Helen & Hard

The Hovinby Conference 2024 is now being organized for the third time. Are you involved in the future of Hovinbyen? Do you want to see Hovinbyen flourish as a climate-smart and vibrant part of Oslo? Then this is the conference for you! On the 18 and 19 April, feel free to participate and become part of a growing community working towards a bright future for Hovinbyen. Whether you live, work, study or have a heart for Hovinbyen, your voice is important.

Meet us at the conference where we will be participating on Thursday the 18th of April. We look forward to promoting work on transformation and the potential this provides for Hovinbyen. Together with Erik Langdalen, Helen & Hard work with how cultural heritage values and participation create dynamic relationships within a place, and how the development of architecture that springs from this dialogue establishes a sense of place in a social, physical and cultural context. We will discuss examples and how transformation provides a rich and unique starting point for such development, with a focus towards how this can be applied in Hovinbyen.

The lecture will start at 10.00 and is held by Erik Langdalen, owner and professional manager Erik Langdalen Arkitektkontor and professor at AHO , and Reinhard Kropf, partner and creative director at Helen & Hard.

More info & link in bio.

From the archives.

A project with re-use and resourcefulness at its core, Valberget is a historic timber house in Stavanger. Originally built in 1850, this house was later transformed into a contemporary advertising office. A pavilion was then rebuilt in the same place of one that had stood in the garden 120 years earlier.

A blend of playful interventions and borrowed equipment from construction forms the functional space and furniture inside. One can find shelves made from scaffolding, tables from pallets, columns from piston rods, and a multi-functional glass core for ventilation inserted into an old chimney shaft. In the garden pavilion, strict preservation requirements were solved through the re-imagining and enhancing of the existing stone wall as a functional object with hinges, opening up the possibility of access into the pavilion via folding and sliding walls whilst maintaining the original historical charm.

This project is out on our website to explore. Link in bio. “Office and Conservatory on Valberget”

“Relational Atmospheres” with Siv Helene Stangeland - Lund Architecture Symposium 2024

Next week Siv will be lecturing at Lund University about our spatial and material practices that explore aesthetic, structural and social dimensions of environmental design.

More information can be found here:
https://www.abm.lth.se/english/lund-architecture-symposium/events/las24-material-explorations/

We are deeply inspired by the boatbuilders of Risør in the south of Norway - both by their material knowledge and craft skills, as well as their cathedral-like timber workshops just by the sea.
 
In the Vest Agder Museum project we will make use of both the clinker construction technique combined with the use of crooked trees for the rib structure. The first building phase of the project will be a museal bridge and walkway around the Nodeviga harbour and two smaller integrated exhibition spaces.
 
1,2 - museal bridge and walkway
3,4,5,6,7 - visiting the timber workshop in Risør
8 - the exhibition space
 

Last week Siv, together with architect Ninni Sødahl, taught interior architects at Kristiania University College about hand drawing - how it connects us to embodied aesthetic knowing and how it can help us stay in a creative dialogue with the task at hand.

Thank you Jeremy Williams for inviting us into this timely holistic study program!

Ninni Sødahl
Jeremy Williams, Kristiania

Tightly woven into the landscape and strategically sculpted to minimise impact to neighbours beyond local requirements, Kuholmsveien 72b is a layered two-apartment block which was initially conceived as a larger complex sitting on the top of Valhalla, Kristiansand. The layered structure is conceptualised through the careful study of the local landscape and the panoramic views unique to Kristiansands fjord. A solid timber structure articulates the interior space and supports the south-facing cantilevered balconies.
 
For more information check out www.k72b.no

Join us for an educational evening at Rogaland Art Centre in Stavanger.

Ane S. Dahl will be talking about how we at Helen & Hard have worked actively to include and engage youth in the development of urban spaces through participation workshops.

More info here:

https://arkitektforbundet.no/Kurs/9381f85f-0562-4012-ad4d-69be6fc04a74

Re-visiting SR-bank together with Arka, just before Christmas.

"I'm always delighted to experience how timber actually contributes to a work environment with such a vibrant pleasant atmosphere." - Siv Helene Stangeland

Check out the full film here: https://arka.video/articles/the-timber-bank-helen-and-hard

Team:
SAAHA, Création Holz, Degree of Freedom, Veidekke i Norge, Moelven

The Timber Bank, Helen & Hard – Arka The Financial Park in Stavanger, Norway, is outstanding in its construction built in timber with large wooden joints and curved staircases leading up to the seventh floor, which makes it one of Europe's largest wooden office buildings. The use of natural materials not only affects the CO2 footprint....

