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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.

Geneva Dance Pavilion

Much like “a story within a story” our aim is to create a “world within a world”, separated from the hustling and bustling of every day life. Visitors and performers are invited into a calm and playful, sheltered space designed to stimulate their senses and release creativity. Different programs are nested within each other, creating shells that unfolds and leads th ebody through different spatial experiences.

Dance here is understood as moments of movement in time, and our aim has been to make visitors a part of this motion. By layering the spaces where screens and openings overlap we intend to blur the boundaries between visitors and dancers, making our visitors part of the performance taking place. Visitors are lead through an enclosed exterior garden, through a slender pathway, into a wide foyer before entering an intimate performance space in the heart of the pavillion.

Our Aim

In our design we have focused on creating a unique atmosphere, uninterrupted by the outside world. This is achieved by a system of layers, making the outer wall an important feature of our design. The idea of a world inside a world, is for the benefit of creating a stimulating environment for artists and the public to meet, dance and be creative while exposing the Contemporary Dance Assocation (ADC) in a beautiful and interesting way.

We have focused on creating an integrated, sustainable and flexible design, by finding cost efective and practical design solutions. The impact of the project on site has been minimized and the existing vegetation integrated into our design. The project contributes a great deal to the existing city fabric by creating an integrated public space which can be used as a public garden (park), sheltered from the hard traffic of the two main roads, surrounding the sire. The lush garden could be a permanent installment for the area, adding to the cities green lungs, when the dance pavilion is relocated.

The Outer Wall

While the layering of spaces allows for interesting encounters and beautiful visual effects it is also designed for it’s sound insulating properties, in the way each layer gradually diffuses sound, protecting the inner core from disturbance and noise outside. The outer wall diffueses sound and light by dispersion, allowing for a protected area inside.

Glass fibre reinforced polymer rods with timber boxes produce an open structure for the wall, with the rods allowed to sway or ‘dance’ in the wind. Cantilevered out of a precast concrete strip footing at their base, the top of the rods are restrained with a cable between steel corner posts, providing deflection control and defining the form.

Transparency and patterns of the wall changes depending on prespective, revealing different areas of the interior, showing glimpses of what is going on inside. The pattern diffuses light and sound while shadows play on the ground adding to the unworldly experience. The elements moves in the wind and twists to make a dynamic rhythm as if dancing when the viewer moves, capturing movement in a cinematic effect.

Ensjø Mixed Use

Stor Oslo Eiendom Invited Various Architects as a wild card to compete against Nordic,  A lab and Lund & Slaatto. The task of the design competition is to develop the site at Enjsø area, east of Oslo center. The program is mixed use of commercial, office spaces and housing.  The site is adjacent to Tyngdepunkt where massive housing and commercial development are underway.

OKV14

Various Architects has been commissioned to design an extension on an existing one-floor house at Røa in the West of Oslo. The original house is from 1936 and made by the famous Norwegian architect Sverre Aasland. The existing house has a view towards the Oslofjord in the South and Fornebu / Bærum in the West. The neighbourhood is characterized by all kinds of building styles from the last 80 years, and the existing house is the only one in the area with only one floor.

The main design concept was to make a modest and affordable extension that followed the existing structure and lines of the old house, while at the same time preserving the large open garden, and maximizing the view potential from the new second floor.

 

Schiphol Sound Barrier

The Schiphol: Create a Barrier of Silence competition is now completed. Various Architects and their international team received Second Place in the Business category of the competition. Although the project did not win one of the three main prizes we believe that we delivered a solid project that answered Schiphol’s call to innovation and sustainability. 9 companies and 27 individuals contributed to this project, and the high level of detail presented is a testimony to their dedication and teamwork.

“Dynamic Sculpture” is a design that will showcase Amsterdam Airport Schiphol’s commitment to innovation and sustainability. The iconic retractable wall achieves the required 7 dB sound reduction by combining new materials, sustainable design, and a simple yet spectacular lifting solution. The proposed Environmental Hub educational building and associated sustainable landscape park will create a world-class focus point for green technology and design. Together, these elements form a complex that would attract and educate visitors while also actively cleaning the environment, generating green energy, and recycling airport waste.

The competition parameters for sound reduction combined with the relevant airport and municipal regulations for building made it clear that a dynamic structure was necessary to meet all of the program requirements. The necessary ground noise reduction is achieved by designing a retractable wall of optimum height and closeness to the runway. Sound insulation of the wall is provided by the surface mass of the folded thermoplastic panels and by air-sealed connections when in the upright position. The position and shape of the wall are formed in response to the changing noise levels along the length of the runway, at the beginning of the runway the wall is placed relatively closer. It gently curves further away as the sound levels decrease with distance.

The 2.1km undulating wall is faceted into 10m sections comprised of: folded horizontal thermoplastic panels, steel lifting poles, a rolling counterweight connected to electric motors, and a base structure of precast elements. A high degree of prefabrication is specified to reduce on-site construction time and provide the necessary tolerances between the pieces. All aspects of the project have been designed to minimize the disruption of airport activity and to ensure that it can be built within the required 18 month construction schedule.

The development of a rolling counterweight lifting system provides the extreme reliability necessary for installations in the demanding airport environment. It also ensures a short conversion time for extension (3 min.) and retraction (1 min.) of the wall. The rolling counterweight on rails provides a spectacular visual element in the park and ensures the synchronised lifting of the wall. A redundant system of motors combined with a high mechanical efficiency and low friction moving components ensures that the wall will not get stuck in the up position, even under high wind loads. The mechanical nature of the counterweight connection of the wall to the counterweight ensures that the wall can be lifted and retracted, even in the extreme case of 10% motor failures.

The proposed landscape park would provide an educative layout of different environmental technologies on display for the public, as well as the production of electricity via solar, bio-gas, and bio-fuel production. The Hub Park creates a mini polder landscape where different technologies can be demonstrated, whereas the larger park area would be used for the cleaning of de-icing fluid, generation of electricity, and recycling of organic waste. Overall the park would provide a new public promenade for local residents, visitors, and plane spotters alike.