VA wins CK32 competition

Various Architects was invited to the closed competition for refurbishing Christian Kroghs gate 32 in Oslo. The protected modernist building is located on the riverfront just between downtown Oslo and the hip Grünerløkka neighbourhood. The building will be rental office spaces and in our proposal we especially focused on the public areas, the shared covered courtyard and the connection to the riverfront.

We collaborated with our friends in Transsolar and were competing against the larger offices MAD and Hille Melbye. We thank our collaborators for great teamwork and our competitors for the run!

Building permits for Faunveien

We got building permits for Faunveien in April with a very good feedback from the Planning office:

“The responsible applicant has presented a very good analysis of the project in relation to §7 of the regulations. On the basis of this the Planning Office considers that the project is in accodance with the following design factors: lenght/width, volume, heights and, roof shape and materials use.

The Planning Office considers that the project has a very high architectonic quality. The apartments have good plan sollutions with varied spatiality. The facades are broken up towards the South West using niches and varied window sizes which both mirror the spatial variation of the building and the division of the different living units. At the same time the building is given a unified expression through the wooden walls and the roof which works as one unified form”.

 “Ansvarlig søker har lagt fram en meget god analyse av tiltakets utforming i forhold til reguleringsbestemmelsenes §7. På bakgrunn av denne ser Plan- og bygningsetaten at tiltaket er i henhold til følgende forgivingsfaktorer: lengde/bredde, volum, høyder, takform, materialbruk.

Plan- og bygningsetaten vurderer at tiltaket er av meget god arkitektonisk kvalitet. Leilighetene har gode planløsninger, med en variert romlighet. Fasadene er brutt opp mot sørvest med bruk av nisjer og varierende vindusstørrelser noe som både avspeiler bygningens romlige variasjon og oppdelingen av ulike boenheter, samtidig gis bygningen et samelt uttrykk gjennom treveggene og taket som fungerer som en samlende form”.

We are now finishing detail design, coordinating the work of the external consultants. In the meantime we would like to share with you some of the detail design drawings of the massive interior wooden walls.

New project: Kulturetaten

Various Architects had a successful collaboration with Nielsen Prosjekt in the competition for the new offices of Kulturetaten, the Department of Culture in Oslo. We won the competition and are now collaborating with the different divisions within Kulturetaten for the design of their offices.

Building HV Family House

Together with the client we are very excited about seeing HV Family House coming up.

Precast concrete elements make out the main form – all white on the exterior, it is rising in Bauhaus style by the Tåsen tram stop.

The white interior stairs rest between the floors and allow daylight deep into the building.

Windows and doors are being installed, counting the days for the exterior work to be completed.

German Embassy competition delivered

After some weeks of intense work, we’re proud to announce that we have delivered our proposal for the new German Embassy in the city of Cairo. It has been very interesting design process due the various backgrounds at the offie. Isabell (Germanay) and Ibrahim (Egypt) have given their amazing input into the competition. The design combines low-tech and passive sustainable approach with smart and economical structures solutions. All this couldn’t have been possible without the collaboration with Ramboll UK and Transsolar.

Startup schematic design for Oppdal+

Finally planning is starting up for Oppdal+

The municipality of Oppdal has started the work with the regulation of downtown Oppdal. As a basis for the planning the municipality wishes to develop Oppdal+ with schematic design for areas that are liberated as a consequence of moving the E6 – these areas can be realized first.

 

The project represents an important development of the existing downtown area and will lay the basis for Oppdal centres’ future identity and character. We are happy to hear that the municipality states high ambitions for the quality of the project. We are very excited to startup this work in collaboration with Adept, with whom we developed the initial competition proposal.