– We have brought back the color intensity from the 1850s
With an eye for colour, an ear for acoustics and a heart for recycling, architect Marianne Vedeler Gulliksen has designed UiO’s new event spaces in Domus Bibliotheca
TRADITIONAL AND MODERN: – This blue color gives energy in an otherwise gray and conflict-filled time, says architect and project manager for the renovation and decoration of the event rooms in Domus Bibliotheca, Marianne Vedeler Gulliksen. The pink design sofa is a second-hand purchase.
Photo: Ola Gamst Sæther
– In this information, all the walls were grey, senior architect in the Real Estate Department at UiO Marianne Vedeler Gulliksen. In particular, she shows off the university’s new event spaces in the Domus Bibliotheca on Karl Johan.
When the Faculty of Law moved to new modern premises in the new Domus Juridica on Tullinløkka in 2020, the old library premises became vacant, and it was decided that these should be converted into event and meeting rooms.
In addition to being the project manager for the redecoration, Marianne Vedeler Gulliksen is responsible for architecture and design.
She starts the tour in the vestibule, where the library desk has been converted into a reception and serving area.
![](https://www.uniforum.uio.no/nyheter/2022/10/bilder/domus-bibliotheca-13-copy.jpg)
The colors in the room are strong. The plexiglass behind the shelves in the counter is purple-colored, and the walls have a yellow color like which Gulliksen refers to as sienna. The row of columns has received gold-gilt chapters.
A large picture on the wall has been framed in the same purple color as the shelves in the reception desk.
– It is an acoustic image, designed to absorb sound, says Gulliksen.
The motif is a close-up of some of the elaborate greeting sleeves who came from far and near for the university’s centenary in 1911.
Three new assembly rooms
The premises consist of a supplement to the vestibule, of three large ones room, one middle room increased room under the mezzanine in the middle room, which Gulliksen describes as a multi-purpose room.
Marianne Vedeler Gulliksen refers to the largest room as the middle room, because it is in the middle of the building. This was originally a courtyard which was later converted into a hall with a glass roof and decorated walls. Gulliksen calls it an overhead hall.
The room was previously used as a reading room.
– In contrast to the other surroundings, which were gray when the exhibition took off, in 2014 this room was returned to the color setting it had in the 1880s, says Gulliksen.
Well, the reading room seats have been replaced with chairs, the room has been given a stage, and modern audiovisual equipment has been integrated into the old bookshelves. Part of the equipment is delayed due to the war in Ukraine, but soon everything should be in place.
![](https://www.uniforum.uio.no/nyheter/2022/10/bilder/domus-bibliotheca-8-copy.jpg)
Otherwise, it is not such a big change.
– All the work in the premises has been carried out in close dialogue with the National Archives, and in this room we have not been allowed to do so much, says Gulliksen.
The acoustics were bad
She has been allowed to put sound-absorbing plates on top of the bookshelves. Up on the mezzanine at the end of the room, they will further set inn furniture which can help to provide better acoustics in the room.
– The acoustics in it were bad. We have spent a lot of time and energy finding good acoustic measures in these rooms, reveals Marianne Vedeler Gulliksen.
The old legal books in the bookshelves along the long walls in the central room help to preserve the feel of a library, but these books also have an acoustic function.
With the exception of the central room, which has a glass stack, the room has acoustic plaster on the ceilings, and there are sound-absorbing plates on top of almost all the shelves. In some places it is also placed acoustic pictures and taps inside the bookshelves.
![](https://www.uniforum.uio.no/nyheter/2022/10/bilder/domus-bibliotheca-2-copy.jpg)
In addition to the large center tulle, which is to be used for various types of events such as debaters, series of meetings, performances and other local disputes. room that can be used for meetings and events, a purple room with large tables for serving, a with windows facing Karl Johan and one with windows facing Frederiks gate.
The teal room
The room facing Karl Johan has been given a blue-green colour.
– Here we started with iron yellow and ended up with this color, which I think has turned out very well, comments the project manager.
We have brought back the color intensity from the 1850s, Gulliksen asserts.
![](https://www.uniforum.uio.no/nyheter/2022/10/bilder/domus-bibliotheca-7-copy.jpg)
– We have taken the color palette as a starting point Thorvaldsen’s MuseumDenmark’s first public museum, which was completed in 1848. The goal has been to find colors that play on layers with the original colors in the building and which are harmonious together, she says.
The sofas in the room have approximately the same color as the walls in the room facing Fredriks gate, the room Gulliksen refers to as the ultramarine room.
![](https://www.uniforum.uio.no/nyheter/2022/10/bilder/domus-bibliotheca-14-copy.jpg)
Much of the modern furniture in the premises is repurposed, taken from UiO’s furniture warehouse or bought second-hand.
The white 19th-century doors from the corridor into the central room were also bought second-hand.
– Reuse has been an important principle in the rehabilitation and furnishing of local notes in our guide.
The ultramarine room has frosted glass in the lower sections of the large windows to dampen the visual and acoustic noise from Frederiksgate, where there is sometimes heavy traffic.
Gulliksen would like to know what we think about the color in the room.
– Ultramarine means beyond the sea. I think this is a color that speaks to the youth and a color that gives energy in an otherwise gray and conflict-filled time, she comments.
![](https://www.uniforum.uio.no/nyheter/2022/10/bilder/domus-bibliotheca-5-copy.jpg)
There is a lot she wants to show off. In any of the shelves in the purple space between the blue space and the middle space is filled with small decorations on sound absorbers.
– It is 750 years since Magnus Lagabøte gave Norway a national law. The book that is handed over is a picture of Domus Bibliotheca both from its time as a library and as UiO’s new arena for communication and dialogue, Gulliksen declares.
On another shelf is a section with the signature of the chief librarian at the Royal Library in Copenhagen. He was the one who selected the duplicates that were sent to the newly established university in Christiania, Gulliksen can tell.
Happy to be allowed to work creatively
Marianne Vedeler Gulliksen has previously worked as a project manager for several large renovation projects, including the cathedral in Oslo.
I am grateful that UiO this time gave me many opportunities to be both project manager and architect. It has been nice to be allowed to work creatively again, she says and reveals that she has been very used to how locals would work with many people. Would the acoustic measures be sufficient?
When Svein Stølen on 21 September made the official opening of it as on UiO’s websites referred to as UiO’s new dialogue and dissemination arenashe could breathe a sigh of relief.
It worked perfectly.
• Read more in Uniforum: * Officially open UiO’s new debate arena in Domus Bibliotheca
Released 10 Oct 2022 04:30
– Sister Endra 10 Oct 2022 09:44