How to win architecture competition? | Start For Talents #OSLOCALL

In this article, we continue our series on Competitions.archi, presenting a collection of articles on different architectural competitions. Today, we will be featuring the winner of the Start For Talents #OSLOCALL.

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The team backgrounds

Our team is based in Hong Kong SAR but we are all from different cultural background and country origin. Known as the Asia’s international financial hub, Hong Kong has also become a gate open to the world talents. The team met at workplace and regular workshop had been conducted throughout the design process. Every discipline crossed over to propose anything for the good sake of the project. There was no limit of age, expertise or personal style. But one thing that is important to the team is respect. The team leader would act as a leader directing and a decision maker, while the other members will be the team player. The mutual understanding is essential. 

As we all know that Hong Kong SAR is a developed metropolitan city which a land is very valuable. Covered by mostly hills and mountains, a usable flat land is rare. In a place like this, we are often pushed to think vertical in optimal way. As a team towards this mindset, we value public space for community use in any circumstances. We believe that our background affects the characteristic and mindset of every designer, especially on how we confront the challenges and provide the solutions.

The team

3D Print Model

Below are the critical points as our methodological process on how to arrive to the design decision:

• Context understanding
• Project positioning and vision
• Design strategy
• Concept and application

Context understanding

The competition site is located in Oslo, at the south side of the city centre. The site is currently used as a car park lot for people who will next commute with bus, ferry or cruise. The area is indeed the cruise terminal port. Just like a typical cruise port urban layout, within 250m radius, there are: bus interchange, large private car park lot, ferry piers, commercial establishment with offices, touristic attraction such as historical buildings, public waterfront and the cruise terminal itself. Within 500m radius, it covers residential area, CBD area, Oslo central train station, Oslo opera house and Hovedoya the Yacht Club Island on the south side. From urban perspective, it is a highly visited area with very high people traffic.

Context surrounding

Our team discussion was led to the question of whether or not there is a potential future redevelopment around the site. We believed that our vision needed to be broader than just what to build on site. The Oslo opera house has become the main attraction point, especially for anyone who arrives in Oslo by train and also conveniently accessible from the city centre. On the other hand, the main cruise port is just half kilometre away. The waterfront promenade around the Oslo opera has been developed for visitors and community. The promenade currently stops abruptly at the bus interchange. Looking at the peninsula, it is hard to ignore the fact that there are destination points for visitors such as the gourmet market, ferry station and the yacht club. Our conclusion believes that there shall be a major redevelopment to continue the waterfront promenade all the way from Gamle Oslo (Old City of Oslo) to the cruise terminal. Therefore, this factor will be an important point to position and define the future cultural centre building. 

Project positioning and vision

The initial programme proposal from the organizer as per below:

Hall: 100 sqm + Auditorium:500 seats + 2 Exhibition halls for temporary photographic exhibitions: 100 sqm for each one + 2 Laboratory (picture and sculpture):100 sqm for each one+ Library: 300 sqm + Coffee space: 200 sqm + Technical room (for water and BOH machine rooms) 100 sqm + 1 public toilet for plan: 3 for man, 3 for woman, 1 for disable + 4 Offices:20 sqm each room + Dressing room for staff:50 sqm + Green public area: free to propose.

Sketch on the board during discussion

With enthusiastic feeling for the future development of Oslo, the team strongly believes that the open space for public is the essential key point to the project. Before proceeding with the design, the following points are key factors that we need to take into account:

• Target audience: Who are the potential users in the future? 
• Project position: What is the position of this cultural centre? 
• Urban response: How to avoid blocking the visual and physical connection with the presence of the new building?
• Proposed solution: How to narrow down multiple ideas?

Target audience

The Oslo cruise port attracts not only domestic visitors but also international visitors. Many of them are from the neighbouring countries like Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, etc. The port and the central train station are seen to be a transit point for them before they have to continue their commute to the city centre or other part of Norway. It could be by ferry, bus or by train. The domestic visitors are mainly the locals from the islands, who come by ferry and the locals from other cities that commute with bus and train. As there are government buildings, commercial offices, touristic attractions, and residences, the reason of visit could be various like business meetings, workplace, tourism, groceries, and transit point. 

Project position 

By understanding the target audience of the cultural centre, the team started to brain-storm on what sort of civic space for public that we can introduce that is very accessible, friendly and be a destination for all kind of audiences. The building will serve not only introducing the cultural activities and also the natural side of Norway. We also learnt that the local Norwegian loves exploring in nature in which they often spend time during their time-off. Why not providing a very natural space like a mini forest where people can get lost and forget for a moment that they are in a city? We agreed on introducing multiple outdoor-indoor interaction spaces, spaces for people to rest, explore and discover with sense of destination and achievement. 

