en.Wedoany.com Reported - Norway's aluminum and renewable energy company Hydro is delivering the country's first office retrofit project using a closed-loop aluminum curtain wall at the Sørkedalsveien 6 commercial building in Oslo. By recycling aluminum from the existing building and reprocessing it into new curtain wall products, the project demonstrates the potential for circular utilization of curtain wall aluminum through full material traceability.
Founded in 1905, Norsk Hydro is a global leader in aluminum and renewable energy, dedicated to transforming natural resources into innovative and efficient industrial products. Sørkedalsveien 6 is a 21,000-square-meter commercial building originally designed by Lund+Slaatto Architects. The project is led by CapMan Real Estate, with Hydro collaborating closely with industry partners including its building systems brands WICONA and STATICUS, Stena Recycling, Insenti, and Lund+Slaatto Architects.
In implementation, the original aluminum curtain wall was carefully dismantled and sorted on-site, then transported to Stena Recycling in Halmstad, Sweden, for further sorting. The recycled aluminum was subsequently sent to Hydro's recycling facility in Sweden, where it was reprocessed into Hydro CIRCAL 75R, a recycled aluminum containing at least 75% post-consumer scrap. The project recycles approximately 50 tons of aluminum from the original curtain wall back into the loop.
Unlike demolition and reconstruction, this retrofit project retains most of the original building's structure, expected to reduce building energy consumption by approximately 57%. The energy required for recycling aluminum is only 5% of that needed to produce primary aluminum, significantly lowering the building's carbon footprint. The project is expected to be completed in 2027, when it will become the global headquarters of software company Visma. Selected as one of eight pilot projects under the Nordic Circular Pilot Program, it marks the first time Norway has achieved fully closed-loop recycling of aluminum in the building sector.
