Best School Building of the Year 2022

Vrå Children and Culture House nominated for Best School Building of the Year 2022

Vrå Children and Culture House has received the Nohrcon’s award for Best School Building of the Year in the summer of 2022 for their new building in Hjørring municipality, Denmark - the new assembly point for all citizens in Vrå.

Lammhults Biblioteksdesign has delivered products and assisted with furnishings for the library, which is a joint public and school library.

Vrå Library

Field of experiences in the heart of Northern Jutland

Statement from the jury from the nomination of School Building of the year 2022:

“The project radiates the ambition to be a place where children can learn and play in a complete ecosystem that changes over time. The scale and spatiality are beautifully composed. This is an ambitious project as the centre and social gathering place of the town with possibilities to work pedagogically and to create coherence in children’s lives from nursery to the end of primary school.”

In November of 2021 Vrå Children and Culture House was ready to welcome children, teens and adults to the new assembly point. The building consists of a school, day-care, youth club, sports, citizen service, and library that offers experiences of community, education, and learning.

The Cultural house builds on a vision of sustainability and is a complete ecosystem for playing and learning where nature and school intertwine. At the entrance area of the building, visitors are met by the large tree that branches off from the ground floor, directly opposite the library, to the rest of the great building of 10.000 square meters on two floors designed by AART Architects.

It is the tenth time that the prize “School Building of the year 2022” has been awarded by Nohrcon. The prize was awarded in the summer of 2022 by a unanimous professional jury and a public vote.

The library as the root of the house

The public library, which is the newest out of a total of five in Hjørring municipality, is located just inside the main entrance and is referred to as the root of the new culture house. The library also accommodates the local citizen service and is used by adults, seniors, children, and families – and of course by the school classes and institutions that are part of the Children and Culture House.

Vrå Library in the Children and Culture House must promote learning and reading from an early age and strengthen children’s transition, from the first day they enter as small children and until they grow up.

Frederik Christian Nielsen is a librarian at Vrå Library and welcomes the children, teens, and adults that visit the library every day.

”The library is the first thing you notice when you enter the building. It is close to the heart of the building and has many visitors because it is a part of a larger building.

We want the library to be organic and capable of offering something extra and surprising – maybe you intended to use a computer but instead become inspired by a book on one of our shelving systems and displays, or you want to take a break in one of our sitting caves. The library must be an imaginative and playful place that encourages visitors to explore and seek inspiration. We are so happy with the result.”

The central placement of the library and the important position for playing, learning, and stimulus supports the purpose of the award that Vrå Children and Culture House has received for Best School Building of the Year 2022.

> Read more about the project

A green oasis in the city

Vrå Children and Culture House is built on a principal of sustainability where the school becomes the forest, and the forest becomes the school. Inside and outside, you can find green areas with learning forests and trees that merge into a beautiful and sustainable unit.

The shelving systems and products at the library are picked to support Lammhults Biblioteksdesign’s vision of sustainability. E.g., the 60/30 Classic Shelving that meets the Nordic Ecolabel requirements and guarantees that the product fulfills the strict environmental and climatical criteria.

DGNB certification system

Vrå Children and Culture House is applying for a DGNB gold certification with its green and sustainable focus that is pervasive for the entire construction.

> Read more about GDNB

Promotion of community

Lene Høg works as Communications Officer at Hjørring Libraries and has insight into the strategy behind the new Children and Culture House.

Besides creating an inviting and green oasis of experiences that promote socio-cultural as well as institutional interests, the purpose has been to support the overall vision for the city and local community of Hjørring municipality.

”Vrå is a small railway town with a folk high school. The folk high school plays a big part in the town that is already oriented towards community – here, the new construction fits just like a glove.

As part of the building, we, at the library, are very proud that Vrå Children and Culture House has won the award as Best School Building of the year 2022. The forest and nature are continuous elements throughout the whole building where the library forms its roots. The roots mark the offspring of knowledge, literature, and understanding but it is also here crazy and wild new ideas occur that branch out.

We have managed to present the library in an inviting and open way with an aesthetic impression, and we are happy to see that the visitors enjoy spending their time there. We have had a great collaboration with Lammhults Biblioteksdesign, who has also been our delivery partner on other libraries in the municipality. That way, we have ensured cohesion and uniformity for both visitors and staff and gained consistent quality in our products which we know are of high standard. We are particularly happy with the 60/30 round shelving system that gives a dynamic impression and can display the books in an interesting way.”