Oslo - Art of living against a backdrop of black gold

Young and dynamic, wealthy and above all extremely relaxed: Olso has plenty to offer. Norway, which for a long time lagged behind economically, achieved independence from Sweden peacefully in 1905 - which is why the Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, not Stockholm - and recently became home to the world's largest sovereign wealth fund. With 650 billion euros, or 1.5% of the world's stock market capitalisation, the State's investment leverage exceeds even that of Abu Dhabi and Qatar. The reasons for this immense wealth are numerous offshore oil resources.

Oslo is reinvesting this providential windfall in the energy transition, with an ambitious sustainable development policy. Like Stockholm and Copenhagen before it, the Norwegian metropolis is aiming to be elected European Green Capital. This time in 2016. Hybrid buses and innovative transport systems are on the increase. Users of electric cars do not have to pay customs duty when they buy them, nor do they have to pay a toll to enter the city, nor do they have to pay for the thousands of parking spaces equipped with free recharging points. Green vehicles also have the right to use the bus and taxi lanes. Today, there are over 10,000 electric cars on the road in a city of just 700,000 inhabitants!

A working-class neighbourhood The city has become trendy without losing its family atmosphere (Grünerlokka, here on the left), arty places are springing up on the remains of the old docks, and a new wave of restaurants rubs shoulders with historic palaces (the Hôtel Continental, on the right): Oslo is undergoing a serene evolution, very much in tune with the times.

The origin of a sustainable world

It was Norway that coined the notion of sustainable development, in a speech to the UN in the 1980s by former prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development," points out Pascal Lecamp, director of Ubifrance in Oslo. When I met this country thirty years ago, at the start of the oil era, it was one of the poorest in the OECD. Today, it has become one of the richest in the world in terms of GDP per capita.

While GDP per capita in the northern countries is generally higher than in the rest of the European Union - €43700 in 2013 for Denmark and €43200 for Sweden, compared with €32400 for France - Norway has an average of €74200, one of the three highest in the world along with Luxembourg and Qatar. This explains why some people today consider Norway to be a "European emirate", an island of growth in a Europe emerging from crisis.

Most of the economy of the world's seventh-largest oil exporter is focused on natural resources, with the development of a number of clusters, particularly in the subsea sector. "Subsea Valley, a cluster dedicated to research into methods of extracting resources from the seabed, stretches from Oslo to Kongsberg, around a hundred kilometres further south," explains Ludovic Caubert, Director of the Franco-Norwegian Chamber of Commerce in Oslo. There are many head offices of major companies here, such as Statoil and Telenor, which ten years ago won a UN competition for the first paperless, entirely dematerialised head office. What's more, Subsea Valley, which has just been awarded the label, is of great interest to the French. The reason: technologies similar to those used in aeronautics and space. There is therefore talk of a possible marriage between Subsea Valley and the Toulouse Aerospace Valley cluster.

From black gold to contemporary art

The only problem in this Eden of black gold: with wages around 35% above the European average and high production costs, Norway is finding it hard to remain competitive internationally. Yet it is this wealth linked to oil and gas resources that has enabled Oslo to invest in new infrastructure and rehabilitate derelict districts such as Bjorvika, whose emblematic monument is the sumptuous opera house designed by Snohetta, or Tjuvholmen and its Astrup Fernley museum of contemporary art designed by Renzo Piano. "Oslo is a city on the move. It's a bit like Abu Dhabi or Doha in terms of wealth, and therefore urban transformation, but with a completely different spirit. The city boasts a number of architectural landmarks, including a new Munch museum in the near future, and most of the major infrastructure projects come from the state or the municipality. There are very few PPPs (public-private partnerships) in Norway," points out Ludovic Caubet.

Even if the epicentre of the economic boom is in Stavanger, the oil capital, Oslo is taking over and concentrating foreign establishments and research. While the country is attracting and recording large numbers of Scandinavian and even international immigrants, many of these expatriates prefer the capital. Green, of course... as 2016 will no doubt prove.

Snohetta: The Norwegian arch star

It's a rare thing, but the designers of Oslo's splendid opera house (pictured here) were propelled onto the international stage in one fell swoop. In 1989, three friends, Kjetil Thorsen Trædal, Craig Dykers and Christoph Kapeller, entered an international competition to design the Library of Alexandria. The competition was a success. And so Snohetta was born, a firm whose name refers not to its founders, but to a Norwegian mountain surrounded by legend.

It's a choice that reflects the Scandinavian spirit: the focus is on a team, not individuals! Snohetta's concept is to create multidisciplinary spaces where people feel good. Hence the presence within the firm of landscape, graphic and interior designers. "We also like to involve our clients in the development of projects and invite artists to work with us," explains senior architect Simon Ewings. Opened in 2007, the opera house has stimulated the renaissance of an entire industrial district, Bjordvika, which is becoming one of the liveliest in Oslo. Financed by public funds, the aim of the opera house was not only to democratise an elitist art form, but also to give local residents an emblem with which they could identify, a public place to visit day and night, on which they could walk, sit and rest.

Getaway - Setting sail in the Oslo fjord

If you have a couple of hours to spare in Oslo, head for the harbour to board a pleasure boat for a trip around the fjord that encircles the Norwegian capital. After passing in front of the magnificent white marble opera house, designed by Snohetta (see previous page), and the museum of contemporary art designed by Renzo Piano, head out to sea.

It doesn't take long to discover the peaceful life of the small islands. You'd think you were far, far away from the city you can still make out on the horizon. And you're surprised to see people taking to the water. But in summer, it seems, the Gulf Stream raises the northern waters to a temperature of over 20 degrees... Nature is in its wild state. Every island here is different. They have names like daydreams (Lindoya, Hovedoya, Bleikoya, Nakholmen, Gressholmen...) and charming idiosyncrasies. One can only be lived in on sunny days. The other only has houses in red, green, yellow or blue. Another was colonised in the early twentieth century by graceful wooden bathing huts that look as if they've been built on stilts on the open sea.

When the boat hits the throttle, you wrap yourself in cosy blankets and watch the idyllic landscape go by, like this tiny white wooden chapel, an island in itself, with the Norwegian flag flying over it. Two hours of total exoticism just a stone's throw from the quays of the capital.

Bâtservice Sightseeing

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