What really fascinated me most about Oslo were the many different worlds that lie side by side without any real transition. Even on foot, the city shows you a different face after a short time and there is always something new to discover.

A lot has happened since I came to Oslo over six months ago and my internship at Helen & Hard should have been over long ago. As time has passed so quickly and I really like it here, I’m going to stay until the summer. I will not only have lived here during the cold season, but will also be able to experience some warm summer days in this beautiful place.

It’s already warm here in the north and the days are surprisingly long. It gets light as early as 5am and it doesn’t start to get dark until 9pm. I can’t wait to see what it will be like in summer – even in Oslo, which is more southerly, it should never get really dark. The warm and long days liven up the city and, especially in the harbor area, tourists cavort on the roof of the opera house, at the boat moorings in front of the city hall or along the promenade of Aker Brygge.

A lot has happened architecturally here in recent years: the opera house, the Barcode high-rises, the Astrup Fearnley Museum, the new residential and commercial buildings in Aker Brygge. Designed by renowned architects (Snøhetta, Renzo Piano, MVRDV), these very young buildings in Oslo characterize the much-visited harbour area.

However, Oslo is a very diverse city and offers many different small worlds to discover and appreciate. For example, a ten-minute walk away from the prestigious harbor area and the main street Karl-Johann leading to the castle in a north-easterly direction, the neatly paved promenades give way to normal, asphalted streets. Instead of the Gucci stores, tourist stores and expensive cafés, you will find vegetable stores that take up half the sidewalk, hairdressing salons called “Habibi” or similar, which are usually packed, and many small Asian restaurants. If you walk north along the river, you will come across huge brick buildings, mostly old factories and breweries, but also colorful little wooden houses painted in all kinds of colors and surrounded by cute, lovingly tended gardens.

If you continue here, you will eventually pass typical suburban concrete blocks and enter rural-looking areas with play streets lined with detached houses with large gardens. After these, you suddenly find yourself in beautiful forests with hiking trails and lakes.

If you want to learn more about Oslo’s history, it is best to visit the Bygdøy peninsula, where the Vikingskipshuset and the Norsk Folkemuseum are located. Norwegian farmhouses and townhouses from all different eras and regions of Norway have been collected and rebuilt in the open-air museum. These show historical types of construction and offer an insight into the living culture of the time. At the weekend, young Norwegian women in traditional dress (including one of my work colleagues) bake bread in the traditional way in some of the old farmhouses.

What really fascinated me most about Oslo were the many different worlds that lie side by side without any real transition. Even on foot, the city shows you another of its many faces after a short time and there is always something new to discover. My time here has brought me closer to Nordic culture and history and has also shown me what can happen in a short space of time in a rapidly growing capital city.

The internship itself has allowed me to work on many exciting and varied projects and has given me an insight into the daily work of an architect. I would like to thank Helen & Hard for this, as well as for the always pleasant and friendly working atmosphere, the cozy lunch breaks and evenings spent together with colleagues, for all the lovely people I was able to meet and the friendships that developed and strengthened during my time here.

I would also like to thank everyone involved at Graphisoft and Baumeister for giving students like me such an opportunity. I have learned so much in the six months and recommend everyone to take at least one semester to do an internship in an architecture firm if it is not part of their studies anyway.

The Baumeister Academy is supported by Graphisoft