Cultivating a Fertile Ground for Cross-Disciplinary Learning
The design proposal for the Crafts College in Herning, Denmark, takes its inspiration from the surrounding landscape – the meadow islets, the elongated view and the open sky above. Here, a new generation of craftsmen come together to develop their skills, professional and personal identity in a stimulating environment that combines learning and living in a village-like setting.
The idea is not only to help the individual understand and master their trade but to see themselves and their profession as part of a larger whole where cross-disciplinary work allows for an ongoing exchange of knowledge and mutual inspiration to create solutions for a better and more sustainable tomorrow. Natural tactile materials such as brick, timber and stone provide a healthy, welcoming environment while inviting the future craftsmen to carefully examine the materials they work with through a professional lens.
From living units to high-quality workshops, the community feeling at the Crafts College is a recurring theme. It is a design proposal that offers a framework for the development of a rich and meaningful life – for the individual and the community. A variation of spaces and experiences with room for everyone regardless of personality, activity and form on the day. It is an iconic place in its richness, its variation and humanistic profile as well as its architectural language. Not as a chaste and perhaps simplified geometric shape but as a peculiar, original and characterful collection of buildings. A place which embodies the fundamental belief that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
A modern interpretation of a village, created in a fertile tension between three mutually inspiring elements in a constant exchange: the community, nature, and the materials. The design proposal for the Crafts College in Herning, Denmark, supports cross-disciplinary collaboration and a shared professional identity among the students.
The buildings orchestrate a cohesive whole that cultivates a culture of professional cross-pollination encouraging students of different professions to come together and create sustainable solutions that address current and future challenges.
The Crafts College is situated 4 km north of the city centre of Herning, near the technical college and upper secondary school.
The idea is to foster close collaboration between the three youth education programmes to inspire, support and develop the students' ability and inclination to better understand how working cross-disciplinarily can stimulate new knowledge and help create healthy, functional, and aesthetically pleasing physical frameworks for our everyday lives.
Bordering on the public recreational natural site "Lillelund Engpark" means that nature and recreational experiences become a cohesive and unifying element for the college.
The design proposal combines educational facilities and a variety of different living units as well as spaces for socialising and relaxation. Together with high-quality workshops, it is an environment that stimulates a culture of cross-disciplinary learning and co-creation.
Good and enriching connections, along with long visual perspectives to the meadow and to the other educational facilities close by, enhance the synergy between the different components at the site.
The interaction between the college and nature unfolds on multiple scales and levels, creating a vibrant environment with diverse, informal green spaces that support community through a myriad of meetings and collaborations across disciplines. Indoor and outdoor spaces merge by reflecting indoor functions in the exterior spaces, and visually extending courtyard paving into communal areas.
The Crafts College stands as a unified settlement with a clear common identity. The central, partly covered courtyard is the heart of the college. The focal point, the shared showroom for ongoing projects, and a dynamic creative centre that sets a clear common direction for the site's character; here we pursue manual work.
The landscape intertwines with and embraces the buildings creating a unique community rooted in nature. The Crafts College is deliberately designed with a refreshing blend of open areas, intimate pathways, expansive views, and secure, sheltered spaces for relaxation. Common areas stand out as distinctive 'places' or destinations along the journey – connected like beads on a string, shaped by the rhythmic staggered arrangement of volumes.
The Crafts College differs from other colleges by offering the students both a place to live and work on their trade as an integrated part of their daily lives. While each student must hone their skills and develop a deeper understanding of their trade on an individual scale, it is through collaboration with others that the experience is elevated and becomes part of something bigger.
A strong sense of community is clearly fostered here. The atmosphere, vitality, and creativity that emerge among people living, learning, and exploring together create a captivating and attractive environment.
The large workshop hall is centrally located in the workshop area, flanked on both sides by special workshops for wood and metal as well as storage etc. The disposition thus expresses and supports how professional specialisation and interdisciplinary collaboration are mutually inseparable prerequisites.
Inside, the hall appears as a distinctive column neck construction that forms a distinctive open framework for activities and teaching with built-in robustness and great spatial and functional flexibility. Here, projects, both large and small projects come to life with varying degrees of community and involvement. Students can work, experiment, clean up and exhibit, and even use the space for parties and other student events.
The entire complex is designed as a homogeneous and balanced, almost circular, continuous layout – centred around the centrally located communal courtyard.
The primary functions – residences, workshops, and communal facilities – are deliberately arranged as integral parts of a cohesive and inclusive whole.
A deliberate effort was made to create smooth transitions between private and semi-private areas, especially within the residences. Similarly, thoughtful transitions between semi-public and fully public spaces, particularly in the communal facilities and workshops, are integrated into the design.
The student residences are arranged into three neighbourhoods, each organised around a centrally located inner courtyard. Each neighbourhood consists of a cluster and a co-living community or two clusters.
The volumes form and embrace, in terms of their location, well-defined and atmospheric communal spaces – for hanging out, relaxing, socialising, kitchen and dining. The common spaces are all characterised by double-height spatial qualities and have a direct and informal connection between inside and outside. The overhang of the roof protects and creates a fine transition zone between the interior and the open sky.
The individual living unites are grouped side by side, two and two or three and three in free-standing volumes on two floors, all of which have facades facing nature with abundant access to daylight, views and fresh air. On the ground floor, all units have access to the terrace, while on the 1st floor the apartments come with French balconies.
The proposal for the Crafts College envisions the buildings to be built both by and for people characterised by a craftsman ethos.
Natural materials that hold both tactile and cultural-historical qualities such as wood, brick and stone support the idea of a Craftsman College embodying the trades and traditions. where each material's inherent qualities are like a textbook that can be studied up close.
The proposal for the new Crafts College envisions an easily recognisable and inviting place full of identity in its form.
an open, challenging, free and at the same time well-defined, clear and safe place to live and learn new skills, create new social and professional bonds. A place that belongs to the meadow - accessible and self-aware, proud, easy and straightforward.
