One-of-a-kind school was completed on the Roskilde Festival Folk High School, designed by MVRDV in collaboration with Danish firm COBE for a formerly industrial site in Roskilde, Denmark. Located inside an existing factory hall the school, and the new-build student housing that accompanies it, are the final pieces of the ROCKmagneten masterplan, also designed by MVRDV and COBE. The new buildings join the Ragnarock Museum, which was inaugurated on the site in 2016.
“Our design, just like the school itself, was inspired by the spirit of the Roskilde Festival. It is all about music, art, activism – but most of all, freedom. The Roskilde festival combines ‘having a good time’ with innovation in an informal way, giving a special vibe that we wanted to capture in the design of the interior of the school.”
Jacob van Rijs, principal and co-founder of MVRDV.
 
“For me as a former folk high school student it was a very special task to transform a former concrete factory into a folk high school with the purpose of shaping future generations of students. By opening the building up and adding new boxes inside the old structure we revitalize the building. A defunct industrial building has become a bustling hub for creativity and community.”
Dan Stubbergaard, architect and founder of COBE.
The Roskilde Festival Folk High School is closely linked to the world-famous Roskilde Music Festival, which every year temporarily turns this small town on the outskirts of Copenhagen into the fourth-largest city in Denmark. The school is an example of the Danish system of folk high schools, which deliver a “non-formal adult education” following the concept of “lifelong learning”. This system is based on the ideas of 19th-century Danish intellectual N.F.S. Grundtvig, who believed schools should educate their students to be active participants in society. Courses at Roskilde Festival High School last between 4–10 months, with students and teachers living together at the school to achieve total immersion in their education. The Roskilde Festival High School is the first purpose-built school of this type in Denmark in 50 years, and aims to further the values of the Roskilde Festival through courses in music, media, leadership, politics, art, architecture, and design.

The full plan for the site includes the school, housed in a former concrete factory, two new blocks of student housing, a building housing the school’s staff, and a strip of adaptable shipping-container-based structures that will host an ever-changing group of innovative startups – many with connections to music and youth culture. These newly completed buildings will now act as the backing group to the “lead singer” Ragnarock museum which was completed in 2016, providing rhythm and energy to complement the museum’s singular charisma.

The school itself is housed in a former concrete factory, reusing the original structure’s columns and roof but replacing the walls and interior. The design is based upon a “box-in-a-box” concept: colourful modules fill the warehouse-like shell of the main building, all arranged around a central spine cutting from one side of the building to the other. Alongside this route is a wooden tribune that acts as the communal heart of the school.

The boxes host a variety of different functions including an auditorium (named the Orange Stage in a nod to the main stage of the Festival) for 150 people, a music studio, a workshop, and classrooms for dance, art, and architecture. These functions are arranged into three zones: some host pursuits of the mind, including writing, thinking, debate, and leadership; others are focused on students’ use of their bodies, including dance and music functions, while the third zone hosts activities focused on the hand, including visual arts, architecture, and design.

The two blocks of student housing complement the character of the site with their simple, industrial aesthetic. They are constructed from modules of wood structure sheathed in metal, evoking the appearance of shipping containers, and the two blocks are connected on each level by an external steel walkway. Inside, each student shares a room with one or two of their classmates, with rooms on each floor arranged around a bright communal space.

The Roskilde Festival Folk High School and its campus are the culmination of the 11,000-square-metre masterplan ROCKMagneten, a district designed to create an inspiring hub for the flourishing youth culture of Denmark. The plan consists of the school, the student apartments and the rock museum Ragnarock (completed in 2016), which is an expression of youth culture with its striking façade of gold-coloured aluminium. The outdoor space of ROCKMagneten will soon become an important informal meeting place for young people, especially in June during the annual 8-day Roskilde Festival.

The completion of the buildings marks the successful realisation of a long partnership between MVRDV and COBE, who worked together on the design and realisation of the Roskilde Festival Folk High School, the student housing, and the entire ROCKmagneten masterplan.
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Architects
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MVRDV + COBE. Lead.- Jacob van Rijs. Partner.- Fokke Moerel

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Design Team
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MVRDV.- Aser Giménez Ortega, Mette Rasmussen, Emilie Koch, Julius Kirchert, Mateusz Wojcieszek, Samuel Delgado, Gerard Heerink, Andrei-Docu Predescu, Kalina Pilat, Klara Andersson. 

COBE.- Dan Stubbergaard, Thomas Krarup, Eik Bjerregaard, Caroline Krogh Andersen, Sonia Bom, Marine Pierson. Jens Kert Wagner, Mikkel Reedtz Morris, Christian Sander, Clement Bue Maali, Milan Milenkovski, Mads Lützen, Simon Engberg Christensen, Morten Andersen, Anis Souissi, Marine Pierson, Tenna Buus Rasmussen, Tamara Kalanajevska, Daniella N. Eskildsen, Jannis Bruns, Arvydas Gasparavicius, Gianluigi D'Aloisio, Jonas Snedevind Nielsen, Jonas Søndergaard.
 

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Collaborators
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Landscape Architects.- LIW Planning and Kragh & Berglund
Engineering Structure & MEP.- Norconsult Costing: COBE/MVRDV/Norconsult. Engineering Sustainability.- Transsolar. Engineering – Fire.- Alectia.
Acoustics.- Gade & Mortensen.

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Competition Team
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Klaas Hofman, Sara Bjelke, Rune Veile, Francesca Bechhi, Nas Alkhaldi, Sara Impera.

