Community Centre

Photo: Frode Inge Helland

Community Centre (Samfunnshuset), The, Arbeidersamfunnets plass 1, a funkis building that fills an entire block, built 1934-41 for Oslo Workers’ Society (Oslo Arbeidersamfunn) (arch. Ove Bang). It features advanced concrete constructions, also in order to satisfy acoustical requirements. Above each other, in the centre of the building lie the former Sentrum kino, the Community Hall, which is, among other things, used for conferences, and rooms for smaller gatherings. Around this nucleus lie shops, offices, a restaurant, vestibules, etc. The facades have been carefully designed in accordance with the function of the interiors, e.g. horizontal bands of windows for the office storeys, vertical stripes of glass- and building-blocks in the staircases, and a retracted balcony in front of the Community Hall vestibule.

During the Second World War, the Luftwaffe’s intelligence service, Luftflotte 5, Luftnachtrichtengruppe, had its offices and radio communication station here. Here too was Luftgau Sanitätspark. Sentrum kino was used as a Wehrmacht cinema and the Community Café became a German restaurant. There were a number of shops here, and from autumn 1942 onwards a German bookshop, Verlagsbuchhandlung A/S Oslo. Immediately after the liberation, the building was turned into an American military headquarters, Head Quarters Task Force A, Oslo Zone Command, United States Army. Sentrum kino was converted into American Theatre.

Sentrum kino closed down in 1988, and is now Sentrum scene. Oslo Workers’ Society sold the building in 1997. The house is marked with one of The Oslo Society’s blue plaques.