Ny Frederiksværk Skole

An outdoor/indoor school

The outdoor areas reflect the school’s ambitions for pupils to have easy access to outdoor spaces that foster innovative thinking, active recreation, and result in an outdoor/indoor school with its sights firmly set on a more sustainable future. Specifically, this is achieved through three overarching themes. “THE LEARNING PATH”, which is intended to ensure pupils have easy and close access to outdoor learning environments. The school’s natural surroundings are employed and enhanced under the “CLIMATE LANDSCAPE” theme, where hills, wild vegetation and a variety of water bodies come together to form a robust and challenging environment for play and learning. The area makes room for biodiversity, nature and water in connection with the final theme, “ACTIVITY FIELDS”, which are surfaces with a materiality and design that encourage different forms of active play and sports.

Linking the school to its surrounding nature

The Learning Path leads from the school’s entrances to outdoor learning environments, workshops and small break areas along the way. The path winds around the buildings, creating a connection between outdoors and indoors while also pointing outward to the climate landscape, linking the school to its surrounding nature, where lessons can be held outdoors at small decentralised meeting spots such as the fireplace, viewing platforms and the school garden.

Active outdoor spaces for pupils and recreational users

The activity areas are a structurally playful element that results in an active outdoor setting. These areas can be used for lots of different things by the school’s pupils as well as other recreational users. Our vision is to create spaces for future users which not only offer solutions to functional and practical needs, but also allow users to be creative, play, learn, hang out, play ball, run fast and engage in all kinds of different sports. As we wanted to preserve as much as possible from the existing playgrounds and asphalt surfaces, they were integrated into the new activities and thereby repurposed into a new context.

Climate landscape with outdoor learning and rainwater management

The climate landscape is designed on the basis of the school’s current southeastern hilly play area, creating a large contiguous landscape of lush hills around the new school. The wild appearance complements the practical outdoor learning about climate, water and biodiversity. In addition to varying moisture and growing conditions, the hilly terrain towards the neighbours also creates a visual and acoustic distance between the school and the neighbours, as well as a safe haven for biodiversity. Rainwater management has been integrated into the undulating landscape.