competitions – Side 4

Motto 12010 MSund

The extension concept draws its inspiration from the existing architecture – an added 3-storey solitaire connected to the lower 2-storey connecting building, similar to the Thristeinn building and gymnastics hall. The extension is distinctively new, but doesn´t outscale the existing complex. By its compact shape it leaves the school yard and parking largely intact.

The compact shape of the extension, with its central vertical communication space, limit the distances of movement through the school. Between the existing and the new main entrances the publicly accessible programs (library, arts and crafts halls ++) are situated, thus benefitting from its central position and multiple accesspoints. The heart of the building is therefore the existing connective space and the extension an attachment serving the heart of the complex.

The main communication space is an open atrium, extending all through the 3 floors. It Consists of one flight of stairs and one amphi between each floor, where the amphi serves as extra workspace during class hours and extra common space during the breaks. Such a multifunctional solution reduces the overall program requirements.

The school administration is placed as a new wing connecting Thristeinn and the exisiting main entrance hall. By replacing the existing connection, the new building includes ramps to make barrierfree connections on all floors. The teachers rest areas are placed here, too, withdrawn but stil in close proximity of the main entrance.

The new main hall and cantine is strategically placed at the most exposed spot on the ground floor of the extension, as a main focal point of the internal movement. It exposes itself to all three sides of approach and opens up with large glass panels in all three directions. When there is activity in the main hall it will be advertized by its use. Thick nontransparent drapers act as an accoustic and light controlling measure when neccessary to darken the main hall completely.

The existing built mass is revitalized in a respective way, mainly focusing on small changes and programmatic change within the existing structure. The built mass which is torn down should be reused onsite if possible, and the material flows in and out of the project evaluated to achieve a minimal CO2 footprint. Life cycle assessments should be implemented on both existing, new and waste. The volume to floor surface ratio is very good with reduced material use followed by a lower CO2 footprint.

All classrooms are doblesided naturally lit with a secondary daylight source from the central communication space. All classrooms open up towards this bright central space. The secondary classrooms (multifunctional) are mainly one-sidedly lit but also with the rooflight of the central space as secondary natural lighting. The abundant natural light reduces the need for artifical light and thus reducing the use of electricity.

The school yard is enlarged, with sheltered zones for entrances and outdoors exhibitions and dining, naturally created by the new extension.

Material reduction strategies are light construction with a cantilevered column – slab solution (bubbledecks), and thereby an optimal structural system with reduced foundation loads and costs. Light wood-based outer wall construction with fibre-reinforced concrete external panels (CO2-storage / low CO2 – footprint). Green roofs as spillwater retardation system to minimize environmental impact. Multisided natural lighting reduces the need for glass surfaces. Natural ventilation to reduce built volume and technical infrastructure costs – decentralized smaller units for heat redistribution locally.

Motto Portal

When walking through the South Harbour area, the instinct reaction is that the area is quite well functioning. The port activities with its passengers, vehicles and cargo is strangely intertwined with softer public use and serves as a basis for the lively, rough feel of the area. In other words, the percieved problems with shore access, traffic and parking are necessary «evils» that support and enliven the inner harbour activities. So how to go about changing the area without removing its character and the basis for it?

The approach to the area is lightweight: subtle changes to the traffic flows and new elements to the areas add an extra layer to the already existing fabric, supporting a softer and more humane environment. Wood is chosen as a signature material for several reasons; it is a good carbon storage medium, and it will support the homeland industries through innovation. It also brings a warm contrast to the larger asphalted existing surfaces. Each of the suggested projects can be sustainably optimized, consolidated through further detail planning and certification of the building process. The lightweight strategy per sé is sustainable in a longterm perspective by reducing consumption.

By introducing stacked parking in the vicinity of the terminals, most of the parking lots in the inner harbour can attract new activities. Also introducing a new soft pedestrian route along the entire inner harbour shoreline the open spaces can be used for instance as free-market space, festivals grounds etc, or be activated by their adjacent buildings. To support even further public use in the inner harbour a new lightweight wooden activity field gives direct access to the water through a small «beach» (for toedipping) and includes an elevated pedestrian footbridge, a diving tower / viewing platform, and leisureboat basins. The soft network is supported by a new tram line that runs through the Esplanadi park from Katajanokka K8 terminal, stopping at the Katajanokka K6 (new day-visit cruise terminal and art museum) and at the Kauppatori market. This unites in an environmentally friendly way the whole of the South Harbour area. The main traffic flows of vehicles and cargo is shifted, from being all through the inner harbour area to a two-way periferal system. The Olympia / Makasiini traffic is redirected to the south west and connected to the western harbour areas of Helsinki. The Katajanokka cargo terminal is likewise redesigned and the traffic is redirected through gate C. This leaves much more of the north-eastern shoreline open to the public.

