“What we have, we have, and what has already been done, is done. The question is what we can use it for going forward.”

On Thursday 18 June, the Directorate for Cultural Heritage (Riksantikvaren), in collaboration with the Oslo Architecture Triennale, hosted an afternoon gathering in Riksantikvaren’s library in Schweigaards gate. The event “What if cultural heritage comes first?” is part of the pre-programme ahead of the triennale’s opening on 17 September. It was an opportunity to ask a question as simple as it is demanding: What happens if we put what we already have first?

The question takes its form from the triennale theme “What if nature comes first?” When the planet’s tolerance limits are taken as the starting point for how we shape our built environment, preservation and reuse are no longer a concern alongside development, but a precondition for it. Caring for and further developing the buildings and environments we already have is among the most effective things we can do to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prevent the loss of nature. When cultural heritage comes first, nature often comes along with it.

From protection to value

Riksantikvar Hanna Geiran opened by highlighting the place of cultural environments in societal development, before triennale director Line Ramstad turned to the triennale’s own starting point. Preservation, she stressed, is not only about preservation in itself, but about the resources it holds: materials, structures, people, and the small micro-environments that arise when we do things with care.

“It can become poorer if we simply preserve everything without considering how it is to be used further. We must look at what actually creates value, and how different elements can live on – side by side or in new contexts.”

This is a shift from protection as a full stop to protection as a beginning. Regulation matters, but it can also make it difficult to intervene where needed. Ramstad therefore called for more flexible zoning plans and a more positive approach to preservation – ways of relating to resources without locking everything in place. We already have many fine colours, qualities and solutions. The important thing is to use them wisely going forward.

Three perspectives on the same question

The talks were followed by three reflective contributions, each with its own view of what it means to put cultural heritage first.

Linda Veiby from Riksantikvaren’s Society Department pointed to the role of public administration and how the frameworks around preservation are shaped. Kjetil Bjørklund, head of climate at KS (the Norwegian Association of Local and Regional Authorities) and a former member of parliament, connected cultural heritage to the circular economy and the behaviour changes we are starting to see at all levels of our governing bodies.

Mie Fuglseth, managing director of Grønn Byggallianse (the Norwegian Green Building Council), highlighted the benefits of rehabilitating, transforming and upgrading the existing building stock, working to make caring for and improving the buildings we already have the first choice in the construction sector.

The gathering concluded with a panel conversation between Line Ramstad, Kjetil Bjørklund and Mie Fuglseth, moderated by Vignir Freyr Helgason, coordinator of the national preservation strategy for cultural heritage in town and country.

To intervene – and create joy

What tied the afternoon together was a shared conviction that preservation need not stand in the way of development. On the contrary, it can be the very driving force.

“The goal is to intervene, preserve what has value, develop it further, and at the same time create joy.”

That last word is no coincidence. If we are to succeed in building on what we have, it must also be experienced as a gain, not a constraint. Reuse and preservation can create richer surroundings, not poorer ones, when we dare to ask what it is actually to be used for.

The conversation in the library is only the beginning. We carry the questions with us when the Oslo Architecture Triennale opens on 17 September – and we invite further dialogue there.

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Oslo Architecture Triennale 2026 – “What if nature comes first?” – opens 17 September.