Anachronistic Brutalism
A hotel concept inside an existing building in Grünerløkka — built from materials that already existed.
Markveien 65 backs onto the Akerselva river in Grünerløkka. The assignment was to turn the existing building into a hotel — a standard room, an HC-adapted room and a reception — with circular economy as the premise rather than the headline. That meant parts of the interior had to come from materials that already existed.
They were sourced at the Økern reuse centre: two demountable wall claddings, a functional design object, and reused furniture. Demountable is the whole point. A wall that can come down without being destroyed can move on to the next building instead of becoming waste — otherwise you have only postponed the throwing away.
The concept is called Anachronistic Brutalism. Brutalism's exposed concrete is the starting point: honest surfaces, nothing pretending to be something else. Against it stand materials that have already had a life. The anachronism is in the pairing — a rawness from the sixties put to work on a problem from the twenties.
The guest sits in the mid-to-high price bracket but wants Grünerløkka without paying a fortune for it. The hotel should feel exclusive without hiding that most of what is in it has been used before.
