There are many organizations, clubs, and groups that offer a variety of activities that cater to different interests and age groups in Stovner. The limited communication between them, however, means that exchanging ideas and pooling resources rarely happen. Thus, there is a need for a physical place, in addition to a digital space—such as Facebook groups and the like—where different groups could connect with each other. A religiously neutral place for cross-generational and multicultural exchange could bring siloed groups out of their separated spaces and make them more of a part of the public realm as active members of the community.
Additionally, the lack of personal space in people’s homes due to over-crowded apartments, calls for creating and updating more public spaces. Currently, the Stovner Shopping Mall constitutes one of the most visited public spaces in Stovner. It is centrally located, surrounded by the different housing cooperatives, and offers direct access to the subway. There are currently many empty retail spaces in the mall, and a large portion of the car parking lot is unused. While there is no shortage of commercial offers in the rest of the mall, the Neighborhood Mall project proposes a strategy for creating new public facilities for the community by upgrading the abandoned and under-utilized spaces of the mall. To make the new public spaces visible from the outside—since malls are often spatially introverted—the project suggests perforating the existing façades and removing some of the physical mass to create outdoor spaces.