Haptic Architects and PIR2 have won a competition to design a new school and cultural centre for the Bærum municipality, creating a bold new landmark building on the site of Oslo’s decommissioned airport, for an emerging neighbourhood in Fornebu. The competition attracted 29 pre-qualification submissions from interdisciplinary teams, and the winning team’s proposal was selected from a five-strong short list that included Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) and NORD Architects.

With the plans still to be finalised, the Tårnkvartalet proposal will co-locate a secondary school for over 900-students with wider community amenities including a cultural centre, black box theatre, sports centre, library, health clinic, and skate park, alongside workshops and cafés, in a 16,000m2 civic hub.

The unique stepped brick and timber building is set to create a socially and environmentally sustainable cultural centre forthe Fornebu district, a peninsular areajust outside central Oslo. The proposal will be the heart of the area’s wider master plan, which has been under development for over two decades, since the airport was decommissioned, and has a population set to grow to 25,000.

Click here for the full press release.