What if Nature Comes First? The 2026 Oslo Architecture Triennale’s answer includes a sauna

Introducing the 2026 Oslo Architecture Triennale, Line Ramstad laments: ‘Too often nature comes last.' Her simple response as chief curator for the global event, which just opened its doors in the Norwegian capital, became its theme: ’What if nature came first?’ At Oslo’s Sofienberg church, which rises over the city’s diverse, lively Grünelokka neighbourhood, 32 international exhibitors have responded.

Dive into the 2026 Oslo Architecture Triennale

Since 1877, people climbing the small hill to the church have sought higher visions. The triennale now offers an updated one, which, as Ramstad outlines, is to ‘imagine our built environment on nature’s terms’. It couldn’t be more timely as we race towards climate tipping points. Buildings contribute almost 40 per cent of CO2 emissions, and the construction industry generates a third of all waste. Reuse rather than demolition, rethinking waste, natural materials and addressing wider effects on territory are architecture’s new front lines, and they all take centre stage in Oslo.

Filling the church’s nave, displays are mounted on wooden structures, built quickly and set to be dismantled for reuse just as fast. The first encounter is with a curious quilt-like band of square panels in red, tan and black hues. They come from the Upcycling Wool Ecology project of Harvard University’s Grinham Research Group, which addresses our annual two million tonnes of wool production, half of which is wasted.

From sheep farming to the making of keratin-rich construction panels from their wool, the project is explained by a fascinating but text-heavy presentation.

By contrast, no words accompany the acrylic paintings by artist Gitta Saetre, which vividly document the construction of Norway’s new Rv.555 Sotrasambandet highway.

Another artistic contribution, about territory, from Galena Sardemova and Paris Bezanis, shows three enchanting copper plates in mud-moulded pewter frames, etched with images of mud bathing in the Black Sea.

One of the many messages on advocacy group HouseEurope!’s single-sentence posters reminded us that ‘We (architects) are practising in a system that puts profit over people and planet’. Nevertheless, architects at the triennale present projects that take sustainability to radical levels, such as Danish architecture studio Pihlmann’s maximal reuse to transform Thoravej 29, a Copenhagen factory – ‘most of the buildings of the future are already standing’, they note.

Norway’s Architects Without Borders (AUG) show projects from across the planet in their ‘Building with What Exists’ display, complete with material samples, from biomaterials to reused oil pipes. Around the church exterior, waste reuse is demonstrated by projects such as Ask Holmen’s sculptural benches made from granite quarry offcuts.

Beside the church’s entrance, there is a small sauna house. This fresh wooden structure with colourful roofing surprisingly complements the soaring brick church and offers saunas to triennale visitors and locals. Inside, temperatures surpass 80°C, and the cold shower to follow is outside, shaded by trees. Open Sauna is run by sauna association Oslo Badstuforening, an associate of the triennale that has facilities around the city.

In Oslo’s polluted harbour waters beside one such facility, local practice Transborder Studio (which is also exhibiting its Ready Clay One proposal for a house built from the Oslo clay beneath it, with rammed-earth walls) has submerged a 9m x 9m wooden platform (a project titled Oslo Badebotaniske) to give biodiversity a new chance, and it’s already a thriving marine garden.

The triennale’s legacy will emerge as architecture takes the call to put nature first. That brings us to Paradigme, a handsome book edited by Nora Ulrikke Andersen and Ingrid Haga. Through the triennale, they issued an open call for projects from young Scandinavian architects. Thirty-six were selected, from the whimsical House for a Troll by Martin Hopland (trolls were big Norwegian folklore creatures long before the online variety) to Jens Hansen’s practical reuse of demolished concrete rubble, which retains compressive strength good for columns.

Ramstad says that ‘if the system is broken, fix it’. The triennale highlights the system’s problems and demonstrates solutions, but ultimately, the hope of building in balance with nature lies with young architects, like those that Paradigme spotlights.

oslotriennale.no, until 1 October 2026