Fireplace for Children / Haugen/Zohar Arkitekter

Architect: Haugen/Zohar Arkitekter
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Client: Trondheim Municipality, Norway
3D consultancy: Scenario Architecture
Rapid prototyping: Espen BÊrheim
Contractor: Pan Landskap AS
Project Year: 2009
Photograph: Jason Havneraas & Grethe Fredriksen

The office was invited by the municipality of Trondheim to suggest an outdoor project for a kindergarten.

site plan

Although the region is characterized by predominantly maritime climate and the weather varies considerably throughout the seasons, there is a popular saying ‘there is no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing,’ and all seasons are equally attractive to the Norwegian children that enjoy outside activities all year round.

Together with the standard playground facilities we wished to combine an enclosed space for fire, storytelling and playing.

Given a very limited budget, reusing leftover materials (from a nearby construction site) was a starting point that led the design to be based on short wooden pieces. Inspired by the Norwegian turf huts and old log construction, a wooden construction was built and mounted on a lighted and brushed concrete base. The structure is made of 80-layered circles. The circles have varied radiuses and relative center point in relation to each other. Every circle is made out of 28 pieces of naturally impregnated core of pine that are placed with varied spaces to assure chimney effect and natural light. Oak separators differentiate vertically between the pine pieces to assure airflow allowing easy drying of the pine pieces. A double curved sliding door was designed for locking the structure.