Kulturskole

Cultural (art and music) school
Husnes, Norway

Client: Kvinnherad kommune
Size:    1 300 m2

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,…
-William Shakespeare

If the premise of world as a stage is acceptable, then our built environment becomes the stage for cultural presentation. As we go about our everyday business we are engaged in a theatrical act. Whether or not we are ‘viewed’, we all ‘present’ a cultural phenomenon. More than a mere stage we propose that architecture is also an active participant in this theater.

Our winning entry to a two-stage international competition, this art and music school, Kulturskolesenter, in Kvinnherad is organized as series of indoors and outdoors stages of various sizes and characters, each conducive to series of events and happening. These stages are all multifunctional space that assumes an active role in organization and choreography of daily life about the building and its larger environment. We propose that this building functions as a public stage that is accessible to all at any given time. Parts of the school are never close to the public. Provision of appropriate and available public stage is the first step in cultivation of positive social and cultural activities. All the interior and exterior spaces are organized as event-spaces; spaces that anticipate events and are not prescriptive about functions. Here form does not follow function but it facilitates functions.

Furthermore we believe that any building has to offer an equal or better cultural value than the sum of the environmental values it takes away. Therefore the ultimate form of this building is an outcome of all major forces that are relevant to its location and program. In other words this is not an object in the space but an object of the place.