Case Study
Faerder Technical High School

Faerder Technical High School is a new secondary education vocational college located in the port area of Tønsberg, Norway's oldest village.

It combines three existing schools under one roof in a state-of-the-art new building and campus that breathes new life into a formerly declining industrial area.

White Arkitekter's competitionwinning design actively promotes and supports the interplay between the school, the town and the region's enterprises with an open-access policy for the new facilities so that the 750 students engage with and feel a part of the local community.

With a location on the quayside between Tønsberg's town centre and its main port on the Baltic Sea, the intention is that the school will act as a catalyst for the regeneration of the area, while reviving some of the practical trades and skills that the area was once widely known for, such as carpentry, welding and mechanical engineering.

The campus was designed from the inside out. Analysis of the site and key sight-lines led to the design of three key meeting places on the campus, which dictated the form of the school building. The scheme is highly porous, both within the campus and beyond. At the heart of the building sits the Hangar, a semi-covered open space where student and public walkways converge. Its vast proportions emulate the ship-building facilities that once stood on the site. It provides an accessible, covered outdoor space where workshops, concerts and exhibitions can be held by students of the college and the wider public.

Workshops and teaching spaces are arranged in a vertical sequence of spaces around a centralised staircase and atrium space rising to four floors.

An entrance plaza, auditorium, exhibition area and canteen collectively form a huge common room just next to the Hangar.

Technical workshops are on the uppermost floors. Expansive glazed sliding doors on the lower floors flood the spaces with natural light and permit access for large-scale industrial building materials.

Client: Tønsberg local authority
Architect: White Arkitekter
Area: 15,00 sq m
Completed: Autumn 2014