Here at Helen & Hard we have set ourselves the goal for 2024 to come closer to the architecture we create. It starts with setting aside proper, undisturbed time for feeling-into a situation, to walk the land, and to allow for the expression and exploration of qualities with media other than the digital.
 
Deeper contact with what we create means deeper contact with those for whom we create for and together with – and with the surrounding city-nature that we hope to heal and upgrade.
 
Working on a community garden at Våland we reflect on what a line in a garden is, together with landscape architects Ketil Dybvig and Karl-Magnus Eikeland, Sweco.

For the high school competition in Harstad, Norway, we proposed a vertical social gathering space with shared activities for all students and a re-wilding of the waterfront as the concept for the school yard. 
 
We strongly believe that architecture should be conceived as a means to heal both nature and humans.
 
Thank you to the wonderful team,
.eu , Urbant Hav, Création Holz
 
Illustrations by

How can we work better together to create a more sustainable future? Together with NEB-Star we have been exploring our method of "walk-the-land". Through six sessions at Site 4016 and in Pedersgata in Stavanger, we have been testing how walk-the-land, which involves drawing-dialogues on a specific site, can contribute to an increased focus on aesthetics, inclusion and sustainability in architecture and urban development.

Stavanger kommune Veni Smedvig Mad arkitekter Godalen vgs. Universitetet i Stavanger Ihle Ninni Sødahl Tove Kommedal

We are thrilled to announce that Helen & Hard have been chosen to design the new “Landbruksportalen” at the main entrance of Landbrukskvartalet in Oslo. 
 
The generous covered plaza and main entrance of Landbrukskvartalet will offer an attractive place with public areas for people to meet and gather. The square acts as a “portal” that leads into the green and historically rich quarter of the Landbrukskvartalet neighbourhood.
 
Activity continues above the first floor, where flexible and rational office spaces and green terraces are enveloped in an exposed timber structure, offering high-quality work environments for the residents and businesses of Oslo.
 
A huge thank you to , Eiendom and for this fantastic opportunity. We look forward to the upcoming collaboration and are very excited to further develop, improve, and refine the project to make a positive contribution to Oslo’s architectural landscape and neighbourhoods.

We will be participating at the The Urban Research Conference 2023 in Oslo, where architect and researcher Siv Helene Stangeland will be presenting
alongside industrial designer Kristin Støren Wigum (Gaia Trondheim) “New social infrastructures for diversity. May new social infrastructures in our
cities support and nourish diversity?”

The paper will share insights from our process and housing-model, Gaining by Sharing (GbS), and its first realized co-living project, Vindmøllebakken,
where the intention is to live with a smaller ecological and carbon footprint and gain life quality through community building and inspiring supporting
architecture. Central questions are: how may basic aspects of social sustainability like diversity, learning, trust, self-organization and common meaning
(Robert et.al. 2019) be supported by urban architecture and masterplanning? How do we build communities that can hold diversity, nourish it and
behave as sound socio-ecological systems?

When: 26.10.2023 13:00-13.25pm (CEST)
Where: OsloMet Campus, Pildestredet 46, Oslo, Norway

Read more about this event through the link in our bio.

UPCOMING TALK // 15.09.2023

FINGERPLAN 2.0 SYMPOSIUM - "Et internationalt perspektiv på hovedstadens udvikling"

In every project we want to drive urban development forward. At the Fingerplan 2.0 Symposium in Copenhagen, Siv Helene Stangeland will share our experiences about the impacts that have been achieved through several completed projects.

Following a holistic perspective of the development of a living environment with increased sustainability, we will give concrete examples and recommendations on how this development can be strengthened going forward.

We look forward to seeing you there.

More information below:

https://arkitektforeningen.dk/kalender/symposion-fingerplan-2-0-et-internationalt-perspektiv-paa-hovedstadens-udvikling/

Symposium: Fingerplan 2.0 – et internationalt perspektiv på hovedstadens udvikling Som optakt til Arkitektforeningens forestående konkurrence om fremtidens Fingerplan og hele Hovedstadens udvikling afholdes et internationalt symposium med fokus på byudvikling. Arkitektforeningen København har inviteret en række internationale oplægsholdere til at diskutere tendenser inden for...