The existing buildings on Katajanokka have a distinct character, and the approach to the area introduces both transformations and additions. The existing asphalted areas have been kept and surface elements (such as landscaping elements in the park) are additions on top of the existing surface. The street section has been redesigned to facilitate more immediate drop-off / temporary parking on the cityside, the new tramway in the middle and an extended green park on the waterside. The surface parking is relocated to the Katajanokka K8, in close walking distance. The shared spaces between the harbour buildings provide new entrances to the buildings, drop-off and temporary parking. Because of the low traffic intensity, there are no problems mixing the different user groups with vehicular traffic through surface design solutions and signage. Along the waters edge is a new wooden esplanade, slightly elevated (+2.5), which takes the visitors from the day-visit cruise terminal and museum, through the new waterside activity field past the Kauppatori to the new Makasiini terminal.

Instead of demolishing the Kanava terminal building it is transformed through low cost incisions, making room for a flee market with many small vendors. The K6 harbour building is the Katajanokka portal building and the boundary towards the traditional harbour areas. It is designed by added built mass, which architectonically plays together with the new Makasiini terminal on the western side of the harbour. It mixes the art museum and the day cruise terminal with an outdoor covered sculpture garden in its center.

A new hybrid building containing the new Makasiini terminal solves many of the conflicts in the area. By improving the access and proximity to the waters edge for the public, and making a new movement pattern for pedestrians and bikers along the shoreline (avoiding conflict with vehicles), the new terminal and its «hillside» esplanade redefines the way people move through the area. The new terminal building also makes room for 500+ new in house parkingspaces. The extended drop-off zone of Olympia and Satamatalo concentrates the arrival and departure traffic to the terminals at one location. There are many benefits from demolishing the existing terminal: By stacking the flows and user groups vertically, the cargo handling zone comes closer to the water with direct access to the ships. The public wooden «hillside» esplanade with overview over the harbour area offers a number of new activities to the public. The new terminal roof contains an urban park and belvedere over the whole harbour area. The park landscape of the Tähtitornin Park extends out towards the port area and becomes the visual link between the city and the harbour.

The new Makasiini terminal building provides both passenger terminal facilities and the link to the access structures to the Ferries of the Olympia terminal. The warm wooden surfaces serve as the identity that binds the new terminal end esplanade together with the inner harbour activity field and the new transformations at Katajanokka.

Motto X

The motto:X is the competition proposal for a new Pilgrim Centre at the medieval stave church in Røldal, Norway. The competition was concluded in February 2012, and with 182 entries it is the 3rd most popular Norwegian architectural competition to date.

X is created and confined by the existing elements of the site – rows of birch trees confine the pilgrim centre and the old stone walls of the churchyard extend outwards and rise to spatially define it. An atrium, as a modern interpretation of the traditional cloister courtyards, unveils as an unexpected quiet oasis for the tired pilgrim at the heart of the centre.

As the motto X indicates, the pilgrim centre acts as a meeting point on several levels. One can enter at all 4 sides. Each entrance has its own particular use, and the different parts of the centre are bound together by the atrium at its core. The atrium is a multifunctional space that opens up for the flow of people, especially in summer, when the pilgrims are many. The bigger communal spaces open up to the wider landscape and to smaller secluded gardens within the perimeter stone walls.

The interior spaces are created underneath flowing slabs, cantilevering out to provide shade and protected entrances and walkways. These «elevated meadows» can be seen from the adjacent mountain sides, and stand out from the neighbouring pastures by their seasonal flowers. As the slabs cantilevers towards one another, they form light slits that articulate the texture of the stone walls underneath. Their lines curve and indicate the movement through and the meeting points within the pilgrim centre.

A heavy construction and thermal masses, control of the sunlight and shading, low-emitting surface materials and a tight envelope are keywords for reducing day-night temperature fluctuation which make possible the use of natural ventilation even in a nordic climate. The choice of materials focuses on low CO2-emissions and aboundancy: The use of stone, wood and grass roofs have all been common building practise in the Norway.

Motto Arken

The motto:Arken is a proposal for a new visitors centre and storage facilities for MiSF (Museene i Sogn og Fjordane) and SuM (Sunnfjord Museum), located at the premisses of the latter, a scenic outdoor museum facing the Movatnet lake in Sunnfjord. It was a competition proposal in an international design competition held in may 2011. There were submitted about 40 different proposals. The proposal was done in cooperation with SArkitektur in Oslo.

One of the main challenges of the competition was to locate the new facilities , either at a new public entry point at the north facing bog – or within the mountain separating the entry point from the lake Movatnet – or stacked at the back end of the hillside facing the lake as a backdrop for the current museum buildings. The sheer scale of the facilities would in our opinion outscale the delicate small buildings of the museum, and placing it within the mountain too drastic an approach for simple storage facilites on this site.

