South face, susmmer
Exterior daylight access
below: The lap sided facades are covered with Canadian cedar, which is untreated due to its natu- ral impregnation qualities.The windows and fresh air vents are of untreated aluminum.
The primary organization of the building, with the heavy supporting structure on the inside and a light outer wall construction supports passive solar heating. Natural air circulation in the high centre space improves the natural ventilation of the offices which all open on to this space.The large meeting room, canteen and library have high ceilings eliminating the need for mechanical ventilation and are natu- rally ventilated in the same way as the offices. The library and leader’s office is on the top floor in direct connection with the central space. On the lowest level there are exhibition spaces combined with a corridor leading to the institute’s workshops and laboratories.This location allows combining exhibitions with laboratory activities. In the interior, simple materials ease cleaning and maintenance.The flooring in the central space is concrete pavers. In the offices, meet - ing rooms and library, the floors are beech strip-flooring, while there are tile floors in the sorting room, laboratories and workshops. All materials were chosen on the basis of environ- mental considerations. Art and architecture are integrated, as painter and sculptor Niels Guttormsen chose a color palette inspired by the Greenland landscape and the geology, flora and fauna.Therefore, the niches on one side of the central space are painted in tones ranging from a soft ice green to cold ice blue. On the other side warm organic tones were employed.The doors in the central space have the purple saxifrage red, and the indigo of the blue whale.
In the large windowed space housing the canteen, artist Aka Hoegh did a large-scale runic carving directly on the concrete walls.This work is titled Stromninger (Currents).The carving influences the atmosphere of the room with varying intensity depending on the pulse of the season.
Ove Neumann is a partner in KHRar- chitects on leave for two years, as technical director in Nuuk Municipal- ity, Greenland — ‘a challenging offer, I could not refuse after 8 years of prac- ticing in arctic design and construc- tion development’. KHRASarkitektur is based in Denmark.
On Site review 11
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Spring 2004
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