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Furubråtveien 5

Various Architects has been commissioned to design an extension to an existing listed private villa in the Ekeberg hills in Oslo. The job also included to renovate the existing villa built in 1892. The design is based on the wishes of client and our discussions at meetings. We has focused on creating a harmonious solution of program and transition interior and exterior, villa and annex. The extension has been important to adapt to existing simultaneously as it gets good modern solutions and qualities. The plot gets plenty of sun and daylight from all directions as well as views of the islands and the bay.

The main house and the annex will work as one unit. The main building will hold all the main functions as well as the bedroom for the parents, while the extension will house the teenagers, and the visiting children. Better contact between interior and exterior is a desired quality. It is also designed proposals for entrance to below property that is wanted sold for residential purposes.

The extension will house bedrooms for the three teenagers, bathrooms, laundry, daily entrance for the family and a livingroom that will also function as a bedroom for the older children. In conversation with the Office of Cultural Heritage has accepted this principle with extension north of the protected existing house as long as the connection is a lightweight, transparent volume. Cultural Heritage Management proposes guiding principles as the use of wood as a facade material and gable roof.

Oppdal Centrum Masterplan

Various Architects, together with Adept Architects (Copenhagen) and Lalaland (Oslo) have prequalified for an idea competition for a new city center in Oppdal, Norway. Oppdal is known as one of Norway’ best winter skiing destinations, and is recognized as a place with beautiful nature. Today E6 (the road from Oslo to Trondheim) cuts through the middle of town, but the road will soon be moved to a paralell path allowing for the development of a new “downtown” in Oppdal. 4 teams, out of 18 applicants, have been prequalified to present their ideas about creating the new Oppdal Centrum. The 3 other teams competing are Snøhetta, Asplan Viak, and a constellation of Narud Stokke Wiig / Rojo Arkitekter / Gullik Gulliksen / Norsam. The competition will be delivered on March 18’th.

Sorgenfrigata Loft Renovation

Various Architects are working on a renovation of a loft in Majorstuen, Oslo. The loft area is currently used as storage space.

The project will include two identical new 120m2 loft flats with hidden rooftop terraces. Each flat will have three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The main living space is visually connected by big roof arc to the backyard, looking directly to the crowns of big trees. The new roof windows towards the street of Sorgenfrigata are carefully adapted to the placement of fasade windows. The rooftop terraces are completely unseen from the street, aligned with new roof windows.

Skagen ØKOntor

To demonstrate our commitment to the environment and support for the COP15 Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, Various Architects AS of Oslo, Norway together with engineers from Ramboll UK in Bristol and Pollen Architecture in Austin, Tx have designed the Skagen ØKOntor (“eco-office”) as a model for sustainable low-energy/low embedded carbon office buildings that are suited to the nordic climate. With a calculated net energy consumption of 72 kWhr/m2/yr* the ØKOntor is the most sustainable office building currently planned in Norway.

We wanted to present the developer with an environmentally friendly alternative for their site that was both innovative and buildable. This design is site specific, but it contains many concepts that can be applied elsewhere in the Nordic countries.

The building’s wooden facade of individually operable insulated shutters is it’s most visible and dynamic feature. Floor height shutters can be opened during the day to allow in daylight and passive solar heat, or closed after sunset on cold days for added insulation. The shutters can transform the facade from 60% to 20% window area. The inside surface of the shutters are tiled with LED lights to produce artificial daylight during the dark winter months to help provide a well-lit and healthy working environment year round. The insulated shutters are calculated to provide an additional 15% savings on heating yearly.

The natural resources of the seafront site are all carefully utilized by the design. 4 Quiet Revolution wind turbines on the roof provide 24.000 kWhr of clean energy (10% of the building’s energy demand). The windy and often overcast weather on the norwegian west coast, combined with long dark winter nights made wind a more efficient alternative to solar panels in this case. The sun is controlled for solar shading and passive heat in the west facing atrium space, and through the many south facing windows. Sea water is used as an energy source for both heating and cooling via water cooled heat pumps and sea water free cooling. This, coupled with high efficiency air heat recovery, demand led controls, and high levels of thermal insulation have significantly reduced the thermal plant demand. Natural ventilation is possible for most of the year, with cooling through refrigeration only necessary when sea water temperatures are at their peak (no more than 4-8 weeks a year). Green roof surfaces collect and filter the area’s prodigious rainfall in rooftop water tanks for use in low-water fixtures and fittings, reducing the need to waste treated water.

Low embodied carbon materials were chosen where possible to reduce the project’s overall CO2 footprint. A structural system of cross-laminated timber (CLT) panel walls and floors was chosen for being locally sourced with a high level of carbon sequestration. CLT represents a significant reduction in embodied CO2 compared to a traditional concrete or steel frame. The building exterior and insulated shutters are clad in Kebony, a norwegian wood product that is sustainable, low-maintenance, and suitable for the exposed seaside climate.

The newly implemented TEC2007 norwegian building directive requires the energy marking of all new buildings. From 2010 office buildings have a maximum allowable energy use of 165 kWh/m2/year (Energy grade C), a typical office building today uses around 270 kWh/m2/year. At 72 kWh/m2/yr the ØKOntor would achieve a Grade A energy rating, less than half the required maximum. Norway does not have a Passivehaus certification system yet, but the ØKOntor complies with the certification principals of heat recovery, excellent airtightness, summer solar shading, high levels of thermal insulation, using useful passive solar/equipment heat gains and a net energy use of less than 75kWh/m2/yr.