Urban response

The site is currently used as a car park lot. Pedestrians use it to walk through to the waterfront. The other benefit of current state of the site is that it is empty and open because there is no building sitting on it yet. A new building that emerges in the middle of an empty space is sometimes regarded as a selfish piece of object, that in society people’s eyes, it will only harm its surroundings. Then, how to propose a building that benefits everybody? 

Although, the site is located over 5000 miles away from Hong Kong, the team regularly intended to seek a tentative solution around them. As one of cities in the world with a record of demolishing an existing building to rebuild something more profitable, Hong Kong has created a way of so-called a win-win deal solution: if you want to take something that is considered valuable from society, you must give more than what they expect. The one-million-dollar question is how to do that to this site?

The first reaction was that we had to give back the land to the people by keeping it empty and open. But how? Probably it was by minimizing the foot print as much as possible and probably the building must be as transparent as possible to allow at least clarity to a visual connection to the waterfront. On top of it, we had to give more generous public space and the only place to do that would be on top of the building. As the initial programme is not giving any limit to the open space, then, we decided to sandwich the building with civic spaces. It was indeed an ambitious approach and we had to make it work.

Proposed solution

Prior to our regular workshop, the team had done some quick sketches for series of idea on how to handle the solution.  It was one of the interesting meetings as we finally arrived on the architectural proposal. The preliminary idea was to elevate everything and having the buildings sit on the pilotis, allowing full open space on the ground level. We thought that it was a little utopia and too literal as solution. It seemed that we focused too much on the civic space while the building experience was not fully considered. The next attempt was to assure, in parallel, that the entrance to the building is yet very welcoming.  

Our final criteria of building was to allow the entrance to the lobby to be centralized and accessible, the start of journey to the mini forest had to be welcoming but yet creating some kind of mystery and a destination that is breath-taking to visitors. 

Design Strategy

The team started to think how to kick off the design and massing strategy for the project. We were mainly looking into the primary and secondary accessibility to the cruise and ferry terminal because generally that was the kick off point. Later we found out that the government buildings and museum along the primary access road on the west side of the site was on different spot level in height which creates a wall. That would mean that not many people would walk along the pedestrian side. The only pedestrian flow from the west was probably from the bike parking. With this understanding, main people flow would happen mainly from the east and south with the presence of waterfront promenade, bus interchange, ferry terminal and cruise terminal. 

The site offers a 360 degree amazing view. It does not only offer the sea view but also the historical quarter of Oslo, City centre with the new CBD area (the Bar Code) and also series of islands. All in all, the site sits on the cruise port area which the whole development including the city centre is developed because of the presence of the port. Apart from having a centralized entrance to the building, we decided to have the public spaces on the ground and the roof top to be facing the south east corner. People immediately realize the main view of the area is along the peninsula edge and what we would like to offer was a broader view from a higher position which was on the roof. 

Initial 3D model study on context model

The initial proposed programmes were quite simple and clear. We began to distinguish which programmes was the Front of House (FOH) and which ones was the Back of House (BOH) including loading and unloading (L/UL) area in the basement. Then, we sorted the FOH spaces based on what kind of experience that we would give to the future users in the building. Also, we knew that the destination programme here was the auditorium hall; therefore we put it on the top floor. 

We started to think each programme like a block laid on the ground. With the concept of maximizing the L1 ground level to be as empty and open as much as possible, we decided to have only the entrance and other necessary one to be at L1 level. Other programmes had to float in the air. With the idea of bringing people to the top of the building, we stacked the blocks like steps with the auditorium to be at the top as destination programme. Here are the more detail arrangement of the programmes and themes of landscape gardens:

• L1, the grand entrance lobby associated with a café (easy access for retail that is accessible from inside and outside). BOH admin office space is put off sight from the public and accessible from the staff entrance at the back of the building.
• L2, the library associated with public toilet (easy access for the first public amenity programme considering kids and adolescents as majority of the future users).
• L3, the exhibition halls and cloakroom associated with toilet and BOH access direct from the L/UL area in the basement. The atelier or lab for sculpture and photography are located further down under the auditorium hall. Direct access is possible by express lift with staff-only access card. 
• L4 and L5, the auditorium and the foyer associated with toilet BOH access direct from the L/UL area in the basement. In addition, the foyer is extendable to the outside garden which can be used occasionally for the extension of certain event.
• Public gardens and open spaces, a journey is narrated from L1 all the way to the roof top. We proposed the open amphitheatre seating area at L1, hiking trail experience garden that connects to the L3 exhibition hall foyer, secret forest garden associated with a café-resto that connects to L4 auditorium foyer and finally the roof top garden with 360 view of Oslo.

