspires us all to rethink the relationship between nature and the built environment.

Atelier Oslo is a young architects practice consisting of four partners; Nils Ole Bae Brandtzæg (b.1975), Thomas Liu (b.1978), Marius Mowe (b.1973) og Jonas Norsted (b.1973). They all trained at Oslo School of Architecture (AHO). The partners have worked for a variety of recognized Norwegian architects, such as Lund Hagem, Jensen og Skodvin, Knut Hjeltnes and Sverre Fehn

The practice was established in 2006 after the partners won 1st prize in the design competition “Norwegian Wood Sandnes amfiscene”. The office has won several important competitions since then, including for a housing development in Stavanger, a visitor centre in Mosjøen and most recently the New Oslo City Library in Bjørvika together with Lund Hagem.

Atelier Oslo received the Young Designers award from Norsk Form in 2008 and were nominated for the Mies van der Rohe award in 2009.