Adding two new floors for almost NOK 100 million

The university director has approved the floor plans for two new top floors on faculty buildings H and I in Kristiansand. Construction will start in spring/summer 2020. Completion is estimated for early summer 2021.

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Paal Kulien, photo
NEW TOP FLOORS: Buildings H and I (furthest back) will get new top floors over the next year and a half. UiA’s project leader Paal Kulien says that a call for tenders is planned for around new year.

“It is good to get this started. There has long been a wish to expand the two remaining faculty buildings on Campus Kristiansand with a top floor each. And now we are in the process of doing just that”, says the university’s project leader for the construction, Adviser in Real Estate and Business Development Paal Kulien.

It is mainly growth in the number of students and staff that prompts the Norwegian Directorate of Public Construction and Property (Statsbygg) to expand its building stock. The university has currently 13,000 students and 1,400 staff, compared to around 7,500 students and 700 staff in 2001 when Campus Kristiansand was newly built.

Environmentally friendly solutions

The two new top floors will be nearly 850 square metres each, mainly in the form of offices and common areas. In addition, each building gets its own floor with technical rooms of close to 170 square metres each. In the planning process, focus has been on providing the buildings with environmentally friendly solutions like solar panels on the roofs and optimised heating. In addition, UiA cooperates with the Directorate of Public Construction and Property, who owns the building stock, on the use of eco-friendly construction materials to reduce the carbon footprint.

Architect for the new construction is Trollvegg Arkitektstudio in Kristiansand, and Cadi AS is the interior design company. The cost of the project is estimated at about NOK 100 million. It is expected that a call for tenders will be issued around the new year.

In terms of appearance the two new top floors will be adapted to the style of the surrounding buildings and the architectural expression of the campus.

Plans drawn up in consultation with affected employees

In the preparatory stage, much emphasis was placed on including affected employees in designing the interior, including office facilities, meeting rooms and common areas.

“The floor plans are largely designed in consultation with the respective departments that will be moving there. In the H Building, it is the Department of Sociology and Social Work, and in the I Building, the Department of Sports Science and Physical Education, that will move up into the beautiful new premises”, says project leader Paal Kulien.

He says that two meetings were held earlier this autumn where all employees who are moving into the floors were invited to participate.

“In that part of the process, we were assisted by the consultants who help us with the Campus Development Plan to see if we could achieve synergies between the construction project and the plan”, he says.

These were workshops with an open agenda where employees were asked to give feedback on the work tasks they have that the new facilities must support. Subsequently, a floor layout was provided which could support the various tasks they have.

“Since we have limited space, as well as government regulations concerning land use, users have been asked to prioritise which rooms they want on the floors. The union representatives have also played an important role in this process”, he says.

Different priorities

The project leader says that once the priorities were set, the request was sent to the architect who sketched the first layout. And later, user meetings were held where the user groups provided their input. Then the proposal was adjusted and fine-tuned, before the steering committee in mid-November recommended that the university director accept the final floor plans.

This process has led to two quite different floor plans, the users in the H-building have prioritised larger private offices, while in the I-building they wanted more multi-purpose space which was achieved by reducing office sizes while making sure student tutoring and the possibility to close the door when required was not compromised.

“We are now working with the users on furnishing and equipping the new areas”, he says.

Third major expansion since 2011

The construction of two new top floors comes in the wake of the expansion of three other faculty buildings on Campus Kristiansand, which each received its own new top floor earlier this year. These gave Campus Kristiansand an additional 3,000 square metres of office and teaching space. And in 2011, Sigurd Køhn's house and the Faculty of Arts were joined together. In 2015, a smaller project was also carried out on the I-building, which added 200 square metres to the building on two floors.

Plantegning av ny toppetasje på bygg H

H-BUILDING: The floor plan of the new top floor in Building H. The new floor contains 6 three-person offices, 4 two-person offices, 25 private offices, 1 social zone (café area), 1 multi-purpose space (lounge, informal meetings), 2 meeting rooms, 7 multi-purpose rooms and 1 waiting area.

Plantegning av ny toppetasje i Bygg I

I-BUILDING: Floor plan of the new top floor in Building I. The new floor will have 2 offices for 4 people, 6 offices for 3 people, 1 office for 2 people, 25 private offices, 1 social zone, 1 multi-purpose zone, 3 meeting rooms, 7 multi-purpose rooms and 1 waiting area.

 

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