The built environment has a huge role in shaping our lives, especially when it comes to learning. With that principle in mind, C.F. Møller Architects designed and recently completed Denmark’s Herningsholm Vocational School, which offers optimal learning and study environments. Green space, designed by C.F. Møller Landscape, is woven throughout the school to provide opportunities for outdoor work and learning.
Winner of a 2014 architectural competition, the design for the 4,700-square-meter Herningsholm Vocational School is an independent building placed within an existing campus cluster of educational buildings. The school comprises three building volumes of varying scales under one roof arranged in an angular layout. Diverse and flexible learning spaces were created to match opportunities for alternative learning styles and unconventional uses. Mobile furnishings allow teachers and students to mold their learning space to their needs.
Related: C.F. Møller unveils eco-conscious highrise in Sweden
Outdoor urban and learning spaces tie the buildings together and include the Plaza, a quiet green study garden, and a semi-public front garden. A variety of common study spaces dot the school and range from more open environments for workshop uses to quieter nooks for individual study. Natural light fills the school through carefully oriented glazed facades optimized for energy efficiency. In a nod to environmental sustainability, two depressed pockets of greenery in the Plaza offer seating in the dry weather but double as natural infiltration and retention basins to relieve the sewers during rainfall.
Images by Martin Schubert
