Military Training Facilities
The brief was to design a new training facility for the Norwegian Navy. The building has a complex program with facilities for both specialized marine training and for the 5000 employees who work daily in the base.
Facilities include two swimming pools, multi-purpose hall, various training rooms, climbing wall, as well as changing rooms and offices for the employees, as well as outside amenities. The full height foyer is the building’s social heart and connects the various amenities together, both visually and functionally.
The new building is placed in an underused part of the naval base. One of the most important design tasks was to delimitate this site and create a place of value from this residual area. The building is positioned on the shore edge to frame the training landscape and to define a clear boundary for the naval base. This placement also gives it a direct relationship to the sea.
The large volume is modulated both in plan and elevation to break down the scale. The façade is mostly clad with low-cost white polymer composite panels mounted in an abstracted shell motif, which gives lightness to the large, windowless walls, as well as the shell motif is a reference to the naval setting.
Exposed and untreated concrete, brick, unglazed tiles and oiled wood are used extensively in the interior. The pools are made of stainless steel. There has been special focus on creating a robust building with solid, maintenance-free and natural materials that can withstand both the aggressive shore side environment and aggressive use by the marines.
The building is designed to have very low energy consumption. Heating is supplied by a seawater heat pump.
Since the building was taken into use in 2011, physical training in the base has increased by 500%.
