POETIC Wins Competition

Neuroarchitectural landscapes at Omagata 110C

POETIC has won the architectural competition to transform Omagata 110C, an existing office building in Kristiansund, Norway. The project proposes a recalibration of the contemporary workplace through spatial principles grounded in landscape, human perception, and duration, rather than efficiency alone.

Set within a Nordic architectural context where climate, light, and restraint act as formative conditions, the project understands the office not as an organisational container but as a spatial landscape. Work is treated as a bodily and cognitive condition unfolding over time—shaped by movement, enclosure, and orientation.

Visual: POETIC

Landscape as Spatial Logic

The conceptual framework draws on the surrounding terrain of Kristiansund, particularly the area around Bremsneshatten, where traces of Stone Age settlement reveal an architecture shaped by necessity. Shelter, orientation, and collective use emerged in direct response to landscape, climate, and bodily limits.

At Omagata 110C, landscape is translated into architectural structure rather than imagery. Spatial hierarchy is organised through compression and release, enclosure and openness, light and gravity—conditions that continue to regulate how space is perceived and inhabited.

From Cave to Sky

The project is structured around a legible spatial sequence defined by two archetypal conditions: the cave and the opening to the sky.

Arrival is conceived as a sheltered threshold. The façade opens inward, forming a compressed entrance sequence that moderates the transition from exterior exposure to interior work life. Reduced sensory input, filtered light, and tactile materiality allow the body to recalibrate before cognitive demands take hold.

Deeper inside the building, the architecture opens vertically. A central atrium draws daylight down through the structure, establishing a clear orientation toward the sky. In Nordic latitudes, daylight is a primary architectural material—temporal, directional, and closely tied to circadian rhythm and mental clarity. The movement from enclosure to openness unfolds gradually, forming a measured spatial rhythm rather than a singular gesture.

Neuroarchitecture and Human Presence

The project has been developed by POETIC, led by Hans-Petter Bjørnådal, in collaboration with architects Kinga Hartman and Hanna Zherenkina, together with neuroscientist Menno Cramer. Insights from neuroarchitecture inform decisions related to spatial sequencing, enclosure, daylight, and sensory load.

Research into how humans neurologically respond to protected versus open environments has directly shaped the cave–atrium sequence, supporting concentration, orientation, and cognitive recovery throughout the working day.

Regeneration, Materiality, and Process

The architectural concept is supported by a comprehensive technical and environmental framework developed in close collaboration with Multiconsult. Regenerative design principles underpin the project, including ambitions toward plus-energy performance, low-carbon material strategies, and long-term adaptability.

Material choices prioritise durability, tactility, and ageing over time, particularly through the extensive use of wood for its regenerative, acoustic, and perceptual qualities. Flexible spatial systems allow future adaptation without major structural intervention, extending the building’s life cycle.

Clients and Outlook

The clients, Ziko Gruppen and NorSea, chose to organise an architectural competition rather than pursue a conventional refurbishment. By involving architectural, neuroscientific, and technical expertise early, the project addresses fundamental spatial questions rather than surface optimisation.

Between cave and sky, Omagata 110C demonstrates how existing office buildings can be recalibrated when architecture begins with landscape, perception, and time as primary design parameters.

Visual: POETIC