Evolving the isolated nature of many traditional schools, Vrå is just as much a community space for the entire town, as it is for the students.
Architecturally, by blending the built environment with the surrounding landscape, the school challenges the relationship between constructed and natural. The spaces within the school are shaped by both conventional building materials, and parts of the natural surroundings, creating a cohesive relationship between the building and site. Trunks of the surrounding trees become slender columns inside the lobby, the forest floor becomes interior courtyards, and the canopy becomes the wooden roof structure that encloses the central gathering space.
The trees outside that envelop the school also become the shading system. Carefully chosen deciduous trees provide shade in the summer while letting light during the winter. Nature and program, building and forest, architecture and landscape all interact in the Vrå Children and Culture Centre to become one cohesive entity.
The Landscape and Learning Forest
The landscape is characterized by open grass plains and geometrically planned forest elements. Together, they create a distinct spatial differentiation between the cluster of trees and open spaces in between. Inspired by both C.TH Sørensen’s geometric gardens in Herning and the existing landscape, we designed the Learning Forest, the Vrå School, and additional geometric landscape elements used for recreational learning.
Organic Facade
The forest becomes the second façade of the building.
Programmed with many different activities in all the layers of the forest, it creates a living frame for the building, changing with the seasons and throughout the day. Surrounded by the forest and nearby lake, the outside areas are used for teaching as well as a playground. The green landscape offers various ways for the children to play and learn and establish a good relationship with nature.
School Building of the Year 2022
A unanimous jury and a public vote decided to award Vrå Children and Culture Centre “School Building of the Year 2022″ – an award held by Nohrcon.
“Vraa Children and Culture Centre is a great project that combines the intentions and needs of several educational institutions with music, secondary school, library and civic center. The ambitions are colossal, but the redemption is no less. A really successful example of how a building also can act as an outdoor space and how it appeals to the senses via wood cladding and simple manageable displacements, stairs and planting.” The Jury
