Thor Heyerdahl School, Norway Building, Project, Photo, News, Design, Image

Thor Heyerdahl School Norway

Norwegian Education Building Development – design by Schmidt Hammer Lassen, architects

12 Sep 2009

Thor Heyerdahl School

“School for the future” in Norway inaugurated

English Text ; scroll down for Danish text:

The Thor Heyerdahl School of Advanced and Further Education in Larvik, Norway has been inaugurated.

The 33,400 m2 new school, designed by the Danish architects schmidt hammer lassen, is the largest new school in Norway. Schmidt hammer lassen won the international competition for the school including a 4000 spectator sports arena in 2005. One year later, the company won the competition for a 25,000 m2 school building of City of Westminster College.

The new school is pointing to the future as a social and educational experiment. The students of the technical educations are deliberately mixed with college students aspiring for later university degrees. Thus, schmidt hammer lassen have made Norwegian thoughts on educational reform concrete.

Schoolchildren are normally divided after secondary school, but in Larvik they will be kept together and blended socially and across educations in an open learning environment. The blend of social classes and the mutual inspiration the students of various trades give each other has the purpose of enhancing equality in society.

“We have chosen to rethink and challenge the traditional boundaries surrounding school buildings. We wanted to create an architectonic base for a well functioning student environment and increased cross disciplinary activity”, said associate partner Kristian Ahlmark, design architect on the school project.

The building is laid out to place the buzzling social activity in the axis of the house with informal meeting spaces. As you move further away from the axis, the spaces turn into half-open niches and the furthest areas of the wings are calm and secluded to allow concentrated studying.

The teaching takes place in the terraced wings. Parts of the classrooms have glass walls to maintain openness and contact to the common areas. The workshops for the technical educations are also in open contact with the rest of the school.

The architecture is a compact vertically oriented structure with a characteristic and dynamic form of four axes. The central structure consists of an open quadratic deck. This deck has deep incisions that give the building a dynamic form and enable daylight to seep into the furthest corners of the building. The deck above is identical but twisted 180 degrees around the central axis of the building. Hence, at series of single and double height areas are created providing visual contact from one floor to the next. The shifting decks create external terraces in a direct flow from the classrooms.

The sports arena has room for 4000 spectators. It will be used by the school for cultural and sports lessons during the day and serve as the home arena for the local handball club as well as venue for many other sports and cultural events during the evenings.

Thor Heyerdahl School images / information from schmidt hammer lassen architects

Schmidt Hammer & Lassen

Danish text

Største videregående skole i Norge indvies

Thor Heyerdahl Videregående Skole i Larvik, der er tegnet af schmidt hammer lassen architects bliver indviet i dag (fredag) med et festprogram, hvor partner John Lassen er blandt gæstetalerne. Schmidt hammer lassen vandt i 2005 en international konkurrence om den 33.400 m2 store skole i Larvik med tilhørende sportsarena.

Skolen er genstand for et socialt og uddannelsesmæssigt eksperiment, idet elever på tekniske ungdomsuddannelser blandes med gymnasieelever. Schmidt hammer lassen architects har dermed konkretiseret norske reformtanker for en fremtidssikret læreanstalt. Elever, der normalt skilles efter folkeskolen, holdes således sammen og blandes socialt og fagligt i et åbent læringsmiljø. Blandingen af sociale klasser og den gensidige inspiration fra de mange fag, som eleverne giver hinanden, har til hensigt at fremme ligheden i samfundet.

“Det har været en udfordrende opgave, hvor vi har valgt, at gentænke de traditionelle rammer omkring et gymnasiebyggeri. Vi ville skabe en helhed, der kunne danne det fysiske grundlag for en øget tværfaglighed på en uddannelsesinstitution med fag, der spænder fra de tunge byggefag over dans, drama, musik og design til sociale fag og alment gymnasielle,” forklarer asscocieret partner Kristian Ahlmark, der har været designansvarlig på byggeriet.

Skolen har samlet servicefag, formidlingsfag, håndværksfag og almene gymnasiale fag under samme tag. Den tidligere skole lå spredt ud over grunden uden intern relation, hverken fysisk eller arkitektonisk.

Huset er disponeret, så den største sociale aktivitet foregår i skolens akse med uformelle mødesteder. Når man bevæger sig længere væk fra aksen, bliver arealerne til halvåbne rum og nicher, og helt ude i yderområderne er der ro, så man kan læse og studere i fred. Undervisningen foregår i fløjene, hvor klasseværelserne har glas på ydervæggen, for at bevare åbenheden og kontakten til den øvrige skole. Værkstederne til de tekniske uddannelser er også i åben kontakt med resten af skolen.

Husets hovedstruktur består af et åbent kvadratisk dæk. I dette dæk laves dybe udskæringer, der dels skaber dynamik, dels muliggør dagslysets vej dybt ind i bygningen. Dækket ovenover er tilsvarende, men drejet 180 grader om bygningens centerakse. Dermed opstår en serie af enkelt og dobbelthøje områder og visuel kontakt fra den ene etage til den anden. Små forskydninger i dækkanten skaber udendørs terrasser.

Sportsarenaen fremtræder som selvstændig bygning med plads til 4000 tilskuere. Den skal i dagtimerne bruges af skolens kultur- og idrætslinje, og om aftenen benyttes som hjemmebane for det lokale håndboldhold, samt til større arrangementer, koncerter og andre begivenheder.

Thor Heyerdahl School – Building Information

– Address: Hoffs gate, Larvik, Norway
– Area: 33.400 m2, the sports arena occupies 7000 m2
– Construction sum: € 73 million excl. VAT
– Construction year: 2009
– Award: 1. prize
– Competition year: 2005
– Competition type: Restricted international
– Client: Vestfold Municipality
– Architect: schmidt hammer lassen architects
(Lead Consultant)
– Project Partner: John Lassen
– Landscape architect: SLA A/S
– Engineer: Multiconsult

Thor Heyerdahl School images / information from Schmidt Hammer Lassen

Schmidt Hammer & Lassen Architects

Location: Larvik, Norway