Knarvik Kindergarden

Mr. Thomas Tysseland has designed a new kindergarden for 150 children. The property of 8000 m2 is situated in a wooded, undulate area, and the kindergarten was to be integrated as much as possible into the terrain. M3 architects have a policy of, and long experience in working with “passive houses” with highly sustainable materials.

- The topography, and the fact that this was to be used by children, gave the inspiration to use the principals of Rubik’s Snake in the design of the buildings. When you twist the plastic snake, you get a unique shape each time. This generates a million different possibilities based on just one original form.

Tysseland often finds himself looking for inspiration in toy shops, as he thinks that “great toys and great buildings have a lot in common”.

The body of the main building consists of a “box” of 8 x 8 x 8 meters, and the other buildings are carefully snugged in towards it. The shape of the main building has been “twisted” only once, to lift one of the corners’ vertical 2 meters upwards. The other buildings have been twisted in separate ways, giving the children a design experience according to their scale. The waving roof shape also draws a parallel to the shapes of the surrounding area, and takes up the natural line of the mountains nearby.

On the facade a variation with vertical and horizontal panels draw the lines for windows and cuts. The Kebony cladding will turn grey and supports the natural expression of the buildings. The windows are random and custom fields of varying portrait/ landscape panels.

Mr. Thomas Tysseland, M3 Architects:
- When I take on the challenge to design a building to fit into the untouched nature, it is with respect both towards the landscape and the fact that the building should never create visible noise. To approach the natural, I think that the use of “natural” wood that looks even better as it gets affected by wind and rain, is a step in the right direction.

Here on the western coast of Norway, all architectural projects require extremely robust solutions. Water and weather sneaks in everywhere. The guarantees from Kebony were thus especially important when choosing the cladding.

Environmentally speaking it was important to design a low maintenance building with sustainable and non-toxic materials.

The fact that Kebony weathers and gets that grey patina, enriches the project in its own way; - The building becomes a piece of “living architecture”.