Villa project receives support from city planners

Our Villa in Stabekk project has reached a new milestone by receiving planning approval from Bærum Kommune this week. During the planning phase the project has been the subject of criticism from three of it’s neighbors throughout the process. Their main concern being that the project «just doesn’t fit in». In the approval statement, the Chief Planner for Bærum Kommune makes it clear that in the opinion of the city planners and city preservationists the project is in fact well integrated with the landscape and the surrounding buildings.

In the planning approval, the Bærum Planning Department (BPD) makes the following comments in their assessment: (shortened and translated to english)

«The application was received on 07/07/2009. The BPD is generally positive that you have chosen to follow the new TEK (2007) directive for energy.

The BPD comments on the neighbor complaints that the proposed design is placed relatively far away from neighboring buildings. The distance from this proposal to neighboring buildings varies from 21 to 41 meters. Between the new building and neighbors to the north-east there is an existing garage and a double row of tall shrubbery which functions as a wall. Between the new building and the neighbor directly east, which is the only house lower than the proposal, there is a relatively large open area in front of the historical building which is the proposal owner’s existing house. The neighbor across the road to the south-east is placed well away from the road. New buildings in areas of existing small scale buildings will necessarily cause a change in insight, views, and sun conditions. In this case, the BPD believes that the requirements for light, air, openness, and good outdoor spaces to be adequately safeguarded

The proposed house is lower than all of the surrounding houses except for one. In this way the new building is subordinate to it`s environment. During an on-site inspection it was noted that the most visible house in the area is the historical monument to the north seen from the road. The proposed building will be much lower than and clearly subordinate to this building historical building as well.

The facades of the proposed design are deemed well thought out and resolved in accordance to the planning regulations, both in relation to itself and the surroundings. The BPD believes that the proposed building shows sufficient respect to the special architectural and environmental character of the neighborhood. The area has some registered historical monuments, but is not regulated to a special area for historical preservation. The building is subordinate to the nearest historical buildings in relation to height, roof height, the use of wood and glass in the facades, placement in the terrain, and it’s division into several volumes which step down the terrain toward the road without making major changes in the existing terrain. All of the existing houses in the area have different forms, roof form, volume, footprint, number of floors and heights. The area has been built up over a long time and therefore there is not a uniform existing building structure or typology for the proposed house to break with. The proposed building has a size and volume within the norms of the area. The BPD does not believe that a two-family house of modest size can be seen to change the character of the neighborhood. Through it’s height, volume, and material use the proposal interacts with the existing buildings and terrain in the area to a satisfactory degree and in a satisfactory way. The BPD agrees with the statement from the historical preservation office and believes that the project’s architecture will form a contrast that will enrich the neighborhood.

The planning department does not find that the proposal is in conflict with the regulations.

 

Application Approved»

Planning application submitted this week

Our latest residential project in Oslo will be sent to the planning authorities for approval this week. The project started with the client’s desire for an extra bedroom for guests, an upgrade to the existing swimming pool, and a small room to be used as a wine cellar. The current house has been added on to several times in it’s lifetime, so instead of tacking on yet another piece to the puzzle, we wanted to create a new addition that was all but invisible from the house itself, yet added new functionality and possibilities for the family. The solution is instead integrated into the hillside next to a new swimming pool with an amazing view over the Oslofjord.

By creating a new basement level connected to the house by a winter garden, the project creates a whole new set of living and sleeping spaces for the family and their guests. The basement provides an informal new setting for the family to relax, while also providing a home-office and guestroom. You can never get enough storage, so one whole wall is filled with integrated storage cabinets, and the wine-cellar is hidden behind the bookshelf just like all wine-cellars should be. The basement room has an unobstructed view over the fjord and an outdoor terrace that connects to the path back to the swimming pool. The guest room bathroom also doubles as a bathroom for the pool with it’s own door to the outside.

