Cultural powerhouse in historic building

Sentralen in Oslo offers rental and shared office space for creatives and innovators, while staying true to the building’s history. Troldtekt acoustic panels are used as an acoustic solution in several rooms.

Located in the Kvadraturen quarter of Oslo, at Øvre Slottsgate 3 and Tollbugata 20, Sentralen Cultural Centre opened its doors on 1 March 2016, renting out event, production and meeting rooms. Sentralen houses close to 400 creatives and innovators in a co-working space, spread across four of the building’s six floors. Two of the floors house the SoCentral co-working space, which focuses on community innovation and social entrepreneurship, while the other two floors are reserved for festivals, orchestras, dance companies and other cultural organisations. On the ground floor of the building there is also a restaurant serving street food.

Sentralen is housed in the former Christiania Bank headquarters, which was built in 1854. The building’s history as a former bank is reflected in Sentralen, where a major focus of the transformation has been to preserve as much of the original building stock as possible. For example, the glass-roofed courtyard, which was built during renovations in 1901, is still part of the building and several of Sentralen's rooms are named after their former function or characteristics in the period that the Bank occupied the building. For example, Marmorsalen (Marble Hall), which is the bank’s former transactions room, Bankboksen (Bank Vault) and Forstanderskabssalen (Boardroom).  However, one of the major changes was to open up the two buildings into one, creating a new entrance, a new lift and connected staircases.

In 2020, it became clear that there was a need for more space at Sentralen. Back in the 1920s, an extra floor had been added to the old bank building, which, together with a completely new floor, is now in use. Today, the building has six floors and a roof terrace.

Combining interior design and good acoustics

Troldtekt panels were chosen as the acoustic solution in several of Sentralen’s rooms. The common denominator for the acoustic panels in all the rooms is that they work well together with the rest of the room’s interior design.

In Sentralen’s restaurant, the black-painted acoustic panels not only provide good acoustics when the restaurant is full of guests, but also work well with the bare concrete floor, the bare brick walls and the bright wooden furniture.

The same is true of the former courtyard, where black-painted Troldtekt panels on the walls absorb the reverberation of the large space, allowing the courtyard to be used as a natural gathering place, where tenants and visitors to Sentralen are not bothered by poor acoustics. At the same time, the black-painted panels contrast with the brick wall of the courtyard and the parts of it that are painted white.

Troldtekt acoustic panels were also chosen for smaller rooms at Sentralen, where work, meetings, lectures and events take place. White-painted acoustic panels together with wooden walls help to brighten up a lecture hall, while black-painted panels in meeting rooms blend well with a rawer interior design with brick walls and visible pipe installations.