UPCOMING TALK // 13.09.2023

OSLO URBAN WEEK - "Arkitektpolitikk på ville veier?"

Helen & Hard will be participating at Oslo Open Week as one of the partners in the EU project NEB-Star. The NEB-Star project emphasises that architectural policy should lead to a change in society. It has a particular focus on how broad involvement and new tools within urban development can stimulate faster change towards climate neutrality.

In every project, Helen & Hard always want to drive the architecture profession forward. Through our completed projects, Margrete Stople will shed light on how NEB-Star actualises various themes within architecture policy, and uncovers the need for change.

We look forward to seeing you there.

More information below:
https://oslourbanweek.no/program/opus-baa-arkitektpolitikk-pa-ville-veier

NEB-Star:

https://nebstar.eu/no/

Arkitektpolitikk på ville veier? | Oslo Urban Week Arkitektur vil spille en helt avgjørende rolle i det grønne skiftet. Bygninger og infrastruktur står for en tredjedel av verdens energiforbruk og utslipp av klimagasser. Derfor vil en endring av hvordan vi designer, bygger og vedlikeholder bygninger og steder ha avgjørende påvirkning på vårt ...

We are thrilled to share that Innoasis has won Storebrand Eiendoms Bærekraftpris 2023 (sustainability prize).

Innoasis is an existing concrete office building from 1978 with a rich history as the headquarters of the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate. Through the implementation of a new timber structure at its core, the building has been transformed into a modern, flexible work environment that is layered around a light-filled, covered atrium.

Excerpt from the reasoning of the jury:
"With a glass roof and solid wood decks resting on columns made of only tree trunks, a new, bright and very attractive atrium space has been created that invites a high degree of joint use for both tenants and external parties. Efficiency is characterised by both area use and climate and energy standards. The building's energy label has gone from a red F to a green A. The sum of measures ensures high and balanced quality across all sustainability themes. The jury believes that the project is more than just carried out well, this is a re-use project in a special class."

A huge thank you to Storebrand Eiendom, the jury, and everyone involved!




Find out more about the project and about the prize here:

https://helenhard.no/work/innoasis/
https://www.arkitektur.no/notiser/priser/ombruksprosjekt-i-saerklasse/

🌱 Utstillingen "NABO – hvordan skal vi bo sammen?", utforsket visjoner for framtidens boformer med vekt på fellesskapsløsninger. Utstillingen var et samarbeid mellom Kode Byarkitekten i Bergen kommune, forskningsprosjektet Bopilot Grønneviken Bergen Nasjonalmuseet Nasjonalmuseet – Arkitektur og Helen & Hard

Denne rapporten oppsummerer NABOKVELDENE som ble arrangert i utstillingsperioden. Du kan lese og laste ned rapporten her:

fil:///C:/Users/xx682/Downloads/NABOKVELD%20-%20katalog%20(3).pdf

https://www.bergen.kommune.no/hvaskjer/tema/arkitektur-i-bergen/bopilot

🌱 Byarkitekten og KODE inviterte gjennom hele utstillingsperioden til NABOKVELD; et fullspekket, faglig og folkelig debattprogram om boliger, nabolag og alternative boligløsninger. Her snakket vi sammen om fremtidens boligarkitektur og nabolag gjennom innbyggerkvelder, utbyggerkvelder, prosjektpresentasjoner, debatter, arkitekturkafe mm.

🌱 Museumskafeen Smakverket farget gulvet gult, stilte veggene til disposisjon og smeltet sammen med Naboutstillingen til et ”third space” ; en kaffeduftende offentlig møteplass for inspirasjon og samtaler om boliger og nabolag. Nabokveldene ble arrangert både i kafeen og inne i Helen&Hard sin modell av et fremtidig bofelleskap.

🌱 20.000 personer besøkte NABO, 560 skoleelever var innom utstillingen og laget sine egne forslag til fremtidens fellesløsninger, og over 1000 var innom Nabokveldene.

🌱 Vi håper samtalen om alternative boligløsninger vil fortsette, og at flere boliger og nabolag med deling og nabofelleskap vil se dagens lys i Bergen!

