Frelloskolen

Frelloskolen is a new school for students from 0th to 9th grade, covering an area of around 10.000 m².

The building is divided into four primary sections, one for the first stage of primary education, one for the middle stage of primary education, one for the upper stage of primary- and lower secondary education, and one for the administration. Each of the educational sections form a local community focused on the specific age group. The four sections are then connected by a central building volume - ‘The Golden Room’ - that contains the subject encoded areas and serves as the beating heart of the school. This structure creates smaller, clearly defined departments that are easily accessible to students and helps them identify where they belong.

The school includes a spacious campus named ‘Torvet’ that connects it to the neighbouring Varde Recreational Centre and offers plenty of space for the students to engage in various activities.

The design of the school seamlessly integrates nature into the environment through the use of large glass partitions in the courtyards and pergolas on the roof garden. This creates an interaction between the natural surroundings and the school environment.

The architecture is characterized by a playful and inviting design, featuring large windows and bay windows that add liveliness and an informality to the building. The use of warm sand-grey bricks and thermo-treated wood contributes to a harmonious and aesthetically pleasing appearance of the building.

Frelloskolen is not just any ordinary school; it is a dynamic learning universe – a framework for both the personal and academic growth of children.

Excerpts from the judges’ report:

“The combination of excellent empathy and interpretation of the program’s functional descriptions, translated and processed into a superior and imaginative architectural response, delivered in solid material quality, makes this proposal the best response to the competition by far.”

“The overall approach has created an excellent and compact school building that fulfils the wishes and requirements of the competition program both organizationally and architecturally with excellent and well-designed solutions that will result in an active and inspiring school.”

“The proposal is recognized for delivering an architecturally beautiful and harmonious building complex and landscape, which delivers a positive vision of the future school in Varde in an exceptionally convincing way.”