Utopic.
a creative studio specializing in
small-scale architecture and urban processes with a public impact.
Utopic AS
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Utopic is an award-winning architecture studio based in Bergen, Norway.
We are particularly known for our work with floating saunas: projects where co-creation and community focus result in beautiful architecture with a significant public impact.
Our other long-term project is running Europan Norway, a non-profit organization that organizes innovation processes for urban planning and the world’s largest architecture competition.
What we can do for you:
Besides making beautiful buildings and saunas, we can help you with urban feasibility studies, workshops, participatory processes, co-creations, and urban acupuncture strategies for revitalizing places with minimal investment.
Explore 1
Project Name
LaugarenLaugaren is a community project in Bergen, Norway: a floating sauna designed and built with volunteers in order to create an accessible, creative, and affordable new amenity in the city. Today Laugaren is the centre point of an association of more than 1 200 members, 165 events a year and 37 000 visitors. Laugaren has won several awards: “DOGA Merket Nykommer” for excellent architecture and design 2024, Sauna of the year 2024 and Honorable mention in the Bergen Urban life award 2025.
Read more at laugaren.no
Design Contributors: Bjørnar Skaar Haveland, Kine Djupedal Fristad, Watjara Sakernes, Mads Djurhus, Anders Fristad, Jeanine El Khawand.
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Project Name
Kos SaunaKos sauna is bringing Norwegian sauna culture to the US. Located in Saratoga Springs, New York, KOS is adapting the Norwegian concept of the floating sauna — a simple, high-quality experience that brings you closer to nature — to a US context. The project merges architectural concepts with operations: great views, closeness to the water, high-quality materials, and a business concept built around refined simplicity, allowing for affordability and community.
Read more at kossaunas.com
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Project Name
Europan Norway Utopic runs the secretariat of the Europan Norway foundation. Europan is the world’s largest architecture competition and a network of cities, universities, and professionals across Europe.
We run innovation processes for municipalities, public entities, and developers with complex urban issues. Research, site analysis, participation processes, stakeholder negotiations, and organizing international conferences are all part of a process that ends in an international architecture competition.
Read more at europan.no
The latest Europan processes we have organized:
Europan 18 NomeThe competition to design a vision for a "green mineral park" at the Fen complex has received 12 proposals. The proposals, now public, challenge traditional mining by focusing on sustainability, circular economy principles, and landscape changes.
The Fen complex in Nome holds Europe's largest deposit of rare-earth elements, which are minerals crucial for modern technology and the green transition. The extraction of these minerals has major geopolitical significance in reducing Europe's dependence on China. Europan 18, therefore, gave young architects, landscape architects, and urban planners the speculative task of designing concepts for a "green mineral park" and how it can be sustainably integrated into the landscape.
Read more at europan.no
Europan 18 TrondheimThe Europan 18 competition for a new museum in Trondheim sought a visionary architectural design to merge the Trondheim Kunstmuseum and the National Museum of Decorative Arts into a single, "extroverted" cultural hub. Located at the underutilized Leüthenhaven site, the challenge focused on the theme of "Re-sourcing," tasking young architects to transform the existing urban fabric—including an old parking garage—into an inclusive, sustainable, and democratic public space. The winning proposal by TOTO architects was selected from 60 entries for its innovative approach to adaptive reuse, creating a "cultural powerhouse" that integrates museum functions with the surrounding city to revitalize Trondheim’s historic center.
Read more at europan.no
Europan 18 RoaRoa faces a number of challenges, such as out-migration, spread-out development, and an aging population. These challenges are well-known to many small towns in Norway. The Europan competition challenged young architects, landscape architects, and urban planners to develop solutions for Roa's future.
The 12 proposals present new ideas for how the Frøystad site can become a lively center and, at the same time, serve as a springboard for a strategic plan for future development throughout the village.
Read more at europan.no
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Project Name
KunstallmenningenOn behalf of KODE, Bergen’s public museum for art, design, and music, we conducted a comprehensive participatory process with stakeholders and museum employees regarding the ground floor of the Stenersen building—an early brutalist structure that has been closed to the public for years. We studied how the museum could learn from modern libraries to create a "public commons" centered around art, leisure, and cultural events. Our proposal features a flexible layout and concept that bleeds out into the street to attract new user groups and increase interaction with the park, establishing Stenersen as KODE’s new primary point of entry and a vibrant hub for art and culture in the city.
Contributors: Bjørnar Skaar Haveland, Ingeborg Katie Åtland. Illustrations with Skera Figura.
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