#aiacolorado

Kungsbacka, Sweden Passive House School

Architect:  Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture

Size: 6500 sq m.  300 Students

Cost: $29M

Completed: 2015

The custom glazed bricks randomly placed across the envelope and the thoughtful composition of the interiors marks this school as a place built on respect for the individual learner, respect for education, and respect for the environment.

The school is located in a growing town outside of Gothenberg Sweden.  I discovered Kolla School as I was researching sustainability driven projects.  With a Passive House certification and beautiful design elements the school appeared to be an ideal building to add to my list.

I wasn’t sure we were going to get into the school for a tour.  I wasn’t able to make a connection with the faculty before the trip, but I thought we should give it a shot anyway on our way out of Stockholm.  As we were creeping around the building, peering into windows etc...the Headmaster, Mats Lonn, happened to be walking in the front door.  Unreal luck.  

“Are you lost?”

Mats asked.  Creeping back around the corner I explained who we were and why we were spying into his school.  The initial awkward meeting lead to an hour and half tour of his facility, the opportunity to meet many staff members, and an in-depth conversation about the building, education, and design.  Mats has been a Headmaster (equivalent to a Principal in the US) for over twenty years and collaborated with the architect on every step of the school’s design.  He knows the building intimately and explained how the design of the each space was curated to the specific needs of the their teaching philosophy.

Kolla School was completed in 2015 as the result of a design competition.  Many of the public buildings in Sweden and Finland go through a competition process to decide the architect which may have the effect of creating higher design expectations and better buildings.  In the US, this process is far less common.

Urbanism

In 2012 the school was conceptualized as the anchor of a new residential development that would bring mixed-density residential buildings and a large park to the growing town of Kungsbacka.  Today, many of the residential buildings have been completed with multiple buildings under construction.  There is a distinct new urbanism feel to the neighborhood with the school and the park at the center, narrow streets,  bike lanes, and a diversity of scale and density.  It feels very similar to Stapleton in Denver.  As the site plan shows -  the school fits seamlessly into the masterplan as the heart of the neighborhood.

Site Plan: archdaily

Sustainability

Passive House is an international building standard that focuses on reducing energy consumption by an average of 90% through mechanically ventilated buildings with a highly insulated, air tight envelope.  Typically the human activity and electronics/appliances provide the building heat.  

quickly explained in this great 90 second video!

a passive house on the Colorado front range here!

For any building to meet the stringent criteria required for Passive House certification is a significant accomplishment.  For a school of this size to become certified is special.  It requires a deeply committed and forward thinking client, and a team of designers and builders that are willing to completely trust each other.  Mats attributes the overall success of the project to this critical component of trust from the beginning.  The building was completed on time on schedule, and Passive House certification was achieved the summer before they opened for the first school year making it the largest Passive House school in Sweden at the time.

The school has experienced some challenges with the Passive House envelope in the recent months (May 2018) as Sweden experienced unseasonably high temperatures.  It was difficult to cool the building with the higher outside temperatures and the school had to experiment with bringing outside air in at night to offset the interior temperature throughout the day.  As we move toward higher and higher levels of efficiency in building energy use through insulated envelopes we may begin to see the paradox the Kolla School is in more frequently.  Here the team put a large amount of design and cost into an extremely sophisticated envelope based on the historic climate/ temperature of the region.  However, it may become increasingly important to consider long term climate change in the design of building envelopes as we continue to see the steady increase in global temperature.  Looking to the past for historic climate data may be less relevant than looking to the future.

Upon entering the building this digital display informs you of the buildings real-time energy use.  It’s a fitting welcome for the smart building.

Cost

With a building this ambitious comes a price tag.  As I experience these world class schools it’s critical to understand how they are funded.  The budget has everything to do with the expectation of the project and ability to be successful in the outcome.  The funding for Kolla School came from what Mats described as a community corporation.  As I understand it; in Sweden there is the opportunity for municipalities to create a company that invests tax dollars for profit to fund public work.  The “community company” invests in assets such as real estate to generate additional revenue from the initial tax capital.  Obviously there is a risk in putting public money int real estate development, but the reward is an accelerated path to larger funding without additional taxation. This model worked well for the Kolla School project and now the school is operated by the municipality.

Design

The fundamental ingredients that make a memorable building interior; light, color, acoustics, texture are all highly executed in the schools double height atrium space.  It’s the central hub - linking three educational wings to  community spaces and connecting to the playground through large colorful windows.  I spent a lot of time in this space and the sensory feedback left a strong impression on me.  Within the Passive House envelope the acoustics feel intimate yet the space is voluminous, the light is stimulating but not harsh, and the colors are vibrant.  There is no drywall in the school, interior walls are instead clad with birch plywood.  This has a dramatic affect on the warmth of the spaces and taps into the inherent human affinity for natural materials.  Good trick!

It just felt great to be in the building, it refreshes your mind.  This experience must translate to the students respect for and memories of their school.  

This building exemplifies the way in which design can enhance the students relationship to education.  As Mats described it, “A well designed school will make the students feel good.  When students feel good they will perform better academically.”  I definitely couldn’t have said it better.