We settled therefore for an underground storage facility with the visitors centre as the only visible marker on top, as the new entrance to the museum. By placing the large volumes underground, the visible parts of facilities were downscaled to a recognizable size, suitable for the museum identity.

After entering the museum you would then connect to the old postal road which runs along the hill, making this historical landmark a part of the exhibition path. We also suggested to create a new lakeside path to an old settlement site, today in use as academic premisses, and further connect this back out to the postal road. This would make a «full exhibition circle» with the new facilities as the logical starting point for a new and more complete exhibition experience.

The Visitors Centre is placed on the ground and first basement level, and makes use of the storage facilities as part of the visitors exprerience. Both MiSF and SuM has their administrative facilities on the shared 1. floor, while the basement levels contain the individual needs of each museum entity, as well as the main storage facility. The Visitors Centre draws inspiration from local building traditions and building materials, but using techniques of today – massive wooden elements as slabs and roofs, stone clad walls and green roofs. The choice of insulation and other building materials focuses on a good energy balance and low CO2 emissions.

Motto I

«En by å leve i» (an international urbanism ideas competition for the Strømsø area in Drammen) was held in spring 2010, with a strong emphasis on sustainable development and the reduction of CO2-emissions through planning. It attracted 41 submitted proposals. Because of accute illness in the final stages of the competition, this proposal was not finalised and submitted for evaluation. The winners of the competition was «Look to Strømsø», a proposal by Norconsult and Alliance Arkitekter, an excellent proposal concerning CO2-emissions reduction strategies.

Strømsø has a very strategic position in Drammen, in the city centre with both local and regional transportation hubs within its boundary, and is an ideal site for strategic choices to create a sustainable future development. Key issues are to reduce vehicular traffic, increase soft movement and create a denser urban fabric with greater environmental qualities.

I aims at an overall densification through the act of inversion:

– inverting the city and the landscape: reintroducing the green in a creative way in the denser urban fabric, both horisontally and vertically.

– inverting the grid: reducing vehicular traffic to a minimum an co-locating accesspoints to bigger entities, to make way for street parks and soft paths instead of car traffic.

– inverting the blocks: transforming backyards to walkthroughs and doublesided accessible space with an internal soft access – thus increasing the density in each block (learning from the transformation of Venice).

The main development strategy consists of introducing densified uilt mass along the main roads, as a present-day «city wall», and at the same time locating fewer accesspoints and parking to these larger structures. Within the «city wall» the densification follows a neuanced timeline, at the scale and pace of the existing blocks and building structures. The inversion of city – landscape, grid, blocks and buildings increase soft movement, reduce vehicular traffic to a minimum and enhance the quality of the public spaces, while at the same time increasing the density. The main strategy focuses rather on reuse than transformation, and transformation rather than substitution, and thereby minimizing CO2-emissions.

There´s also set up a transformation scheme of different surfaces in the urban fabric, each surface given a colour of definition, where the goal is to transform as many of the surfaces as possible to better environmental performance:

– reducing the blacks: The black surfaces are for instance asphalt and other hard surfaces on the ground, inactive roof surfaces and also inactive facades with poor environmetal performance.

– reducing the greys: The grey surfaces are undefined in-between surfaces that mirror their adjacent surfaces, and can change their sustainability performance with the changes of the adjacent surfaces. Examples are small green spaces in hard surfaced cityscapes, which are given new value and are easily integrated when these cityscapes are transformed to for instance a street park.

– adding greens: The green surfaces are green organic surfaces with CO2 storage capacities and local climatic effects and quality enhancers, as well as surfaces with the ability to delay the impact of for instance excess rainwater to the drainage systems.

– adding blues: The blue surfaces are energyproducing surfaces, either passive (glass) or active (solar panels). They could also be energy storing surfaces like for instance water basins.

– adding whites: The white surfaces are reflective surfaces, reflecting light and heat to create brighter public cityscapes and reduce overheating of the built structures. They naturally find their place where conditions are not right for either the green or blue surfaces.

Motto Aqua

In collaboration with Sigridur Anna Eggertsdottir I participated in an open design competition arranged by the Iceland Design Center and jewelry designer Hendrikka Waage, our approach was to create asymmetry and capture the feeling of water…

The proposal came in third of just about 120 entries. The bracelet design was considered the competitions best, suitable also as a concept for a ring design. Our presentation was given great acclaim; obviously the jury liked it a lot.

Present at the seremony in Reykjavik were jury members Steinunn Sigurðardóttir, Icelands greatest fashion designer and Reykjavik City Artist of the year 2009, and Geoffroy Medinger,UK Brand director for Van Cleef & Arpels

Krissi from Krads received the prize on behalf of us.

See also extensive coverage from the prize seremony on icelandic TV here (in icelandic).