Takk til alle som deltok på NABOKVELD, som innledere eller som publikum. Takk for flotte innlegg, mange gode spørsmål, samtaler og diskusjoner. Takk til alle dere som besøkte utstillingen, på egen hånd eller som en gruppe på omvisning. Takk også til Vestland fylkeskommune for støttemidler til utstillingen.

Her finner du mer informasjon om BOPILOT og NABO-utstilling, bla.a utstillingskatalog og rapporter fra Digital medvirkning og Designsprint:
https://www.bergen.kommune.no/hvaskjer/tema/arkitektur-i-bergen/bopilot

Bopilot var støttet med Forkommunemidler fra NNorges forskningsråd og var et samarbeid med Byplankontoret i Trondheim kommune Trondheim kommune Sintef NTNU arkitektur, kunst og design Husbankenog Norske arkitekters landsforbund Bergen kommune

UPCOMING TALK:

On the 22nd of August Siv Helen Stangeland will be speaking at the event "WHAT WE STAND FOR", as part of the ARCH4CHANGE project. The event is hosted by Designmuseo, Helsinki.

The ARCH4CHANGE project thinks that it is important to change the narrative. The majority in architecture and the building industry still think that we can engineer our way out of the climate crises whilst barely focusing on inequalities, the biodiversity crises or the fact that a solution is not sustainable unless it meets users needs and they adopt it and look after it.

This event is a call to action: we cannot be a carbon neutral or sustainable society without new ways of thinking and new values. This translates in new ways of doing architecture, and by extension also questions what ‘architecture is’ and our role as architects and planners within it.

Siv Helene Stangeland will be speaking about "Changing architecture practices and aesthetics".

Registration is free and we look forward to seeing you there!

More information in the link below:

WHAT WE STAND FOR 22 August 2023 at 2 p.m. – 6 p.m. In the Design Museum auditorium Free entry (exhibitions excluded) / Pre -registration ARCH4CHANGE project thinks that it is important to change the narrative: the majority in architecture and the building industry...

At the end of March we had the pleasure of gathering our Oslo and Stavanger offices together for a team building experience at Boretunet Surf Camp. Over two days in the beautiful coastal landscape of Borestranden, we shared, listened and discussed our visions and values with each other to envision the next chapter of Helen & Hard. Through sharing and drawing we weaved our individual experiences into a rich holistic map to visualise how we can move towards a better and more sustainable future together.
 
Around this time we also welcomed our new CEO, Margrete Stople. Margrete is a regional and urban planner by profession with solid experience in both the field and in management, having worked previously in administration, as a consultant and project manager, and as a developer and general manager. Margrete will be taking over the reins from Randi Augustein, who has been the CEO of Helen & Hard for the past six years. We wish Randi all the best in her future endeavours, and we are very grateful for all the time we had together. Moving forward with Margrete’s complex competence and experience we are confident that she will continue to strengthen future development at Helen & Hard. Our stay at Boretunet was a great opportunity to get to know each other better and we are very excited for this new chapter.
 
Many thanks again to the team at for their amazing hospitality and to our team building guide Signe Marie Riiser.

Documentary about Helen & Hard:

In this film produced by Louisiana Channel, Siv Helen Stangeland and Reinhard Kropf give insights into how we work, think and act at Helen and Hard.

“With their insistence on community, sustainability, and predominant usage of wood, they try to renew architecture and how we live.” - Louisana Channel

Siv Helene Stangeland and Reinhard Kropf were interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at various locations in and around Stavanger, Norway. It was a fantastic experience working with Louisiana Channel and thank you to the entire team for a great collaboration in producing this wonderful film.

Camera: Simon Weyhe
Edited by: Simon Weyhe
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Lousiana Museum of Modern Art, 2022
Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and FRITZ HANSEN.

This film is supported by Dreyers Fond.

https://vimeo.com/783615405

Helen & Hard: We Are Firm Believers In Community “Wood can connect the simple and the sublime.” We went to Norway to meet one of the rising stars in international architecture, Helen & Hard. With…

Prize • Tirol Holzbaupreis

We are honoured to share that our project Vindmøllebakken has been awarded the Tirol Holzbaupreis (Timber construction prize) for 2023, under the category ‘Housing’. The prize is awarded every four years to extraordinary and exemplary projects and buildings made of wood.  
 