A Model for Sustainable Office Buildings in Norway

Various Architects are in the process of designing an extreme low-energy / low-carbon office building for the west coast of Norway. The project is an internal research project with a real site and a real potential client. We are developing the project, together with sustainability consultants from Ramboll UK, as a model for a sustainable office building system that is appropriate to the norwegian climate.

The newly implemented Norwegian Technical Directive TEC-2007 requires the energy calculation of all new buildings. TEC 2007 has an energy requirement of 165 kWh/m2/year (Energy Grade C) for office buildings. The ØKOntor has been calculated at 72 kWh/m2/yr (Energy Grade A+), which potentially makes it the lowest energy office building in Norway.

Energy reduction is important, but carbon emissions are also an important factor in sustainable building. With an all-wood structure of cross-laminated timber floors and walls, high levels of insulation, and both active and passive energy capture from sun, wind, and sea the Skagen Økontor has a calculated carbon emission of only 40 kg CO2/m2/year.

The above image is a work-in-progress rendering of the building on site in Haugesund. Concept design phase will be completed in December 2009. More images and information to come, soon!

Future Projects – Experimental

The Arts Alliance Mobile Performance Venue project continues to get attention and win international design awards. This time at the World Architecture Festival in Barcelona, Spain.

Jim Dodson of Various Architects and Stephen Melville of Ramboll UK presented the project to a live jury and audience of fellow architects. The jury says the following about the project:

With very different kinds of projects in this category, the winner we selected was the Mobile Performance Venue, submitted by Various Architects office. This is a project that uses an inflatable skin to create a striking image for temporary events. It is designed straightforward in application and there is a well-defined demand.

The World Architecture Festival was a great opportunity to meet other architects, and to see some great lectures. We congratulate Peter Rich for winning the WAF Building of the Year award for the Mapungubwe Interpretation Centre.We also enjoyed the great work of Woha, winners of the Housing category with their project The Met in Singapore. All of the winners on the second day of the festival were invited to dinner in the Mies Van Der Rohe Barcelona Pavilion, which was a great treat in itself.

More information about the World Architecture Festival on their website:www.worldarchitecturefestival.com

 

Photos courtesy of: Ethel Baraona Pohl / Various Architects

Jim visits Ibrahim in HK for workshops with OMA

Both partners from Various Architects are in Hong Kong this week. Jim Dodson travelled to Hong Kong for 4 days of workshops with Rem Koolhaas and the TPAC team. The building design is progressing according to schedule and we are very impressed with the team OMA have put together for the project. Rem has expressed that he is pleased to be working with Various Architects on the project, and we are currently considering the possibility of new collaborations with him.

The project is being designed from OMA’s new Hong Kong office, but the team also travelled to the site in Taipei for a client presentation and another visit to the current night market. Jim’s pictures from the visit are online at our VariousArchitects Flickr gallery.

Revised drawings sent to planning authorities this week

In response to comments from the planning authorities in Bærum, we have submitted a revised set of drawings for the two-family house in Stabekk. The revisions dealt mostly with parking and access. The new design has been adjusted to include all 4 required parking spaces in the basement garage, which gives them more room to manouver vehicles in and out. The front stairs have also been replaced with a more accessible ramp which also makes a less cluttered entrance.

We continue to receive positive response and interest in our design from other architects and the architectural press. However, there are several neighbors who have voiced their concerns about the scheme. The main argument being that the building «does not fit in» to the neighborhood’s more traditional wooden houses. We do not agree with this criticism and believe that our scheme, which is stepped back with the terrain, is well integrated in the site. The wooden cladding and scale of the building is well suited to it’s surroundings. Interestingly, a traditional rectangular building with pitched roof would present a facade 3.5 meters taller at the street and a signifigantly larger amount of total m2 than our scheme does. With the latest minor changes, the project should meet all of the local planning requirements for the area. As such, we have every reason to believe it will be approved by the city, even if we haven’t won over all of the neighbors (yet).

All public documents related to the project are available on Bærum Kommune’s webpage here. Saksnummer: 2009007350 (in Norwegian of course).

