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Aalto University Campus

Revisiting the principles of the Garden City and Alvar Aalto’s design philosophy, the new school knits itself within Otaniemi to enrich the existing dynamics of the area with a wealth of opportunities for social interactions. The keystone of this ap- proach is the Mesh, a three dimensional structure that play- fully articulates the social and teaching spaces, blurring boundaries between the interior and exterior, between viewing and making, between knowledge and action.

This Mesh extends between the different buildings on site, to unify existing and new faculties and weave together the sur- rounding public spaces with multi level circulations. Guidingusers into the site and through its entrance atriums, the Mesh hosts a spectrum of meeting points of various scales that mul- tiply the points of interaction with the action zones of the cam- pus and the new vibrant square that it frames.

The new central square wraps around Aalto’s Main Building and Library, placing these iconic building at the heart of the campus. Its auditorium is strengthened as the main visual navigation landmark of the site: the new buildings laid out on the site to ensure that it remains visible from all approaches to the square. The site layout is clearly readable from the central square to allow easy visual navigation for visitors and campus users. The subtle interplay of hard and soft landscaping along the pedestrian and cycle axes on the square offer multiple highly accessible routes to the common facilities surrounding it. To the west, the central square merges into the experimen- tal courtyard, a large sheltered space located at the inflexion point of the Mesh. This transient spaces overflow with the activities of creative studios and workshops of the Design, Art and Architecture faculties, overlapping onto it to bring together the different disciplines of the school and foster collaboration and interaction.

Munch + Stenersen Museum

Various Architects were asked by Diller Scofidio + Renfro (NYC) to collaborate on the planning and design competition for a new Munch + Stenersen Museum in Oslo, Norway. Hav Eiendomhas invited 10 architects and prequalified another 10 (out of 199 applicants) for this prestigious new competition. Diller Scofidio + Renfro were among the 10 prequalified offices. Various Architects will be the local contact architects for DS+R and will collaborate with them throughout the design process.

The new museum will combine two well known cultural institutions in Oslo on an exciting fjordside site, just behind the new Oslo Opera. In addition to the 16,000m2 museum, the competetors will plan and design 20,000m2 of commercial and residential area on the site.

The complete list of teams for the competition is as follows.

Munch-museum and Stenersen museum – invited architects:

Tadao Ando – JAPAN

Zaha Hadid Architects – ENGLAND

Abalos Herreros Arquitectos – SPAIN

Foreign Office – SPAIN/ ENGLAND

Tony Fretton Architects – ENGLAND

Gigon/ Guyer Architekten – SWITZERLAND

REX Architects – USA

Henning Larsen Tegnestue – DENMARK

Kristin Jarmund Arkitekter – NORWAY

CODE Arkitektur – NORWAY

Munch-museum and Stenersen museum – prequalified architects:

NONAME 29 – SPAIN

Heneghan Peng Architects – IRELAND

Nieto Sobejano – SPAIN

Diller Scofido Renfro – USA

Kengo Kuma Associates – JAPAN/ FRANCE

ALA – FINLAND

Christ Gantenbein Architects og Lie Øyen Arkitekter – SWITZERLAND/ NORWAY

Sauerbruch Hutton – GERMANY

Ghilardi Hellsten Arkitekter – NORWAY

Manuelle Gautrand Architecture – FRANCE

Kunstsilo

Various Architects participated in the Kunstilo competition in Kristiansand in the south of Norway.

“Nicolai Tangen has offered Kristiansand an art collection comprising 1,100 Norwegian works, which he has collected over a period of 20 years. The 1,100 works constitute what experts have called the most important collection of Norwegian art from the 1930s to the 1970s.”

Our proposal had the following intentions:

– Take back the existing silo to its original condition (1935).

– Making the silo completely public.

– The addition of a new building (art museum) that humbly encircles the silo.

– A horizontal new building allows for future vertical expansion.

– Make the roof of the Art Museum accessible and extends it to the green axis in Odderøya.

– The cultural island becomes clear and interesting from several possible admissions.

The main attraction of the art museum is located on the west side towards the sea, and leads directly into the open, public part of the building. Then you are free to move on to the exhibition, or stay in the public section. From the main street of the car park on the east side, you are welcomed to the museum through an open passage, through the open atrium (art garden) and into the building.

The roof garden at the museum is adapted for multiple activities. With seating areas, viewing point and activity areas along a universally designed walkway. It is a prerequisite that the surrounding theater and cultural institutions should be able to use the roof for learning, exhibitions, and more.

The contact to the free area on Odderøya is an important visual and natural context – the green lushness is pulled up on the school roof and “blows” further across the roof of the museum. From the pier in front of the museum you will be able to experience this lushness and be inspired to explore the roof garden.

Exhibition Concept

The Nicolai Tangen collection is co-located with Sørlandets Kunstmuseum in the new building that encircles the restored silo. The two collections get their own wings, which are flexible and can easily vary in size as desired and meet future exhibition requirements.

The art galleries in the silo will be reserved for less famous and willingly local artists. Here, there is room for art in many forms of expression with fast shifts in the exhibitions. The roof terrace is located in front of the restaurant and library, and can easily be transformed into an art garden and adapted to different types of cultural events.