Respect

Respect for the individual student is most evident in how the school incorporated the special needs program into the building design.  This population is significant with the Kolla School serving 40 special needs students out of a total population of 300. Mats described that a key design principle for the school is inclusion.  The design of the school helps integrate these students with their peers while providing them the sense of security they need to be successful.  

Educational wings are grouped into 3-4 classrooms with a special needs class included. All students of the same age group share a cluster where they can interact with and get to know one another.  Standard lockers are provided for special needs students adjacent to their classrooms.  An informal gathering space is provided with built in seating for flexible teaching space or social interaction.  The special needs students are always apart of the academic community as opposed to being segregated to a specific part of the building. Transparency also plays a major role in the classroom design with windows providing sight lines for special needs students to see out into the cluster while in their classroom and also for teachers to see into each classroom.  

A typical special needs classroom includes: large windows at varying heights, natural light, group work area, mobile work stations for one on one instruction and an adjustable height smart board to accommodate students in wheelchairs.

View through a classroom cluster.  Large interior windows provide views into classrooms.  Glass partition walls into the cluster enhance security and the connection to the school.  Student lockers are located in the cluster, and wayfinding is enhanced through the application of different colors (green here) throughout the school.

Teaching spaces:

Recording studio... ABBA could record an album here!

Home Economics

A fundamental component of the Swedish educational system is the “life skills” classes such as home economics, textiles, and wood working curriculum. As Mats described it, this is hand on learning, and critical to the life skills students acquire in school. I found this to be an interesting contrast the American educational system where the majority of our current curriculum allows the “hands on” classes to be pursued as an elective. The design attention given to these spaces is a reflection of the value given to these subjects.

Art

In Sweden 1-5% of school building budgets is dedicated to public art.  Kolla School was asked by the town architect to enhance the identity of the building on the street facing elevations.  They wanted the design to tell the community this was a school.  The architect didn’t want to alter the masonry as it related the school to the surrounding material of the neighborhood.

The creative solution reached was to engage a local ceramics artist who worked with the students to create glazed bricks representing the values of the school that were then installed into the exterior walls - memorialized into the building.

As you walk down the sidewalk you are drawn to these beautiful little details that tell the story of the school and make the building unique.  These bricks were my favorite line in the story of the building.

Circular granite sculptures were added in the playground as the other primary art installation.  The concept was to contrast the angular geometry of the building with the round and spherical sculptures. This installation is also used in lessons and students may be asked to calculate the volume of one of the spheres. As you turn the corner from the street to the playground the building material changes from brick to metal panel and the sculptures become a feature against the buildings playful elevations.  This art is performative as well creating elements within the playground for students to climb on.

Super Bonus...

Espoo, FI

Aalto University was a complete bonus to the trip.  I actually didn’t know it existed and only discovered it when researching train lines to get to Saunalahti School.  After researching the history and the significance of the campus it turns out it’s a big deal.  A jewel of Finnish architecture.  The origins of the University are directly aligned to my goals for the trip.. as the website states, 

“ The idea was to create a new innovative university merging science and technology, design and art, and business and economics.”

Originally the three colleges that make up the University - School of Arts,  Design, and Architecture (1871), School of Business (1849), and the School of Economics (1904) were all housed on separate campuses.  Alvar Aalto, the world famous Finnish architect designed the masterplan and a majority of the buildings for the current campus which brought the three colleges together. 

Here’s Aalto in his prime... really on top of his game in his pocket square/ smoking jacket/ sweater/ tie combo.  wow.

Today Aalto University is the second largest in Finland with 17,500 students, 4000 faculty,   The School of Design and Architecture is a world class program with students from all over the globe.... shows how much I know, I just saw the name Aalto on a train map and thought I should poke around.

Getting off at the University’s dedicated subway stop you are transported from an intense urban surrounding into a campus in the forest.  Biophelic design was not a defined term when Aalto was practicing but his architecture clearly has a deep respect for nature.

The medium density of the campus allows pine and birch stands to shape the experience of walking around the buildings.  Nothing feels forced within the landscape, it is all native and of it’s place.  Often the red brick buildings take a step back and allow the forest to be featured.  The scale of the architecture and relationship to the natural surrounding evoke the sense that the buildings touch the site lightly.

Central Auditorium, designed by Aalto.  

not my image...I couldn’t get inside.  damn.

Dipoli Building

Reima and Raili Pietilä, 1966

more about the Pietilia’s

The Pietila’s were contemporaries of Aalto and designed the building at the heart of the University.  The Dipoli building is designed unlike any other building on campus.  Clad extensively in lapped copper paneling and connected to the site with cast concrete and large boulder walls - the thing feels like it grew from the forest floor...I can’t say i’ve experienced a building quite like it.  From the exterior it’s more of a sculpture.  From the interior a cave. The final product is a humanistic response to modernism. 