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Execution Team
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Aser Giménez Ortega, Julius Kirchert, Samuel Delgado.

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Client
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Bygningsfonden Roskilde Festival Højskole and the following client consortium consisting of Roskilde Municipality, Realdania, Roskilde Festival Group, A.P. Møller Fonden and Knud Højgaards Fond. Tuborgfondet donated a sum for the interior project.
 

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Contractor
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B. Nygaard Sørensen.

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Area
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Size.- 5.578 m². Roskilde Festival Folk High School.- 2.980 m². Student and teachers’ dwellings.- 2.598 m².

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Dates
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2011-2019.

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Location
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Roskilde, Denmark.

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Photography
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MVRDV was founded in 1993 by Winy Maas, Jacob van Rijs and Nathalie de Vries in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The practice engages globally in providing solutions to contemporary architectural and urban issues. A highly collaborative, research-based design method involves clients, stakeholders and experts from a wide range of fields from early on in the creative process. The results are exemplary, outspoken projects, which enable our cities and landscapes to develop towards a better future.

The products of MVRDV’s unique approach to design vary, ranging from buildings of all types and sizes, to urban plans and visions, numerous publications, installations and exhibitions. Built projects include the Netherlands Pavilion for the World EXPO 2000 in Hannover; the Market Hall, a combination of housing and retail in Rotterdam; the Pushed Slab, a sustainable office building in Paris’ first eco-district; Flight Forum, an innovative business park in Eindhoven; the Silodam Housing complex in Amsterdam; the Matsudai Cultural Centre in Japan; the Unterföhring office campus near Munich; the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam; the Ypenburg housing and urban plan in The Hague; the Didden Village rooftop housing extension in Rotterdam; the music centre De Effenaar in Eindhoven; the Gyre boutique shopping center in Tokyo; a public library in Spijkenisse; an international bank headquarters in Oslo, Norway; and the iconic Mirador and Celosia housing in Madrid.

Current projects include a variety of housing projects in the Netherlands, France, China, India, and other countries; a community centre in Copenhagen and a cultural complex in Roskilde, Denmark, a public art depot in Rotterdam, the transformation of a mixed use building in central Paris, an office complex in Shanghai, and a commercial centre in Beijing, and the renovation of an office building in Hong Kong. MVRDV is also working on large scale urban masterplans in Bordeaux and Caen, France and the masterplan for an eco-city in Logroño, Spain. Larger scale visions for the future of greater Paris, greater Oslo, and the doubling in size of the Dutch new town Almere are also in development.

MVRDV first published a manifesto of its work and ideas in FARMAX (1998), followed by MetaCity/Datatown (1999), Costa Iberica (2000), Regionmaker (2002), 5 Minutes City (2003), KM3 (2005), Spacefighter (2007) and Skycar City (2007), and more recently The Vertical Village (with The Why Factory, 2012) and the firm’s first monograph of built works MVRDV Buildings (2013). MVRDV deals with issues ranging from global sustainability in large scale studies such as Pig City, to small, pragmatic architectural solutions for devastated areas such as New Orleans.

The work of MVRDV is exhibited and published worldwide and has received numerous international awards. One hundred architects, designers and urbanists develop projects in a multi-disciplinary, collaborative design process which involves rigorous technical and creative investigation. MVRDV works with BIM and has official in-house BREEAM and LEED assessors.

Together with Delft University of Technology, MVRDV runs The Why Factory, an independent think tank and research institute providing an agenda for architecture and urbanism by envisioning the city of the future.

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COBE is a limited liability company owned by Founder and Creative Director Dan Stubbergaard. COBE is a progressive and contemporary community of architects that focuses on architecture and design – from buildings to public space, to large scale urban planning. In 2005 Dan Stubbergaard and Vanessa Miriam Carlow founded COBE. The name COBE is derived from the two cities the founders are coming from - COpenhagen and BErlin. Since its establishment, COBE has gained international recognition through the realization of beautiful and innovative projects.

Today, COBE is two separate companies - one seated in Copenhagen (COBE ApS headed by Dan Stubbergaard), and one in Berlin (COBE Berlin GmbH headed by Prof. Dr. Vanessa Miriam Carlow). The two offices have shared a number of projects in the past, and apart from developing projects individually, they continue to share and collaborate on selected projects - also in the future.

COBE is situated in a refurbished warehouse centrally located on the Copenhagen harbor front, and currently employs approximately 50 dedicated architects, urban planners and administrative staff of different nationalities.

COBE is run by a management team consisting of Dan Stubbergaard and a core team of Project and Administration Managers. Together, they are responsible for the company’s overall development and strategic long-term goals.

All projects are developed in project teams, made up of a mix of senior and junior architects, which are led by a Project Manager. Cross-disciplinary teamwork is central in our working method and each project team cooperates with a wide range of external experts in order to obtain the best opportunities and potential towards finding innovative solutions in each particular project.

Selected awards.-

[2012] Nykredit’s Architecture Prize. Nykredit Foundation.
           MIPIM Award - Best Refurbished Building. The Library Marché International des Professionnels de l'Immobilier.
[2011] Copenhagen Award for Architecture - Best Public Building. The Library. City of Copenhagen.
[2006] The Golden Lion. Best National Pavilion. International Venice Biennale of Architecture.

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Published on: February 23, 2019
Cite: "Roskilde Festival Folk High School completed by MVRDV and COBE" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/roskilde-festival-folk-high-school-completed-mvrdv-and-cobe> ISSN 1139-6415
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