Oslo International School

Jarmund/Vigsnaes Architects transforms a worn 1960s-era school building into a vibrant learning environment.

By Peter MacKeith

“History,” observes architect Håkon Vigsnaes, “is important for an architect: the history of a place, of an institution, of a building.” Vigsnaes, principal at the Oslo-based Jarmund/Vigsnaes, is speaking of his firm’s renovation of and additions to the Oslo International School, a private comprehensive school located in the Oslo suburb of Bekkestua. The architect is also making a declaration of principle for his practice. For while a prosperous Norwegian economy has fueled many new cultural and civic buildings, such as Snøhetta’s National Opera House [record, August 2008, page 84], Vigsnaes and partners Einar Jarmund and Alessandra Kosberg think that the preservation and renovation of existing buildings is essential for a greater sense of cultural continuity. With its work for the Oslo International School, the firm proves that such an economy of means can produce a maximum effect.

Program

The Oslo International School was founded in 1994 as the successor to the Oslo American School — itself a successor to the American and British Schools of the 1950s and ‘60s, which served families living on the local NATO military bases. It also inherited its predecessors’ 1960s building in Bekkestua, a one-story, rectilinear perimeter block bordered on the north by community sports fields and facilities and on the south by a residential neighborhood. Drawing enrollment from embassy, corporate, and Norwegian families, the school’s 500-plus students (from more than 50 different countries) attend kindergarten through secondary programs. The intense, well-rounded education and small class sizes make the school highly desirable throughout the Oslo metropolitan area.

With an eye on increasing enrollment and expanding programs amid a spatially limited building in need of repair, Head of School Barbara Carlsen approached Jarmund/Vigsnaes to assess the school’s facilities and provide design assistance. The quiet, wooded locale and the architectonic qualities of the existing structure appealed to the architects. Its single-story, modular structure provided clear circulation patterns, flexibility for expansion, good daylight, and contact with the outdoors. Additionally, the architects saw that the school’s identity was clearly connected with its site and building. Their suggestion — to renovate and expand, rather than relocate and build anew — addressed budget constraints and allowed the school to remain open and in operation throughout a three-phase construction sequence.

Solution

Vigsnaes describes his team’s design intention as seeking “a new atmosphere for the school through a gentle transformation of the existing building.” The project’s initial renovation phase involved installing new mechanical systems on the roof and applying bold colors in corridors, classrooms, and service spaces. The scheme also expanded entry areas and corridors within the existing structure to foster gathering for study and discussion.

The architects then erected curvilinear, wood-battened pavilions, housing a new library/media center and science laboratories. These push out dynamically from the existing building into its white-graveled, tree-shaded atrium, reconceived for upper-level students as a place for quiet activities. These additions reoriented the school’s circulation system, so the entrance shifted from the southeast corner of the building to the northwest.

Phase 2 added a large pavilion at the front of the existing building, sheathed in a rainbow of thin, multicolored fiber-cement panels. Here, new classrooms and offices for the kindergarten wrap around a softly curved, rubber-lined internal playground.

For the third and final phase, yet to be realized, the designers envision performance and gymnasium spaces opposite the lower-school addition.

Commentary

The school’s new exterior sheathing and entry canopies signal an energetic presence in the neighborhood. Expanded corridors and new courtyards are animated by students of all ages talking, playing, and studying — creating a place of purpose. Each space is light-filled, layered with color or texture, and expanded by views to the outside. Underpinned by an economy of means, the organic forms and sense of materiality — growing from and contrasting with the existing building — assert a renewed identity for the school. If architecture is to be gently didactic, then Jarmund/Vigsnaes’ design embodies such aspiration. n

Gross square footage: 3 900 m² sq.ft. new structure, 3 300 m² sq.ft. refurbishment

Completion Date: January 2008 (phase 1-2)

Owner:
Oslo International School

Architect:
Jarmund/Vigsnæs AS Architects MNAL
Hausmannsgate 6
0186 Oslo
Norway
Tel +47 22 99 43 43
Fax +47 22 99 43 53

Peter MacKeith is associate dean of the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in St. Louis.

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