Kungsbacka, Sweden Passive House School
Architect: Kjellgren Kaminsky Architecture
Size: 6500 sq m. 300 Students
The custom glazed bricks randomly placed across the envelope and the thoughtful composition of the interiors marks this school as a place built on respect for the individual learner, respect for education, and respect for the environment.
The school is located in a growing town outside of Gothenberg Sweden. I discovered Kolla School as I was researching sustainability driven projects. With a Passive House certification and beautiful design elements the school appeared to be an ideal building to add to my list.
I wasn’t sure we were going to get into the school for a tour. I wasn’t able to make a connection with the faculty before the trip, but I thought we should give it a shot anyway on our way out of Stockholm. As we were creeping around the building, peering into windows etc...the Headmaster, Mats Lonn, happened to be walking in the front door. Unreal luck.
Mats asked. Creeping back around the corner I explained who we were and why we were spying into his school. The initial awkward meeting lead to an hour and half tour of his facility, the opportunity to meet many staff members, and an in-depth conversation about the building, education, and design. Mats has been a Headmaster (equivalent to a Principal in the US) for over twenty years and collaborated with the architect on every step of the school’s design. He knows the building intimately and explained how the design of the each space was curated to the specific needs of the their teaching philosophy.
Kolla School was completed in 2015 as the result of a design competition. Many of the public buildings in Sweden and Finland go through a competition process to decide the architect which may have the effect of creating higher design expectations and better buildings. In the US, this process is far less common.
In 2012 the school was conceptualized as the anchor of a new residential development that would bring mixed-density residential buildings and a large park to the growing town of Kungsbacka. Today, many of the residential buildings have been completed with multiple buildings under construction. There is a distinct new urbanism feel to the neighborhood with the school and the park at the center, narrow streets, bike lanes, and a diversity of scale and density. It feels very similar to Stapleton in Denver. As the site plan shows - the school fits seamlessly into the masterplan as the heart of the neighborhood.
Passive House is an international building standard that focuses on reducing energy consumption by an average of 90% through mechanically ventilated buildings with a highly insulated, air tight envelope. Typically the human activity and electronics/appliances provide the building heat.
quickly explained in this great 90 second video!
a passive house on the Colorado front range here!
For any building to meet the stringent criteria required for Passive House certification is a significant accomplishment. For a school of this size to become certified is special. It requires a deeply committed and forward thinking client, and a team of designers and builders that are willing to completely trust each other. Mats attributes the overall success of the project to this critical component of trust from the beginning. The building was completed on time on schedule, and Passive House certification was achieved the summer before they opened for the first school year making it the largest Passive House school in Sweden at the time.
The school has experienced some challenges with the Passive House envelope in the recent months (May 2018) as Sweden experienced unseasonably high temperatures. It was difficult to cool the building with the higher outside temperatures and the school had to experiment with bringing outside air in at night to offset the interior temperature throughout the day. As we move toward higher and higher levels of efficiency in building energy use through insulated envelopes we may begin to see the paradox the Kolla School is in more frequently. Here the team put a large amount of design and cost into an extremely sophisticated envelope based on the historic climate/ temperature of the region. However, it may become increasingly important to consider long term climate change in the design of building envelopes as we continue to see the steady increase in global temperature. Looking to the past for historic climate data may be less relevant than looking to the future.
Upon entering the building this digital display informs you of the buildings real-time energy use. It’s a fitting welcome for the smart building.
With a building this ambitious comes a price tag. As I experience these world class schools it’s critical to understand how they are funded. The budget has everything to do with the expectation of the project and ability to be successful in the outcome. The funding for Kolla School came from what Mats described as a community corporation. As I understand it; in Sweden there is the opportunity for municipalities to create a company that invests tax dollars for profit to fund public work. The “community company” invests in assets such as real estate to generate additional revenue from the initial tax capital. Obviously there is a risk in putting public money int real estate development, but the reward is an accelerated path to larger funding without additional taxation. This model worked well for the Kolla School project and now the school is operated by the municipality.
The fundamental ingredients that make a memorable building interior; light, color, acoustics, texture are all highly executed in the schools double height atrium space. It’s the central hub - linking three educational wings to community spaces and connecting to the playground through large colorful windows. I spent a lot of time in this space and the sensory feedback left a strong impression on me. Within the Passive House envelope the acoustics feel intimate yet the space is voluminous, the light is stimulating but not harsh, and the colors are vibrant. There is no drywall in the school, interior walls are instead clad with birch plywood. This has a dramatic affect on the warmth of the spaces and taps into the inherent human affinity for natural materials. Good trick!
It just felt great to be in the building, it refreshes your mind. This experience must translate to the students respect for and memories of their school.
This building exemplifies the way in which design can enhance the students relationship to education. As Mats described it, “A well designed school will make the students feel good. When students feel good they will perform better academically.” I definitely couldn’t have said it better.
Respect for the individual student is most evident in how the school incorporated the special needs program into the building design. This population is significant with the Kolla School serving 40 special needs students out of a total population of 300. Mats described that a key design principle for the school is inclusion. The design of the school helps integrate these students with their peers while providing them the sense of security they need to be successful.
Educational wings are grouped into 3-4 classrooms with a special needs class included. All students of the same age group share a cluster where they can interact with and get to know one another. Standard lockers are provided for special needs students adjacent to their classrooms. An informal gathering space is provided with built in seating for flexible teaching space or social interaction. The special needs students are always apart of the academic community as opposed to being segregated to a specific part of the building. Transparency also plays a major role in the classroom design with windows providing sight lines for special needs students to see out into the cluster while in their classroom and also for teachers to see into each classroom.
A typical special needs classroom includes: large windows at varying heights, natural light, group work area, mobile work stations for one on one instruction and an adjustable height smart board to accommodate students in wheelchairs.
View through a classroom cluster. Large interior windows provide views into classrooms. Glass partition walls into the cluster enhance security and the connection to the school. Student lockers are located in the cluster, and wayfinding is enhanced through the application of different colors (green here) throughout the school.
Recording studio... ABBA could record an album here!
A fundamental component of the Swedish educational system is the “life skills” classes such as home economics, textiles, and wood working curriculum. As Mats described it, this is hand on learning, and critical to the life skills students acquire in school. I found this to be an interesting contrast the American educational system where the majority of our current curriculum allows the “hands on” classes to be pursued as an elective. The design attention given to these spaces is a reflection of the value given to these subjects.
In Sweden 1-5% of school building budgets is dedicated to public art. Kolla School was asked by the town architect to enhance the identity of the building on the street facing elevations. They wanted the design to tell the community this was a school. The architect didn’t want to alter the masonry as it related the school to the surrounding material of the neighborhood.
The creative solution reached was to engage a local ceramics artist who worked with the students to create glazed bricks representing the values of the school that were then installed into the exterior walls - memorialized into the building.
As you walk down the sidewalk you are drawn to these beautiful little details that tell the story of the school and make the building unique. These bricks were my favorite line in the story of the building.
Circular granite sculptures were added in the playground as the other primary art installation. The concept was to contrast the angular geometry of the building with the round and spherical sculptures. This installation is also used in lessons and students may be asked to calculate the volume of one of the spheres. As you turn the corner from the street to the playground the building material changes from brick to metal panel and the sculptures become a feature against the buildings playful elevations. This art is performative as well creating elements within the playground for students to climb on.
