Oslo - The Norwegian capital Oslo is a city of Viking history, snowy forests, fishing, and the oil industry. However, the largest Norwegian city is currently also the fastest-growing European metropolis and is undergoing the largest and most controversial change since the 17th century. This is reported by the BBC News website. Nowhere is the reconstruction of Oslo more clearly visible than from the top of the new Norwegian Opera. This building made of shiny marble and glass was opened in 2008 after disputes over its ultra-modern design and a price tag of 835 million dollars. Since then, due to free public access to its sloping roof, the Opera has become a popular attraction offering panoramic views of the surrounding hills and fjord. Currently, this panorama is changing rapidly. On one side, a row of gleaming skyscrapers known as Barcode is taking shape. If you turn 90 degrees, you will see construction workers working on high-rise residential buildings and replacing old streets with underground tunnels. "A few years ago, we had a city with low buildings and the towers of several churches," says architect Geir Haaversen, who is behind the Barcode project. "But we have to get used to change, because Oslo now has many more people living and working here. Trees are sacred here - Norwegians love trips to the countryside - so the only option is denser settlement and building upwards," he adds. Population growth in the metropolis has exceeded two percent in recent years, and the number of inhabitants is expected to rise from 624,000 in 2013 to 832,000 in 2040-2050, according to the Norwegian statistics office. This is partly due to increasing birth rates and longer life expectancy of citizens. However, it is also due to record immigration. Since the late 1960s, when oil discoveries in the North Sea propelled it among the richest countries in the world, Norway has attracted an unending stream of immigrants. Currently, the largest group of new immigrants is made up of Poles and Lithuanians, and immigration from economically struggling southern European countries is also increasing. "I earn three times more here than at home, and that does not even include tips," says 23-year-old Vasco Raposo, who moved to the city in October 2012 and runs a bar here. "The society here is structured so that no one is actually poor, no matter what job you do," he adds. According to the Legatum Institute, Norway has been at the top of the wealth and well-being rankings, which includes 110 countries, for five years. With 10,000 new apartments planned for the Norwegian capital over the next 15 years, it is no surprise that many immigrants moving north are builders and architects. Recently, Norway was voted the best place in the world for young architects seeking work. Six minutes by tram from the Opera lies Oslo's most luxurious new suburb, Tjuvholmen, or the Island of Thieves. In this place, pirates were executed in the 18th century, but a few years ago private developers moved in. In 2012, the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art was relocated here. The sail-shaped building was designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, who is also the author of the famous Pompidou Center and London's Shard skyscraper. Across the street stands the first five-star hotel built in Oslo in more than 100 years, owned by one of Norway's wealthiest individuals, billionaire Petter Stordalen. "We are part of Oslo's changing face," he declares in a hotel lobby filled with velvet sofas and foreign art. "This city is no longer just about fish and oil. We are becoming an architectural superpower and a destination for culture and business. Anyone who was in Oslo ten years ago will be shocked upon their return," he adds. However, the rapid development of the city has sparked strong criticism in some areas. In a public opinion poll conducted by the Aftenposten newspaper, 71 percent of respondents expressed opposition to the Barcode skyscraper project. "We have all these tall buildings that stand out and may be famous, but planners do not think much about improving the city for typical residents," says Lars Röde, an architectural historian and former director of the Oslo City Museum. According to him, the city risks losing its Nordic identity. "You could say we had more money than sense, and it ended up destroying the image of the city to which we are accustomed and which we like," he added. For others, discussions surrounding the changing image of Oslo are related to a broader political debate about the increasingly diverse population of Norway. Two years after Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in central Oslo and on the nearby island of Utøya, the anti-immigration party he once supported entered the government as part of a coalition led by new conservative Prime Minister Erna Solberg. "In eastern Oslo, immigrants live, and the white population there is a minority," explains one of the Norwegian taxi drivers. "Elegant buildings are in wealthy neighborhoods. They are a symbol of the growing divide between the rich and the poor and insufficient assimilation. I fear we could witness unrest like that experienced in Stockholm or Paris in the future," he adds. However, Geir Haaverson argues that the goal of planners and architects is to create a more unified city. His firm has won six competitions in a row for new project designs, including several in eastern Oslo. Haaverson focuses on creating "public spaces" such as squares and playgrounds where different nationalities can interact, and whose green areas embody the Norwegian love for nature. "Oslo can use this growth to its advantage or the opposite. It is an opportunity. I am convinced that we are starting to bring Oslo into the spotlight for good reasons," he concludes.
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