Ålesund Student Centre
The Student Centre in Ålesund, which includes a social headquarter, offices, and housing, presents an innovative vision of program mixity and urban planning integration. Strategically located in both the city and NTNU Campus, the centre neighbors a new student square and an existing laboratory building. This provides for intuitive meeting points, as well as a flexible space for individual and group activity. A high degree of architectural transparency and access creates an exciting exchange between the building’s inside and outside, activating the square with students’ movement and energy.
Distributed over many stories, the housing units hover above the wider student centre, the roof of which welcomes a large, shared terrace: new furniture and greeneries make the perfect set-up for cosy outdoor activities. All units are organized along a central corridor, with a kitchen and brightly colored common room encountered mid-way in the plan.
Altogether, the building becomes a natural hub for interaction and learning-based experimentation, as it gathers students, workers and multidisciplinary professionals in one inspiring space. The generous atrium and its satellite rooms are witnesses to the meeting of great, lively minds.
Interior: materials, colours and finishes
The student centre functions as a hub for state-of-the-art innovation and participation; for knowledge and improved social interactions. As indicated by users during collaborative design conversations, the overall identity for the building needs to recall “creativity and industry”, in combination with “warmth and inclusivity”. This guided our choice of materials, furniture and surfaces across the building.
Some materials are found at all levels of the Studentbygg – mostly concrete, steel or wood. This continuous use creates a visual connection between the different programs which take place within the building, and so, it allows for easy navigation and place recognition. Subtle, complementary signage facilitates movements within each floor.
We conceptualized the progressive approach and exploration of the building as follow: the façade presents neutral tones and untreated materials, while the insides of the hub and the housing tower are vibrant, diverse and colourful. In this spirit of contrast, the tone-on-tone exterior gives way to a rainbow interior, with bright hues found on walls, floors and ceilings. A city famous for its beautiful Jugendstil architecture, Ålesund and its collection of pastel townhouses is the inspiration for the inner colour palette, which adapts and varies according to a room’s function, or a user group.
One’s first encounter with the building: the Innovation Hub. A room that shows off an impressive double height, it is adorned with red columns and ceiling panels, which are contrasted by the freshly toned furniture and mezzanine. The hub is highly visible from the outside square and street; its warm, inviting colours attract the eye and communicate something of the energy of the building users. Student culture and spirit are emphasized, celebrated. Situated at the bottom of a light well, the café and its neighbouring black-box room are painted in colours that recall the large atrium above, while presenting more intimate and subtle shades. Simple (yet effective) notions of complementarity and distinction are at play in the underground level of the building.
The Innovation Hub hosts a slender mezzanine floor, where users find offices and diverse service functions. These rooms are treated in friendly hues, which make for a slightly cooler, sober work environment. Blues, beiges and greys are distributed in a quiet manner along the plan. Finally, the rest of the above stories consist of sleeping studios, kitchens and living rooms. Key words for the choice of materials and colours are: warm, positive, playful. Of course, the woody, orangish dormitories appear calmer in contrast to the vibrant common areas and corridors, which are alternatively painted in strong turquoise, blue or pink.
Student square, culture and sports
The new open square is placed in front of the Studentbygg, with its ground plane sloping gently towards Borgundvegen, the main traffic road which borders the site on the south side. An interplay of stairs, steps, slopes and green patches allows for the square’s natural orientation towards the artery and the new volume of the student centre, while ensuring universal accessibility qualities. A good portion of unprogrammed area is left for students and other users to occupy – different activities can take place around the clock, ensuring a vibrant atmosphere which naturally leaks to and from the hub. This impression is strengthened by the glass details on the lower façade which separates the student centre from the square: here the floor is laid out at the same height, and so flows “continuously” between inside and outside. This makes for an overall inviting appearance.
The Innovation Hub is arranged like a big amphitheatre-atrium, with its heigh ceiling, flexible lighting, curtains and sculptural wooden stair. Varied furnishing and programs are possible here. At night, the hub lights up like a lantern, and can be appreciated by pedestrians, bikers or car drivers along Borgundvegen and on campus. In that sense, the Studentbygg works as an urban attractor, rendering its surrounding more dynamic and agreeable. The so-called sports street, a glass-covered passage tucked between the centre’s core and the existing laboratory building, extends from the square to the other side of the plot. Its various architectural components are painted in a bright red, and it receives extremely good light throughout the day. Different surface treatments improve the overall acoustics, and circulation is facilitated by generous doors and entry points.
