Villa K

The Villa K is a place where local residents can gather together. It is a neighbourhood centre housing a children’s after-school club, offices and clubrooms where people of all ages can meet.

The building divides the courtyard into three parts: an entrance area, a children’s play area and a copse that has been left in its natural state. At the edge of the site there is a footway running along at eaves height, so the roof of the building forms an important elevation. Where the eaves start, they are extra low and the interior spaces are wrapped under the roof. There are colourful roof windows up on the roof, which bring daylight into the centre of the building.

The heart of the building is a dining room opening onto the forest via a terrace. Linked with the dining room is a QuietRoom – a chapel constructed of in situ concrete – and an auditorium for 120 people. The southern part of the building acts as a playschool and access to it is between the building itself and the outside store. Access to the public spaces is through the main entrance at the northwest corner. The clubrooms are situated half a storey lower down in the eastern corner.

The building has a post and beam structure in laminated timber. The exterior vertical boarding is painted in red ochre to match the traditional houses in the area, while the entrances and the terrace are highlighted in horizontal planed boarding with a translucent finish. The interior spaces are unified by a suspended ceiling of cement-bonded particle board, divided up by colourful openings around the roof lights.

We were awarded the commission in summer 2009 and the building was taken into use the following autumn. Because of the tight timetable, design and construction were partly carried out in tandem.