Scandinavian understatement be damned: Fjord City, the €2.8bn cluster of waterfront developments underway in the Norwegian capital, is a bold, complex project designed to slap a fresh, cosmopolitan and cultural face on the country while addressing 21st-century needs for business space and housing. As well as housing Oslo's Opera House, which opened to great fanfare last year, the waterfront will encompass improved art museums, a library, residential and commercial properties as well as new green spaces and promenades — all withenvironmentally friendly designs. As the port facilities are concentrated to the south of the city centre, the trophy waterfront will be accessed via a harbour tunnel that will submerge a busy section of motorway.

One waterfront area, Tjuvholmen, the former site of an industrial pier near Oslo's city hall, is undergoing a complete transformation, thanks to renowned Norwegian architect Niels Torp. Tjuvholmen now is the site of high-design residential, office and commercial projects; the first two phases are complete, three more are underway.

Four architectural firms have been brought in to create a Tjuvholmen streetscape varied in design — several buildings reference the old pier with corners resembling a ship's bow and old pier buildings will be replaced by high-end flats, an art museum and a green buffer.

Of course, there have been some rough patches along the way — including plenty of debate in design-conscious Norway about the architecture, cost and impact of the overall project. There's also been grumbling over using so much prime waterfront for exclusive properties, and what some residents see as Oslo's fleeting concentration over the years on alternating sections of the city.

Additionally, the global financial downturn has slowed sales of flats at Filipstad, which abuts Tjuvholmen, but as of yet, the downturn's impact on Norway and the project itself has been relatively muted. "It's a different world up here," says Rolf A. Johansen Rolid, a spokesman for Oslo's Waterfront Planning Office, referring to Norway's general affluence, which is enabling things to steam ahead. Developers, moreover, are looking to 2010, when flats on Sørenga pier, to the south, are set to go on sale for around €10,000 per m2, according to Rolid.

Nothing, however, signifies the unfolding changes and vision more than the environs of the Opera House. Lording over the Bjørvika section of the waterfront, the landmark building, designed by Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta, is the city's biggest draw, and will soon be joined by a new library, two museums, and the aforementioned Sørenga residences.

Providing new access to this area is another big project. The problem: the busy European Route E-18 runs between the city centre and Bjørvika, and to reach the Opera House pedestrians currently have to use a narrow steel bridge to cross over the motorway. The solution: place this section of the motorway in a 1,100m-long submerged tunnel in the Oslofjord, a couple of hundred metres into the water from the shoreline. The €510m tunnel project, expected to be completed in 2010, is being constructed by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, which will finance it with local tolls. The current motorway space will be made into a street among three new parks and a mixture of apartments and offices.

Officials are also touting Fjord City's sustainability and a goal of zero net-energy use. Among the features that will help make this happen: a heat exchange system using seawater, and a tram service throughout.

Engineers and architects are also hard at work on a colossal new central train station planned for the city, just a few minutes' walk from the Opera House. Construction of the station, a provocatively designed, mixed-use skyscraper projected to be twice the size of Oslo's current one, is slated to start in 2013 and take about €320m and 10 years to complete.