And then we come to the new Art, Architecture and design school.  Currently under construction

 (to be completed this summer - but in my expert CA experience that didn’t appear likely!) 

designed by Vertas Architects... more info from the Architect here

THIS THING IS A MONSTER.  It was difficult to get my mind around the scale as we circumnavigated the construction site.  I didn’t know there were this many design students in Finalnd.  It’s a sophisticated building; respectful of the deep architectural history of the campus yet modern, relevant in it’s materiality, and a true testament to the value placed on design education in Scandinavia.  

The building is a combination of transit center, shopping, student union, workshops, studios, and campus commons.  It will be the new heart of the campus.  It will extend the campus to Helsinki as the entrance from public transportation. 

The plan draws upon contemporary educational design thinking in the organization of learning environments.  Flexible academic programming is focused around 5 large lightwells that shape the plan of the building.  Workshops are located below on the first level.

the fritted curtain wall masses are intended to reduce the perceived scale of the building.  The jury is out on this.  Perhaps the success of this concept should be determined upon completion...we’ll give the building the benefit of doubt for now.  So... I guess it will require another trip?!

The Maunula House is a community building comprised of a public library, adult education center, and youth center.  Located in Maunula, a neighborhood on the North side of Helsinki.

A simple yet powerful decision was made at the start to connect the building to an existing grocery store in the center of the neighborhood engraining the Maunula House into the daily patterns of the members of the neighborhood.  There is a glass door from the library directly into the produce section... it’s brilliant.  Folks were walking through the library with grocery bags as we walked around the space.  Clearly this was a successful decision.

Seeing this got me thinking that as designers we continually draw upon the concept of “community” to describe the goals of public buildings.  It’s like a contest to see how many times we can use the word in a paragraph to describe how a building will affect the lives of the users.  Maunula House truly OWNS the term community building.

Our morning was spent with Anne,  the head librarian.  She gave us a tour of the facility and described the design and construction process which started with community charrettes that lasted of over a year allowing the Architect,           K2S Architects to gain a deep understanding of exactly what the residents wanted in the building.  Anne attributes the success of the building to this process.  Further integrating the community into the life of the building, the Maunula House has an advisory board that includes Anne and the rest of the management plus three community members that each hold a year long position.  The programming and daily operations are all directly influenced by community input.

Another critical element to understand as I visit these buildings is the funding structure.  How do these buildings get built, and how does that compare to the financing of public architecture in the US?  The City of Helsinki provided the initial funding for the project plus additional taxes paid by the community... not too different from the USA. Helsinki also provides the annual operations funding of the facility. (Anne says the budget is tight)...sounds familiar.  We’re not too far separated on the financing.  Perhaps the larger separation is the willingness to invest the appropriate amount of money into schedules and design timelines that produce iconic work.  this building is the pride of the community of Maunula and the budget allowed for it’s success.

This site plan shows the connection to the existing grocery store and the greenspace that connects the entrance of the Maunula House to the surrounding residential buildings.

the sections tell best story of the Maunula House architecture.  Natural light is a critical element of the operations of the building.  Anne tells us that Maunula House sees it’s largest use during the long dark months of the Finnish winter.  A central North facing clerestory organizes the building plan and connects the three different programmatic spaces.  It is not only successful in bringing natural light into the space, it also creates a memorable experience as one enters the building.

drawings: archdaily.com

While the clerestory may be the chief organizer of the building, the expansive curtain wall framing the library is the architectural element that connects the building to it’s surrounding neighborhood...it is a pure design statement articulated through technical precision and artful structural design.

Library book nook + grocery store... a great moment in architecture.

this suspended glass wall is the acoustic barrier of a silent reading room in the center of the library.  A special space within the building.  What you don’t see in this photo is the knitting group which i didn’t feel at liberty to photograph... I can assure you they were in deep flow... 

Clean and simple detailing reflective of the buildings materiality.

Elevator signage on cast in place concrete.

A figurative and literal reflection of it’s community.

a unique feature of the building is the entry at the upper level, and the site landscape design that connects to the surroundings at the lower level.   The architecture works seamlessly with the site design to create a double height library on the lower floor looking out onto the landscape.

the wood skin surrounding the curtain wall is a panelized rainscreen system.  This is only applied to the elevations that face the interior of the site.  The street facing elevations are clad in white painted brick.  This is contextual to the surrounding commercial buildings. It’s a nice surprise to turn the corner and be presented with this view!

Walked a BIG loop around Helsinki today and got a great feel for the city.  We stumbled across the Finnish National Opera House.  (Completed in 1993 by Finnish architects  Eero Hyuvyamyaki, Jukka Karhunen, andRisto Parkkinena )  Like a moth to a light... I had to get closer look.  The building is clad entirely in white marble and prominently stands out against the backdrop of plaster, stone, and masonry.  Another cultural pillar of this great city!  

tomorrow we’ll be visiting Saunalahti School in Espoo - a key building on the trip.

YAAG was a great success last night! OZ architecture's outdoor space was transformed with moody lighting, palettes galore and so many beautiful architects. The food trucks and open bar were very well received....to say the least. It was a little chilly and I felt a few raindrops, so we all huddled around the heat lamps and envied the woman who brought her ski hat.

Proud to announce that the HOZHO HOUSE won

HONORABLE MENTION for BUILT ARCHITECTURE

and...