The Hallagerbakken housing project in Holmlia, Norway: when welfare became business

The late 1970s and early 1980s witnessed one of the most influential shifts within the organisational system of production for Norwegian mass housing. Although the increased availability of resources following the Second World War and the discovery of North Sea oil put the Norwegian government in a favourable position for investing in state-sponsored housing programmes, such investments did not happen. Instead, the strong public responsibility for affordable housing as a right of all citizens was weakened, and housing evolved into a commodity to be traded primarily on the free market.Hallagerbakken, a housing project within the Holmlia satellite townthe last large housing development in the south of Oslohas been influenced by several of the changes that occurred in the housing sector during this period. The resulting hybrid housing typology represented an innovation in the Norwegian setting, and, as a result, the project provides a starting point for re-evaluating some of the shifts towards a more market-oriented reality within architecture and the built environment.