Various Architects and Ramboll believe that the ØKOntor project demonstrates that architects, engineers, and developers of new office buildings should push harder to develop highly energy efficient buildings with a zero net-carbon construction. We should not accept the minimum reductions required by law as standards, but should see them as a challenge to do better. Good luck to the COP15 representatives.

 

*Energy estimates calculated by Ramboll using IES dynamic modeling software.

Wroclaw Cont. Museum

Various Architects AS registered and qualified to enter the international architectural competition for The Wroclaw Contemporary Musuem in Wroclaw, Poland.

The proposed ca. 23,000 m2 museum program includes: Exhibition space of about 4500 m2, a high multi-functional entry area, a multimedia club of about 600 m2, high-ceilinged storage space of about 3000 m2, about 7500 m2 for other activities and administration.

Our goal in designing the Wroclaw Contemporary Museum is to create a functional forward looking building that is modern and timeless. Our design creates a unique and dynamic building that is not formed arbitrarily, but takes it’s shape directly from the complex workings of the museum program and it’s associated functions. The program and form become one to give an optimal experience to museum staff and visitors alike. The building design carves out a generous naturally lit open public space in between the massive closed and artificially lit gallery spaces. It is this contrast in built form that makes for a rich and exciting experience when visiting the museum. The transition from open to enclosed space takes place through the dynamic and twisting glimmering white veil that separates “everyday” experience from the “wunderkammer” which is the Wroclaw Contemporary Museum. The veil which envelops the museum volumes also flows out through the foyer and into the park, thus extending the reach of the building into nature and making a physical connection to the National Gallery and the Panoramą Racławicką.

Re:Vision Dallas

The complex problem presented by Re:Vision Dallas demanded an interdisciplinary response leveraging knowledge and experience in a range of fields. Various Architects gathered and led a team of 27 individuals which included architects, engineers of nearly every sort, sustainability consultants, landscape architects, permaculturists, and educators. While our proposal is ambitious, it is also grounded in the expertise and experience of these individuals. In other words, it is feasible. While many of the ideas are unique, they have been carefully considered and our team has the requisite expertise to execute the project in a productive collaboration with the client and the city of Dallas.

The result of this collaborative effort is a carbon-negative housing scheme that uses a combination of simple environmental principles to create 537 unique apartments with a strong sense of community, urban vegitable gardens, zero-wastewater, great daylight, natural ventilation, passive heating and cooling, and massive 1.46 mW of solar pv power generation.

The project is focused around the east-west flowing Green Canyon and the rammed earth community and education center. This green corridor features a greywater treatment river, a landscape of fruit trees, nut trees, and native grasses. At ground level there is pedestrian access to 7,000m2 of commercial space is dedicated to sustainable businesses, education, wellness, and live-work spaces that reduce the occupants reliance on the automobile. The housing units themselves vary from 3 bedroom flats over two levels to small co-housing apartments with common kitchen and dining facilities that foster community and make more efficient use of resources than individuals living alone. All of the apartments in the project are double-aspect with window openings on two sides for daylighting and cross-ventilation. The apartments are divided into vertical communities that center around garden spaces which also double as community gatering areas. Each apartment has more than 5m2 of vegitable garden space allotted. The 120m tall triangular tower has an exoskeleton of pre-cast concrete with a high fly ash content, this allows us to build each four floor apartment section out of carbon friendly structural timber with a straw-bale exterior. This would be the world’s tallest straw-bale structure. The southern and middle blocks are constructed in a similar manner with a steel bracing frame for support.

Larvik Kulturhus & Moské

Various Architects was very excited to be commissioned to design the new and very first Culture House and Mosque in the city of Larvik in Norway. The client, Larvik Islamic Cultural Society, defined a varied program which should be open to be shared with the community and have visual qualities that would express the fusion with the Islamic background and the Norwegian context.

 

VA approached the task with great interest and the initial investigation included discussions about the sensitive matter of integration and the multi cultural society. Muslim practitioners, men and women, with Norwegian as well as foreign background, were invited to discuss the subject with the team to bring forward different perspectives.

 

The site is located a little outside the main city center, right in the middle of a smaller commercial and cultural hub. The team proposed to open up the site to the context to allow for neighbours to use the site and the exterior spaces as well as feeling welcomed to use the interior spaces. The program which included a prayer room, mosque, as well as a cultural house with seminar rooms and restaurant area, was decided to be split into two volumes to allow for greater approachability and the creation of a number of exterior spaces. There was a demand for some few days during the year to accomodate a larger number of parked cars, and the team wanted this space to be used for other purposes when the parking spaces were not in use. The solution was to include it as a covered exterior space which could be used for play or outdoors markets for the community.

 

Together with the client Various Architects presented the sketch design to a commity from the Larvik municipality and the project was received with great excitement. The commity praised the visual qualities, the inclusion of community activities and the openness of the project and saw it as contributing to a great improvement to the neighbourhood.