Art school

On the East of the art museum is the cultural school. This is an interdisciplinary institution containing educational venues with scenes for music, dance and visual arts. This is a cultural dynamo, which is the city’s natural meeting point between locals and performers. The ceilings of the Cultural School will act as a green park that extends to the roof of the art building via a bridge. The art school will thus be a link between the cultural and green axis of the art museum.

Lederne Head Quarters

The union Lederne moved to Storgata 25 and commissioned Various Architects to design their new head quarters. The organization requested three meeting rooms, offices for the regulars at the office and work places for the visitors. The program also included a canteen and other minor office functions.

Design Concept

The design focuses on preserving the openness of the space and enhancing the relationship between the two wings of the plan. This openness allowed natural daylight to filter through the whole project. VA decided to emphasize the raw, almost industrial qualities of the space and to add new elements in the form of apparently free-standing walls. The walls were given depth to create niches for informal seating, storage, etc.

Since of the office spaces would only be staffed temporarily, VA chose to work with more abstract elements in an open landscape. This provides more flexibility in use and that the facilities become more experienced as an open abstract landscape. This gives an interesting quality to the office even when the objects are not used as work places. The elements dive into the ground and rise again as elements for eating, reception, office place, etc. The large glass walls of the fixed offices help enhance the feeling of an open space and a transparent organization.

Knauslia

Various Architects has been commissioned to design a housing project in Larvik, a municipality in Vestfold county, Norway. The site is located at the end of the road with a complete view towards the sea, next to a green belt.

The task was to design three housing units of which one was the main house for the clients and the other two were apartments below the house.

The main challenge was to open to the views the site offered, yet at the same time maintain the privacy from each unit. The house opens completely to the west, with terraces and curtain wall windows. The apartments open to the east, getting their own individuality.

The project has split levels due to the sloping terrain, which broke the volume into two. Allowing the main house to be at the top and the apartments in the lower level. The volumes are split with a courtyard which is a private area for the house. An important element of the design, providing views, collectiveness and natural light into the house.

The house has a traditional wooden pitched-roof shape to fit with its surroundings, and it lays on a concrete base which houses the two apartments.

Framparken Masterplan

Various Architects was commissioned to design a new Culture House and Mosque. The client, Islamic Cultural Society, acquired the 25 000 square meter site of Handelsskolen in Larvik. The site is located nearby our previous project, Mesterfjellet Skole, and lies adjacent to Framparken sports arena and Thor Heyerdahl secondary school. 
 
The program includes housing complex, parking garage and a restaurant in addition to the mosque and cultural center.
 
Our design focuses on creating an inviting and transparent projet that gives back to the whole community. At the same time that the project expresses the fusion between Islamic background and the Norwegian context. 
 
The existing school is redesigned to house the cultural center and is incorporated with the new mosque structure. The housing buildings are located adjacent to the housing neighbourhood while the restaurant is placed toward the sports arenas.
 
The new mosque has an introverted design with emphasis on creating calm spaces. Inspired by traditional Islamic architecture, yet resolved in a modern and abstract manner creating meditating spaces with indirect natural lighting. 
 
The masterplan focuses on creating various outdoor areas with different activities. The cultural center create an enclosure for semi-private outdoor areas for the housing complex. The restaurant opens towards the sunny plaza that connects to preserved landscape on the site.

Gulskogen Park ULOBA HQ

ULOBA invited 5 teams of architects to compete for the design and development of Gulskogen area in Drammen. Various Architects qualified for the competition together with BIG, SLA,Transsolar and Ramboll.

The task was to design a new headquarters for ULOBA in addition to providing master-planning proposal for the 25 acres site. The aim of the competition was to realize a project that will be an example of Universal Design. The Gulskogen Park project shall be a showcase for the equality of disabled people in the community. The project will also be a model of sustainable architecture and urban development through Future Built program.

The new ULOBA headquarters will bring together the organisation’s activities in a building that will set new standards for sustainability and universal design. The building will not only house the ULOBA existing features, but also a community of related companies that together will create an active house in the heart of the new city of Gulskogen Park. As an urban district with various functions, the new headquarters serving the city for the future development of the area and help create a vibrant, accesible and green urban spaces that open up to all sides and connects to Gulskogen Park, the train station and the historic avenue towards the landscape.

The building and the district will be a landmark for Independent Living vision and a eksperimentarioum for urban design and sustainability. ULOBA new headquarters is designed in one single level – as a small urban district, a courtyard formed by various features, outdoor spaces and meeting places. Canteen, auditorium, fitness center, garage and meeting rooms are articulated as islands in a combined maneuver space, create optimal framework for informal meetings and stay.

The geometry is circular and rectangular at once: the overall geometry is rounded, and as architectural archetypes – a form which simultaneously creates clarity, an organic and effective movement between functions. The round shape is naturally optimized in terms of materials, it has a natural stabilizing effect, reduces air movement and creates good acoustic conditions. In contrast, the sub-elements, the individual rooms are rectangular. A form that is better suited for space-saving furniture and decoration of functional rooms.