Gamlehagen is the historic garden connected to Tøyen Manor within the Botanical Garden in Oslo. The garden has changed repeatedly over time, and the protected landscape includes both older historical layers and a significant 20th-century reconstruction.

In collaboration with Lala Tøyen, we contributed cultural heritage analysis, archival research and architectural advice for the rehabilitation of the garden. Our work focused on clarifying the site’s capacity for change within the framework of the heritage protection and management plan.

A central challenge was that the existing terrace wall, stairs and garden structure were not simply remnants of an original historic garden, but part of a later reconstruction from the 1950s. The project therefore required a careful reading of the garden’s different historical layers, rather than a straightforward return to one selected period.

Key questions concerned the repair and rebuilding of a failing terrace wall, the selection of new stone where the original stone source could no longer be used, and the integration of a new universally accessible route to the upper level of the garden. Each decision had to balance technical repair, material continuity, accessibility and the historical legibility of the place.

The result is a careful rehabilitation of a layered garden setting, where new interventions support both use and understanding. Rather than treating the protected garden as a fixed object, the project works with its history as a sequence of changes, allowing Tøyen Manor and Gamlehagen to remain accessible, readable and in continued use.