 

Co-working space expanded and re-mixed

We have reshuffled the studio space this week, expanding to fill the entire 5’th floor of Storgata 25. Our landlord (and good client) Nielsen Projsekt have moved back to their other office space, leaving us with 800 m2 of bare concrete floors and white painted walls to play in until the building undergoes its planned renovation next summer.

Four new faces have joined our co-working space recently: Two architects, an engineer, and an intern product designer. Tormod Førre is a norwegian freelance architect who just returned from 6 months in Italy at the Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Arne Reisegg Myklestad is a norwegian who recently completed his M. Arch in Copenhagen and spent the summer working at Denton Corker Marshall in London. Gaute Mo is a norwegian structural engineer who recently left Calatrava’s offices in Valencia to return to Oslo, he is still working on the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin for Calatrava. Pivot have hired a new intern industrial designer, Liam Woolley from London, who will be working with them on their projects for the next year. We welcome the four of them to our space, and look forward to their input and our future collaboration with them

Meanwhile on the other side of the office, our illustrator friends from Svovel have moved across to the other side of the floor to carve out their own space with 6-7 graphic designers, journalists, and illustrators.

Consultants on OMA’s Taipei Performing Arts Centre

Various Architects have been asked by the Office of Metropolitan Architecture to join their team of architects as consultants on their competition winning Taipei Performing Arts Centre (TPAC) project in Taiwan. The project will be run from a newly established OMA office in Hong Kong, lead by David Gianotten. The Hong Kong office will also be working on several other projects, including the masterplan of the West Kowloon Cultural District and the Shenzen Stock Exchange.

Partner Ibrahim Elhayawan from Various Architects will be the project leader of the OMA team, and will work closely with Rem Koolhaas and the OMA team to develop the 40,000m2 theatre in Taipei from competition scheme to the definitive design phase. VA partner Jim Dodson will also join the team as an advisor for three two-week periods in Hong Kong during the next year. Various Architects were approached by OMA due to our extensive experience with complex cultural projects and theatres, something we look forward to further extending in Hong Kong.

The TPAC contains a 1500 seat theatre and two 800 seat theatres, which can be connected together in many configurations via an innovative and flexible stage arrangement. We are extremely excited to be a part of the OMA team on this bold theatre project and look forward to our collaboration over the next year.

For more information about the project refer to the OMA project page.

Press release: OMA opens new office in Hong Kong

All images courtesy of OMA / Frans Parthesius© All rights reserved.

Mobile Performance Venue on shortlist in category Future Buildings

Various Architects’ Spark! Award winning design for the Mobile Performance Venue has been added to the shortlist of nominated projects for the World Architecture Festival 2009! The World Architecture festival is the world’s largest architectural summit, with a yearly award ceremony for completed projects. This year the WAF has also created a category for Future Buildings and our design is one of only 6 chosen for the the Experimental Projects category.

We will be in Barcelona on the 5’th of November, together with our engineer collaborators from Ramboll UK to present the project before the jury and attendees of the conference.

From the WAF press release:

– World Architecture Festival 2009 focuses on architecture in the new world economy –

The world’s biggest architectural summit, the World Architecture Festival, will take place in Barcelona for the second year running, with new opportunities for the industry to showcase its work as part of the word’s biggest architectural Awards programme.

Programme Director Paul Finch confirmed that following its successful inaugural year, World Architecture Festival (WAF) will again take place in Barcelona at the Centre Convencions International Barcelona (CCIB) from 4th to 6th November 2009.

The Festival’s thematic exhibition, ‘Less Does More’ will examine the challenges facing architects in the new world economy. The exhibition will focus on how creative design, imagination and innovative thinking can reduce the amount of time, energy, material and finance needed to create buildings and cities – producing more value for less cost.