Massing study on programmes

Concept and application

CCNW stands for Cultural Centre for Norwegian Water. We did have a habit to abbreviate any kind of descriptive names. Not only it is simple but also can be quite catchy. Our winning project has been known as CCNW. If you notice that we also created a little logo that we laid on the top right corner of the board. It is a small effort and yet important to have audience attention to the competition board. 

For the concept of the design, we intended to lean towards something that sticks to the identity of Norway, something that exists in the Norwegian nature and not anywhere else. Norway is very-well known with its preserved natural richness and has become its tourism wanderlust. Astonished by its mountains and waterfalls experience in winter, the design intent is to re-echo the trail experience in Norwegian mountain and confronted by the natural frozen icy waterfall. CCNW focus on providing the maximum of civic spaces and experiential journey from ground to top roof terrace which is accessible at different levels. The main programmes such as library, exhibition spaces and auditorium are also arranged gradually stacking up to 26m roof terrace level from the ground offering the best views of Oslo. Both outdoor civic spaces in a form of roof landscape and indoor programmes are well interconnected. These elements are wrapped elegantly with monolithic crystallized glass façade and vertical features enhancing the ornament quality of frozen waterfall. The vertical features also serve as shading fins but yet the facade is very transparent. The building geometry slowly emerges from the ground up marking its presence as new icon for a cultural centre in Oslo. In summary, the project itself expresses the coldness on the external shell mimicking the icy waterfall and the warmness in the inside, with soft landscape terraces like the melting snow in the mountain’s valley.

Sketch for the building façade intent

The civic journey starts from the artificial lake at the foothill with an outdoor amphitheatre for public seating and occasional outdoor performances. Further up to green terraces, visitors will stop by at the viewing deck with direct access to L3 main exhibition hall pre-function. Continuing up on the west side, there is a trail with series of seating area with view towards piers and historical district. At the next destination, the visitors arrive at the secret garden partially enclosed by external glass facade; embellished with Nordic tall trees and leaving a curiosity from the street visibility. The secret garden is accessible to the auditorium level and function as an extension of the outdoor pre-function. As the journey goes on, the visitors finally arrive at the highest point of roof terrace. This is the climax of journey offering the 360-degree view to the city of Oslo. The top roof terrace is partially protected by the façade on the SW and NE protecting it from the dominant winds. It opens up towards the sea on the SE and the Sentrum on the NW. 

Despite the programme stacking arrangement, the internal circulations are kept efficiently flexible. Through the public space, the visitors enter to the lobby, offering a grand volume of atrium with café lounge and seating area at the ground level. The stepping balconies at the arrival lobby give a natural sense of way-finding to the other programmes: library at L2, exhibition halls with laboratories at L3 and auditorium at L4 and L5. The vertical circulations such as lifts stop at every level from B2 to L5. Alternatively, an express lift is also provided for public to go up directly to top roof terrace. This lift occasionally could also serve as the auditorium artist backstage entrance from basement level. The internal public circulation along the outer façade lets visitors enjoy the Oslo view from inside the building. The timber interior finish dominates the space to introduce a soft and warm welcoming in the inside as well as to the outside.

Finalized 3D architectural model

Remarks 

As we mentioned at the beginning of this article, we believe that several factors will influence each designer’s methodology, philosophy and belief as a design approach. Our design approach is to propose a design process that converge a narrative with metaphor. We started by understanding holistically about the site surrounding and its culture. Our focus on a project is to put the public civic space as a priority. We believe that this is a key element on how to improve the connectivity between the surroundings.  We emphasize on the narrative journey within the programme interlinking with the outdoor spaces.

For us, it is always fun to participate in the idea competition as it is a way to express your design methodology and philosophy behind a project, between experimental and practical. An idea competition is, in a way, challenging because you compete with people that is not limited by age, background and professionalism.

Authors: Jaenes Bong, Queena Wang, Ming Tse Lin, Ivan Chi from Hong Kong

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If you would like to ready more case studies like the one above please check our annual publication

 Architecture Competitions Yearbook.

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