A place for enhancing great experiences

Timeless and elegant. At the same time strikingly modern, fitted out with functional furnishings and symbols with a classical feel. Telenor Arena outside Oslo, Scandinavia’s largest indoor stadium, is adapted to diverse activities, meets various needs and is heading for success.

“Heja Stabæk! Heja Stabæk!” A roar that will often be heard from a heaving sea of spectators around the green artificial-grass pitch of Telenor Arena. Norway’s 2008 football champions will play their home matches here when the new season starts. Where else should they defend their record? It would be hard to find a cooler and better designed location.

The new stadium stands on former Fornebu airfield directly to the west of Oslo and its stands can accommodate over 15,000 spectators. When the grass is covered over, the stadium is transformed into a concert hall. At its February premiere, Australian rockers AC/DC played for 23,000 fans. The part flanking the southern side of the football pitch accommodates offices, conference facilities,

restaurants and bars. But also executive boxes, press rooms, VIP lounges as well as the team’s changing rooms and a doctor’s surgery alongside ticket offices, kiosks and waiting rooms. There is a separate fitness centre with a spa, gym and healthcare unit. Everywhere the furniture is easily recognized: Kinnarps, Materia, Skandiform.

Enhancing great experiences
When the interior of Telenor Arena was to be planned in more detail about two years ago, a design team was set up including architect Tord Kvien and Line Jessen from advertising office Alle Gutta. A year later, interior designer Thomas Næss joined the team. Line was appointed project leader: this was a big assignment and required coordination.

Both she and Thomas Næss, who are now showing us around the facility, stress the importance of the team. They vetted all decisions before submitting them to the customer, i.e. Stabæk’s management. “In the design team, we began to formulate the character of the building. It was naturally linked to football. But the stadium is located on a historic site and we wanted to retain the feeling of an airfield in some way,” points out Line Jessen.

Thomas Næss continues:
“Our motto was simple: This is where great experiences should be enhanced even more! Telenor Arena is quite a raw concrete building with an open construction and an avant-garde design. But it’s not a luxury building at all, as we had to stick to a limited budget.” Nevertheless, several individual variations found their way in. One of the things the owners said yes to was to cover the inside walls with riveted aluminium sheets. The result evokes images of an aircraft fuselage. Incidentally, the design idiom used in aircraft for many years is remarkably similar to that associated with sport: a certain masculine sturdiness reflecting sheer power. So the numbers and letters on jerseys and printed matter resemble the symbols on aircraft.

“The surroundings must be both hardwearing and welcoming. Telenor Arena has what it takes to suit everyone.”

“We ordered our own typeface with distinct contours and a special edging that evokes the right associations. It’s called Stratum 2 and is used on all information signs and streamers. It gives the stadium its cohesion and lends its ambience a special character,” explains Line Jessen. The wall décor is also entirely appropriate. Panels with portraits or stylistic studies of football players interspersed with photographs of spectators run along the walls. They can be easily replaced and renovated between seasons or when there is a change of player. Line, Thomas and the four other members of the design team wanted the floor to resemble concrete and succeeded in convincing the customer to use a rubber coating instead of vinyl carpets. And the rows of windows from floor to ceiling in the twelve executive boxes can now be fully opened to face the arena – thanks to their stubborn argumentation.

Shades of blue
In contrast, Stabæk’s colours were mandatory. The two shades of blue that are repeated in the stripes of the team’s outfits guided the interior design. They are found in the Danish and Swedish fabrics on items such as sofas and upholstered chairs. The walls and the stadium stands with their fold-up seats are in different shades of grey. The colours are combined in an extremely subtle way and are the result of considerable prior testing.

“Timelessness was just as important. All the furniture should still feel modern in ten years,” hopes Thomas Næss. That is where Kinnarps comes into the picture with furniture that one does not tire of. Telenor Arena has over 800 Pompidoo and over 200 Giro chairs, 60 Mayflower and almost 400 other bar  stools (Jefferssons, Turner and Plint), almost 250 Viper tables and a whole lot more – including desk chairs, executive tables, cabinets and coat-hangers. The furniture bill for the whole stadium amounted to over NOK 8 million.

Incidentally, it is being paid for via leasing, on which a joint agreement was reached. This mode of financing suited Telenor Arena down to the ground, as the project then represented a lower investment in the initial phase. The furniture aimed to maximise functionality on small surfaces. And yet the office areas do not feel constricted. And the executive boxes, which face the arena and are hired out to various companies, really are deceptive. Line Jessen and Thomas Næss chose high seating in several of them, i.e. high tables and chairs, so that they appear considerably larger and airier than they really are and also give a better view onto the grass pitch or concert hall. For the sake of comfort, backrests were requested and a combination of two chair models was proposed. So now Turner seats are placed on a “wrong” frame. After approval from the designers, everything was given the all clear. They are called “Line” chairs, a kind of insider joke.

“Character”, “timelessness” and “lots of function on a small area” – I still wonder if the trickiest job was not to shoehorn everything into a single whole. Both football fans and hard rockers should feel at home here. Conference participants will get together in premises that stimulate creative discussion, business people will meet their customers and families with children will be able to slip in to watch home matches. So the surroundings must be both hardwearing and welcoming. Telenor Arena has what it takes to suit everyone.

LOTTA JONSSON