Sparebanken Vest

Project details

Location
Bergen, Norway

Built
Not Built

Project description

The configuration of the neighbouring blocks conveys typical local Bergen architecture at its finest. Would it be affably feasible to create a relevant and comprehensive city block construction that enhanced this distinctive character and thus boosted the identity of this building that hails from the Norwegian West Coast? The project allows for a juxtaposition of lesser building volumes of various heights with a vertical character that groups around atriums and terraces. The construction allows for a differentiated street scene and a wholeness characterised by vitality and surprises. Rather modest differences in height combined with a simple façade geometry comprise a solution that yields significant results for the variation of the building volumes. The constructive system is clean and is legible on the ground plan and façade: Column placements and girders with double supports in the middle section enable the floors to be built of 1.2-metre hollow-core concrete slabs. The interior has clear-cut communication routes, articulated buffer zones and quiet segregated work areas with no interference from through-traffic. Clearly defined lines of sight and walkways take you past varied room zones, terraces and rooms with two-storey ceilings. Daylight has been evenly and cleverly distributed. Effective, small-scale and congenial work surfaces run into one another and create cohesive room sequences.