Address.      Dokka 5, Kråkerøy, Fredrikstad, Norway

Year of design.      2018-2019

Year of construction.      2020-2021

Client.      Værste AS

Interior.      Einar Jarmund & Co, Plus Arkitekter

Structural Consultant.      Pro-Consult

Landscape consultant.      COWI

Gross area.      Approx. 9430 m2

Photography.      Sigurd Fandango, Carlos Rollan

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This project is sited in an old industrial harbour in Fredrikstad, Southern Norway, bordered to the north by the Glomma River, and surrounded on three sides by existing buildings in varying stages of refurbishment / inhabitation. The winning competition design was for three floors of flexible commercial space (for digital workshops, coworking, standard office or education spaces) with three floors of housing over. Flexibility of use was enabled through generous floor to ceiling heights and an efficient and rational open plan layout using structural columns. The construction spans were constrained in order to allow CLT to be considered as a viable construction alternative, despite steel and concrete being chosen by the building owner. The project carefully relates to its neighbours through its height and volume and by allowing breathing space between buildings. The rhythm and size of the windows are taken from the previous building that existed on the site. In this way the building expresses the industrial past of its historically important site. This also influences the choice of materials; brick to the commercial floors and rusted steel cladding to the housing floors above. The building is viewed either from up close or from across the river. The façade responds to this with the rusticated brick pillars at ground level, gradually reducing the width and depth of the pillars above, and careful attention to detailing around corners and window reveals.