Asker Centre (Loop City)

Asker is a popular suburb to Norway’s fast-growing capital, Oslo. By developing more space to accommodate a diverse group of residents and visitors, the dynamic and dense city centre of Asker is to be integrated with the green recreational area of Føyka/Elvely, west of the city centre.

"Dense city–open park–sports enthusiasm" is the vision of Asker’s future city life, densified by more housing, retail, services and culture, while expanded to entail larger public parks, plazas and squares for recreational activities. The Føyka area, today serving as an arena for sports and activities, shall be utilized and inscribed in the urban context of Asker.

"In the Loop" links city and recreation by attaching a new activity route for pedestrians and cyclists to the existing structure of the city centre. By means of a loop, the old and new city areas are combined through urban leisure and sportive communities for the inhabitants of Asker. Parks, plazas and squares integrate with the station area, culture house and commercial facilities; providing easy orientation and accessibility in the central public areas.

The existing central activity plaza is dispersed to expand the city centre with new urban spaces for a wide spectrum of recreational facilities and social arenas where people gather around street basket ball, skating, ice hockey, and more. In the intimate scale small quiet zones allow for coincidental meetings and social local get-togethers.

"In the Loop" was praised for its overall urban development concept. In their assessment the jury stated: "The loop, which ties the four central points of the city together, creates an exciting sequence of different urban spaces and contributes to activate the whole centre in an outstanding way compared to all other proposals".

Description from the architects