COMING TOGETHER.

Architecture provides the setting to give hope for generating social cohesion and identity for a newly amalgamated college for young adults on the west coast of Norway.

Alesund is a busy little port with a strong nautical tradition on the west coast of Norway above Bergen. To foster it, Alesund College was set up as an organization in 1994 to offer studies in maritime subjects, engineering and health care. It has 1200 students, and was formed by the amalgamation of three previously independent schools which have now been brought together in a new building in Fogdegaarden, a little to the east of the town centre.

The new college was designed to foster contacts between all staff and students, so that the institution can start to build up a character and personality of its own, rather than remaining as three separate entities set within one complex. Key to the strategy was the creation of a large square central hall, the social focus of the whole place, which is flanked on each side by rectangular blocks of teaching accommodation. Externally, expression is crisp, with planes of pale pinkish Finnish brick defining the teaching blocks; these alternate with the glass curtain walls of the central hall (where it is revealed) and the glass fronts of the south block that contains cafeteria and library.

Almost all the drama takes place in the central volume. It is given dynamism by a big brick drum which contains the main lecture theatre, and Is positioned asymmetrically to ensure that the space does not become rigid. Because of the rise of the site towards the north, the hall is arranged on two levels, with the main entrance to the lecture theatre at first floor level and generous flights of stairs connecting the two, luxuriant (If slightly suburban) vegetation binds them visually. At the lower level there are informal tables and chairs, decorous spillovers from the rather more rigidly organized cafeteria which looks over the space through a glass wall. Further dynamism is given by the stairs and galleries that overlook the volume, and by the bridges that connect to the upper levels of the drum (which contain smaller lecture rooms, and a navigation simulator).

A large white square shade hovers round the drum to reduce the amount of glazing in the roof and prevent the volume overheating. None the less, the hall is full of constantly changing daylight, not only from the roof but the curtain walled parts of its perimeter as well. Luminosity is enhanced by planes of the pale brick, and by using birch veneered panels on the inner walls of the galleries. Detailing is spare and precise, with the grey steel stairs, their handrails, and those of the balconies and bridges almost nautical in their elegant simplicity. The fineness of the balustrades, and the blond wood behind the galleries, layers the perimeter of the space, so its edges become animated in depth, both by light and shadow and continual almost random passage of people.

Most of the teaching rooms are utilitarian and economical, with suspended ceilings and blond furniture: sense of location is given by strong colour coding. Of course, the large central lecture theatre has presence, with chastely panelled walls and black upholstered seats. But the most interesting spaces (apart from the central one) are in the south block, where the cafeteria is drawn back to allow an arcade to become an overspill area on sunny days. Above is the glazed volume of the library, double-height on south and east sides, and full of light. Putting a library in a glass box facing south is of course tempting fate to cook the books, but the stacks are kept to the Inner area, under the Intermediate floor, and so provided with a good degree of protection. (There is also a large book store safely environmentally controlled underneath the first floor entrance level of the drum on the other side of the great hall.)

Clearly, the whole meaning of the place is embodied in its central space. So far, after a term of use, it seems to be working and offering a very wide range of social opportunities for students and staff alike.

Architect

Odd Slyngstad Architects

Project team

Odd Slyngstad, Ivar Aamild, Harald Hjelle, Renate Giske, Bjorn Horten, Ana Maria Hoyos, Thor Slyngstad, Atle P. Larssen, Norvald Sjoholt, Oystein Bjorkavaag

Interior designer

Odd Slygstad Architects with Milla Krogstad and Ingvild Holmoy

Landscape architect

Odd Slyngstad Architects with Bjorbekk and Lindheim (Jon Christian Dannevig)