A new meeting place for fans of bowling and good food has opened in the centre of Oslo, on Torggata. This short street in the heart of the Norwegian city is only open to pedestrians and cyclists and is famous for its large number of trendy bars and restaurants.

The new place, called Duckpin, is a restaurant and recreation venue with rooms entirely dedicated to mini duckpin bowling. The shorter lanes, smaller balls, squatter pins and absence of the classic lace-up shoes with slippery soles of this bowling variation sit comfortably in the American industrial interiors with their wooden tables and soft sofas. The venue is the first in Europe to offer this unusual combination of a different form of entertainment and delicious dining opportunities in the same venue.

Duckpin is an opportunity to socialise that arose as a response to the pandemic, in which people found themselves shut away in their own homes for months at a time. It offers a wide range of delicious specialities, with an ever-changing American fusion menu based on culinary delights conjured up from sizzling charcoal grills.

Much time and effort was also invested in designing the spaces and the lighting: the building’s classic-style facades are foregrounded by the light from Neva 7.0 and Neva 7.2 linear profiles, with 18° optics and mounted on 140-mm-high adjustable graduated brackets. Their minimalist design, recessed optics for excellent visual comfort and, last but not least, installation on brackets makes them ideal for use as architectural lighting. Neva comes in several versions, the main difference being the colour of the LED sources they contain – for this project, SML Lighting chose the RGBW version to give the venue owners the possibility of creating different lighting scenes with plays and accents of coloured light to brighten up the exterior walls overlooking Oslo’s busiest street.