Housing complex and children day care Egenes Park

Stavanger, Norway

In Stavanger, in the stadium area, we have designed Egenes Park, a building for dwellings with a child care centre . We have been commissioned to build these 75 apartments and kindergarten in Stavanger, which was the Cultural Capital of Europe in 2008. Stavanger has the largest existent old inner city in Europe, consisting entirely of wooden houses. The project is built in the context of the Norwegian Wood architectural festival, in which innovative wooden architecture is the centre of focus.

The most exceptional feature of this project is the 5-storey solid wood construction in which the project is realized. Furthermore, special demands have been placed on energy-saving (it has an energy class A), environment-friendly material use, and universal accessibility. The façades and interior are erected with massive wood elements and wood is used through the building from construction to detail. Various types of (Norwegian) wood have been used for this purpose. During the day, the roof of the childcare centre functions as a play area for children, and is a part of public space in the evenings.

For the architecture of this building we were inspired by traditional Norwegian wooden architecture, but this project also expresses its own special character.