A snow based district cooling system in Oslo

Student project

Oskar Aronsen

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In the future, Oslo is projected to experience four times as many heat waves as it does presently. As the climate is getting warmer, the demand for cooling systems is set to rise. Traditional cooling methods, such as air conditioning, heavily rely on electricity and are energy-intensive. How-ever, what if there’s an untapped resource already abun-dant in the streets?


This project aims to repurpose a district heating facility into a district cooling hub by harnessing the latent ener-gy stored in snow from the streets. Offering a dual benefit; providing both a green production of district cooling and alleviating some of the snow handling away from the big-ger cleaning facility in Oslo, which is currently overloaded. Throughout winter, snow will be collected from the streets and stored until summer, before being used for cooling production.


The storage will be situated at Rosenkrantz Gate 14 in Oslo’s city center, housed in the city’s first district heating facility, formerly known as Dampcentralen. The building’s existing infrastructure for distributing waterborne heating makes it an ideal candidate for this program. Currently, the building primarily serves as a distribution center for district heating, with much of its 7000 square meters remaining vacant due to as production has relocated elsewhere. Cel-sio, the building’s owner, has shown interest in repurposing the space. However, this poses a challenge due to the lab-yrinthic circulation system, consisting of levels, stairs, and hallways intertwined with one another, leaving the building unsuitable for accommodating more than one actor at a time.


In addition to the new cooling system, the project consists of a new circulation system. The new circulation will inte-grate with the snow storage and provide a new entrance to the various areas of the building complex. Much of the circulation remains concealed beneath the snow, however, as the snow slowly melts away the volume containing the circulation, an almost Hejduk-ian monster, will reveal itself. As the seasons change and the snow volume fluctuates, temporary levels will become accessible or inaccessible, altering the space.

Oskar Aronsen

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A snow based district cooling system in Oslo

A snow based district cooling system in Oslo