Space Group -> Projects: Kristiansund Opera and Culturehouse

OCK, Opera and Culture house Kristiansund: Opera, library, school, voluntary cultural facilities and youth center.

Located in the center of Kristiansund, by the city’s most prominent square, the site is already occupied by two significant buildings. To engulf them by a third larger structure will be detrimental, diminishing the integrity of the existing buildings.

WW2 left Kristiansund with 80 % of its building mass destroyed. The plan for its reconstruction, by architect Sverre Pedersen, stipulates clear strategies for public space, for axis’, and for diversity.

OCK overcomes the challenges of architectural blurring by introducing a new genealogy on the site – liberated and yet connected, complimenting the original vision of the Pedersen plan.

OCK crystallizes the ambitions of several strong identities into one collective institution. This composition consists of core synergies that will optimize the performance of each component. Our strategy goes further by developing a host of new synergies that reveal and take advantage of potentials, add value.

By combining functions in a rational way based on their common interests and advantages, we establish 3 institutions in one complex – Knowledge Core - Culture Core – Social core.

Added value: spaces for the unexpected, spaces to inspire us, spaces where the collective and individual can coexist. To inspire mutation, experimentation, invention, heterogeneity and freedom is to liberate culture..

The red carpet: A procession of movement from entry to restaurant, the red carpet reveals at once both the rich interior setting and the views of Kristiansund. This spatially rich social mixer takes you to all publically accessible spaces, filtering, buffering, connecting and staging.

On the city’s horizon we have placed the restaurant along with the orchestra rehearsal rooms. When combined these individual programs form one civic space - a unique room with view.

The structure of the new building is a metaphor for the entire strategy. The cores support the main hall that in turn holds the activities surrounding it. This unprecedented structure gives the first opera in Norway another first – a floating fly tower, where the CITY meets the STAGE as an extension of the public space.

A glimpse into the world where fantasy is constructed – a backstage pass for everyone, for a moment.

The opera hall: our objective is simple: allow for the greatest number of guests to be as close as possible to the stage, and with perfect sightlines. From the stage, the performers shall see an ocean of people, from wall-to-wall.

< >