 

Congratulations to our Norwegian colleagues who have also been nominated for an award:

Fasting Arkitekter AS – «Home for handicapped children» – Category: Health

Jarmund/Vigsnæs AS – «Farm House» – Category: House

Narud-Stokke-Wiig AS – «Bjørnholt Upper Secondary School» – Category: Learning

A-lab – «Statoil Hydro office» – Category: Future Projects – Commercial

Illustrations for the planning application

We are putting the finishing touches on the planning application (Planskisse) for Thorvald Meyersgt 89 in Oslo this week. In order to renovate the existing historically listed structure on the corner we first have to update the zoning allowances for the project. Despite the fact that the building has been used for retail since it’s construction in 1860, the building was re-zoned to housing in the ’80s with retail on the first floor when it was slated for demolition. The building owner at the time, Thv. Gaarder-Møbler (a furniture store), fortunately avoided the proposed demolition of the whole building, but the regulation change was made anyway.

Our proposal is to restore the original corner building (now the oldest rendered masonry building in the area) to it’s original facades and roof by removing clutter and a number of pseudo-historic additions from the ’80s. The 2 storey addition in the north which has been built in phases since 1912 will be removed and replaced with a new 3 storey infill of brick and glass with a modern aesthetic which clearly separates the historical corner building from the addition. The 3 floor addition will be slightly taller than the roof of the corner building, stepping up the volume of the buildings towards the neighboring 5 storey building to the north. The building is proposed as primarily retail over 3 floors (basement, ground, and first floor) for one large shop, or it can be divided into several smaller shops with a central communication core. The third floor of the addition would contain office space in connection to the retail space below. We have included a «cafe-in-shop» proposal to illustrate the possibilities of the space in the plans.

Various Architects featured in Azure Magazine

 

The September issue of Azure Magazine is focused on «great ideas you should know about». They have selected 10 cutting edge designers in the fields of architecture, computer programming, industrial design, and sustainable technologies. Various Architects’ Mobile Performance Venue project was chosen for it’s innovative design and forward thinking. We are proud to be among other innovative designers such as Neri Oxman of MIT and Ben Fry/Casey Reas the creators of Processing. An image of the MPV was also chosen as the headline for the article on the Azure Magazine website.

«…we’ve compiled our own top 10 list of designers who have found ways to unravel complex concepts and bring them into the physical world, to everyone’s benefit. While these leaders are not all hooked on electronic information, the free flow of ideas has, in one manner or another, influenced and accelerated their creative processes. Their outstanding ideas are routed toward information sharing as much as to science, creative ingenuity, and that beautiful human habit of dreaming.»

«Mobile Performance Venue, Norway

Ibrahim Elhayawan and Jim Dodson, Architects

At 3,900 square metres, the Mobile Performance Venue is expected to be the largest transportable performance space in the world. Designed by Various Architects of Norway, the inflatable structure is no bouncy toy. With a robust web of pumped-up hexagons wrapping a collapsible lightweight core of steel and aluminum, its surprisingly sturdy construction houses ticket booths, restrooms, cloakrooms, and a bar on the upper mezzanine.»

For the complete article visit Azuremagazine.com or buy the September Issue of Azure Magazine

Our 27 page text description now online

Re:Vision Dallas was an amazing learning experience for our entire team. The synergy of ideas and knowledge gathered together in our team of 27 was amazing. Keeping up with the information exchange was at times «like drinking from a fire-hose» acoording to one team member. We felt that the project coalesced into a complex work that met the requirements of the brief in a way that was both bold, buildable, and backed up by our calculations. In the interests of sharing the wealth of information and ideas that were a part of this process, we will be placing the entire competition scheme online in the next weeks.

With over 200 entries, and the competition boards being viewed on a projector instead of printed, we kept the amount of information on the boards to a minimum. The hope was that the judges would be intrigued enough to refer to the required 25 page text document. In addition to this, we submitted a 40+ page technical appendix which included all of our calculations, sketches, and a complete set of plans for every floor of the project, that would further supplement and back up the claims in the text document and on the boards.

The Re:Vision Dallas competition has been getting a lot of press lately, with the winning entries being touted for their various green merits and technologies used. We hope that the winning projects will also be published in their entirity to further add to the accumulated green building knowledge on the internet.

The slideshow above is the complete text description. The technical index will be posted at a later date.