Bjergsted Financial Park serves as the new headquarters for SR Bank, located in the heart of Stavanger. This central location, which also includes cultural venues, strengthens the bank’s unique regional presence. The design enables the company to realize its vision of creating local value while providing exceptional service to building users and the surrounding community.
This innovative project sets a new standard for future office spaces and ranks among the largest wooden office buildings in Europe. Constructing a large-scale bank primarily out of wood challenges traditional banking architecture and opens new possibilities for timber structures. The main above-ground structure spans 13,200 square meters over seven stories of wood and is supported by a 9,000 square meter underground base.
The Bjergsted Financial Park is designed to be open and welcoming to the city, fostering strong connections between the buildings and their surroundings. The architect incorporated a small park at the entrance that transitions into traditional small wooden houses. On the east side, the buildings blend with the city’s character through slender, serene facades that gently extend along the streets. A covered sidewalk runs alongside the street, complete with a bus stop. The seven-story building acts as a landmark, aligned with the historic music hall of Bjergsted Park.
The building’s layout centers around a spacious atrium that welcomes natural light, fresh air, and greenery into the interior. Informal gathering spaces face the atrium, acting as a buffer between the quiet work areas positioned along the building’s facade. The exterior features a sharp triangular shape, complemented by vertical glass fins that provide shading. Inside, wooden open corridors organically spiral within the atrium, creating a striking contrast with the sharp exterior form.
Wood and Sustainability: The architects prioritized wood as the primary structural material from the project’s inception, recognizing its positive impact on future workplace experience and quality. Wood’s sustainable nature supported the building’s BREEAM-NOR green certification. The design incorporates a flexible 5 × 4 meter structural grid, allowing adaptable spaces that extend the building’s lifecycle. The project seeks to create authentic, unique spaces, structures, and aesthetic experiences through wooden construction.
This effort was a collaborative development between the Swiss engineering firm Creation Holz, led by engineer Hermann Blümer, and the Norwegian engineering team Degree of Freedom.
One standout feature of this building is the use of beech tenons and organically shaped wooden beams in the joints. The wooden structure comprises four stair shafts reinforced by continuous edge beams made of laminated beech veneer along each floor’s facade, combined with cross-laminated timber (CLT) floor slabs.
The lower columns and beams, suspended above the sidewalk, are crafted from laminated beech wood, while the remainder of the structure uses spruce glue-laminated and cross-laminated timber. The load-bearing staircase’s longitudinal beams curve in two directions, supporting an impressive open staircase that extends five meters into the atrium. The variety of wood types used share a similar aesthetic, intricately weaving together to create a cohesive, organic wooden experience.
Entrance Space:
Office Space:
Project Drawings:
▲ General layout plan
▲ Fourth floor plan
▲ Elevation view
▲ Elevation view
▲ Sectional view
▲ Sectional view
▲ Axonometric diagram
▲ Facade Detail 1
▲ Facade Detail 2
▲ Facade Detail 3
▲ Facade Detail 4
▲ Material Analysis Diagram 1
▲ Material Analysis Diagram 2
▲ Facade structure
▲ Model Section 1
▲ Model Section 2
▲ Structural analysis diagram
Project Information:
Project Type: Office Facilities
Location: Stavanger, Norway
Architectural Design: Helen&Hard Architects, SAAHA
Area: 22,500 m²
Project Year: 2019
Photographers: Sindre Ellingsen, Jan Inge Haga
Manufacturers: Graphisoft, Moelven, Okalux, Schuco, Pollmeier, McNeel, Q-railing
Helen & Hard Design Team: Siv Helene Stangeland, Reinhard Kropf, Peter Feltendal, Njål Undheim, Guillermo Ramirez, Mariana Calvete, Håvard Auklend
Saaha Design Team: Thor Olav Solbjør, Adnan Harambasic, Aasmund Vinje, Zsuzsanna Tolnai, Florian Müller
Client: Sparebank 1, SR Bank
Engineers: Creation Holz; Hermann Blümer
Landscape Design: Asplan Viak
Consultants: RIB Concrete
Furniture: IARK
Structural Engineers: Degree of Freedom together with Creation Holz
RIV and RIE:
About Me: Sinus
RIGeo and RIMilk: Multiconsult
RIBr: Cowi
RIEnergi: Erichsen & Horgen
LCA/LCC: Niras
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