homu architecture

All eyes on Ås . Europan 12 . Ås

Honorable mention . homu architecture

University’s research and studies, if linked directly to the business world, can easier promote themselves and grow faster.

student life : Ås community = research/business : world
The planning vision for Ås future cannot miss the call to integrate and interbreed the city life with the positive vibrations from UMB, carrier of extremely important actors of the patrimony of a Nation, Youth and Culture, contemporarily allowing and promoting a solid collaboration between Ås University and the new Innovation Hub. Ås will have the opportunity to intensify locally and expand worldwide.
Local Food Research&Innovation Hub
The Norwegian University of Life Science will be connected to the centre of Ås through a strong characterized band with facilities, offices, hotels and the new innovation centre. On the eastern end of this new intervention, Ås central square will open on the Europan Site. The project, gate to the city, is the showcase of the (Local Food) Research&Innovation Hub. Locals, commuters and visitors will find here the pulsing crossing point of Art , Trade, University and Community.
Strategic location in the urban context
West-East axis. On the south side of Drøbakveien a new 1Km long band, will be the manifestation of a new dialogue between the University and the City. The east side of the band coincides with Ås Cultural District, where important cultural Institutions and Facilities are interconnected within the Town Hall Park (Ås Town Hall, Library, Cinema, Cultural School, Primary School). A sequence of culture related urban places is given rhythm by a succession of open areas of different nature: a new playground next to the Schools, renovation of the Park in front of the Town Hall, creation of a new urban Plaza on Raveien which will become pedestrian only for the stretch between Rådhusplassen and Skolevein.
North-South axis. Along the railway the existing residential urban fabric positively reacts to the will of intensification with the insertion of new housing buildings and student housing with retails on the ground floor. The matrix of voids hosts new volumes, creating unforeseen urban spaces, new views and scenarios.
Directing the urban expansion along those two axis, one mainly residential while the second one rich in services and facilities, the presence of green fields in close proximity to the city centre is preserved.

Ås Quadrivium 2013*
* Centre for the urban life of local and university communities - Regional network node display of “Local Food Research&Innovation Hub”.
The Europan Site will be the paradigm of how intense and fertile can be the relationship between existing urban structure and additional intervention. Counterbalancing the Institutions cluster on Raveien the site aims to be the articulated join between the 2 new strategic axis and the residential area on the north and on the east.
An aulic reference is seen in “Quadrivio degli Angeli”, Ferrara. The quadrivium is the crossroads between Corso Ercole d’Este and Corso Porta Mare - Corso Biagio Rossetti designed by Biagio Rossetti in the first modern city plan, Addizione Erculea I (1492-1510). The architect assigned to each palace located at one of the four corners a different, but well-defined architectural weight with the aim of making them all stand out distinctly at the same time.
Similarly in Ås the existing buildings are all preserved. Each of them will characterize functionally and morphologically one of the 4 four corners of the site. The formal variety is reached addressing each corner as a singularity. A tangent curve to integrate Odd Tandbrg house with the new museum. A new facade is provided for the MEGA building that will be renovated to accommodate housing apartments. For the student house an inner courtyard opens on the central axis. A public plaza is cut in front of Åsheim house.
Program
The site has a direct and ambitious programmatic mix. Housing, student housing, retail, restaurants, museum and workshops are facing one to each others, interbreeding their open spaces in a dynamic and differentiated crossing point. Promoting activities related to Local Food the site reveals the major actors of Ås framework: Agriculture, Science Research and Rural Context. University’s attitude of sharing and exchanging is transferred into the site to create new urban synergies, to experiment new public spaces. Components: Odd Tandberg Museum, Bio-market & Apartments, Food Lab (Restaurants, Retails, Workshop), Student housing.
A collection of multiple open areas of different nature ( plaza, garden, courtyard and alley, each one referred to one of the 4 quadrants) twists around the central axis connection, facing each others in several ways.

All eyes on Ås
International Design Competition “Europan 12”
Honorable mention
2013
location: Ås, Norwway
client: Europan Norway
program: Student housing, Housing, Museum, Retail, F&B
GFA: 12,040m2
design team: Filippo Nanni, Lucia Zamponi
© 2014 homu