Oslo, Norway

2021 - 2025

Diakonhjemmet

With the aim of stimulating biodiversity and creating an accessible sense of community, our design for the new upper secondary school and VID university college in Oslo’s Diakonhjemmet Hage integrates hybrid timber construction, flexible activation, rainwater management, as well as green roofs and façades.

Project details

Client

The Norwegian Education Agency, Diakonhjemmet, and Oslo Municipality

Typology

Education, Urban landscapes and vertical greenery

Status

Not far from Oslo’s city center is Diakonhjemmet Hage, a garden and development area which will provide a home for an upper secondary school focused on health and education, as well as a campus expansion of VID University College.  

This vibrant campus area is intended for use by both students and the public all year round, and so our vision for the new educational institutions is to embody the values of environmental stewardship that anchor their identity. For this reason, the design ensures outdoor areas will be accessible to students, researchers, teachers, staff, but also to the nearby hospital patients, elderly care residents, kindergarten children, and the local community throughout. Creating attractive facilities through parks and pedestrian areas, the site will offer a range of spaces, from active to peaceful.

The two schools have been designed with optimal spaces for both formal and informal learning. These areas are designed to accommodate for future changes, with daylit classrooms and open study areas organized around communal zones that offer clear sightlines and foster a sense of belonging.

With a design that is envisioned as an example of how we can best take care of our planet, and driven by this goal, the project incorporates timber construction and strategies for stimulating biodiversity and creating strong connections with the natural environment. Due to open in 2025, the secondary school will house 800 students and a new college will also be established on site.

The design of the upper-secondary school at Diakonhjemmet includes wooden hybrid structures, low-carbon concrete and bio-based materials.  Hald & Ravnborg, 2022
With the subway 20 meters away, the nursing home 300 meters away, and the hospital just around the corner, Diakonhjemmet is easily accessible on a plot with diverse landscapes, oak groves, parks, urban spaces, and communal gardens. Henning Larsen, 2022

“Both the school and the university will contribute to creating a vibrant area and campus in Diakonhjemmet's garden, to the delight of the city and the local community. Our proposal is ambitious and innovative buildings that provide optimal teaching conditions and high environmental ambitions.”

Ingela Larsson

Partner, Architect

The landscape concept for Diakonhjemmet comprises vegetation, water, and terrain cultivation and envisions all outdoor areas as gardens, creating welcoming, scaled-down spaces that meet the human scale.

Landscape architecture

Enhancing biodiversity

Geared towards reducing the building's carbon footprint, we have chosen design solutions with hybrid structures in wood and low-carbon concrete, as well as bio-based materials that will provide inviting habitats for insects, animals, and plants. 

“We see great potential in developing Diakonhjemmet Hage to become an all-day and an all- year campus. With the users being students of different ages, residents, hospital staff and commuters using the new Diakonhjemmet station there is the potential for creating a vivid neighbourhood,” continues Ingela Larsson, Partner, Architect. 

The core focus of the site’s landscape is growth, achieved by integrating vegetation and water into the urban setting to increase biodiversity and wildlife. The existing oak hills will be preserved and added vegetation will be integrated, using local flora to create a unique identity reflective of the site’s history. The green, semi-intensive roofs and facades of the new development will be created to manage rainwater locally, using it as a resource, and directing water through channels to larger water features and ponds.

The wood-clad facade has an external, multi-functional steel frame system supporting planters for vegetation and greenery to enhance biodiversity and function as an additional measure for passive solar screening.
Through circulation flows and skylights, the entrance square at Diakonhjemmet opens up to an underground multi-purpose hall for various activities and events.

A space for all

Diakonhjemmet’s communal identity is anchored in a commitment to provide space for everyone and our hope is that the school and university will be perceived as open, accessible, and welcoming for the public as well as students and staff. Larger openings in the façade facing the square will make it possible, when weather permits, to move outdoor furniture out onto the square, creating a connection between indoor and outdoor spaces in and around the school.

Students, staff and passers-by will all be invited into the Djakonhemmet community. A neighbourhood restaurant facing the central square will be open all day, while the below ground training facilities and the publicly accessible canteen will be separate from the school's other areas. This separation allows the spaces to be rented out for private events, to local residents, campus users, or students. 

This approach aims to create an active urban environment in the square, keeping it lively and vibrant even after classes end, and extending its energy beyond the campus into the local community.

Hald & Ravnborg, 2022

Contact

All contacts
Portrait of Solveig Erdahl

Department Manager

solveig.erdahl@henninglarsen.com

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