Vindmøllebakken incorporates the innovative use of timber with a high degree of prefabricated elements and methods. Based on the socially sustainable housing principle of «Gaining by Sharing», the project comprises of privately owned apartments arranged around a peaceful courtyard and 500m2 of shared space. The shared space offers various programs created with input from the residents themselves. In the centre a double height living room forms the thriving core of the entirely wooden complex. Vindmøllebakken is built entirely out of timber and is an example of how the innovative use of wood and prefabrication methods offers an excellent solution for the construction of multi-storey, dense housing projects. 
 
A big thank you to our collaborators who helped us realise this project, with timber engineering by timber producer and building company Holtzbau Suarer from Tirol.



Photos by Sindre Ellingsen

Construction has just been completed for three panoramic cabins on Atløy, an island off the west coast of Norway. Drawing inspiration from the local sea view, the vast horizon and the underwater islands in the bay, the cabin’s low-lying profiles are conceived in dialogue with the site’s unique geological layers. 
 
The cabins adopt a basic modular structure with a subdued roof made of flat and gentle angles. They are located low in the terrain to underpin the characteristic topography of the site, where the landscape flattens towards the sea at the base of the great mountain Atløynipa.
 
Two of the cabins are now available for sale. Find out more through the link in our bio.

The construction of the timber office building at Vitengarden involves a solid timber construction. Visible "half logs" are revealed inside as part of the construction. It is a play on the way in which old buildings are constructed, carried out through modern production methods and technology.  
 
The building will have a skylight in its ridge to incorporate the design of the existing facility. This interplay of timber elements allows the ceiling and the walls of the building to be experienced as an undulating solid timber surface. 
 
Photos by Sindre Ellingsen

Vitengarden is a timber office building built for the Vitengarden/Jærmuseet on the west coast of Norway. The new office building combines local identity and tradition with modern form and expression.  
 
The existing museum area is clustered around a farmyard from 1878. It is embedded in the horizontal landscape that characterises Jæren. The new office building adapts to the characteristics of the existing museum and landscape through its orientation, spatiality, and construction. We wanted to allow the expression of the office building to be as gentle as possible in this landscape by placing the building low in the terrain, with some parts built into the ground. In the west the building opens up with a glass facade towards the view out over the cultural landscape. With a solid timber construction and external cladding made of untreated wood, the new office plays on the existing character of the museum, with a modern, simpler, and more discreet design. 
 
Photos by Sindre Ellingsen

Competition • Fornebu

We are pleased to share our recent proposal for the new Tårnet Senter at Fornebu for which we are very proud to have received second place. 
 
Tårnet Senter is located on the site of Oslo’s old airport at Fornebu. The brief called for an exciting plan solution combining a school, library, healthcare centre, youth club and cultural centre program, formed around a new urban centre for the up-and-coming Fornebu neighbourhood. 
 
The overarching character of the architecture and landscape weaves into the motif of rolling airport runways and its logistical patterns. A relational timber truss and grid structure is adapted to expresses the aviation history of the site and to combine the diverse functions of the program.  
 
Thank you to our hardworking team, Filter Arkitektur & Funkia Landskap Arkitektur. 



 
Visualisations by

Sammen med Gaining by Sharing utvikler vi et nytt bofellesskap på Pynteneset og gleder oss til neste beboerkurs på førtkommende tirsdag.

Håper vi sees på tirsdag (31.januar) klokken 17:30 – hos Ineo Eiendom i Klubbgata, Stavanger.

Meld deg på her https://lnkd.in/dn-eeTEH

Boretunet Surf camp is awarded «Klepp byggeskikkpris» (Award for Outstanding Build Quality).

The surf camp located at Bore beach outside Stavanger is made of recycled building modules from the oil-industry. Half of the modules were already recycled once in the B-camp project at the old factory plot of Helen & Hard. We love this wild and playful way of transforming and giving new life to building materials - creating authentic places.

Sammen med Gaining by Sharing arrangerer vi beboerkurs 16. januar for deg som ønsker å bo sosialt, lekkert, tett på sjøen og i Stavanger.

Velkommen til kurs!

-
Together with Gaining by Sharing, we organize a intro course for those who wish to live socially, comfortably, close to the sea and in Stavanger.

Welcome!

24

With day 24, this year's Christmas calendar has finally come to an end. Happy Christmas and God Jul from all of us at Helen & Hard!

This winter we rounded off the year with a Christmas - party, gathering everyone from the team from both Stavanger and Oslo offices. We paid a visit to several projects around Stavanger and afterwards celebrated in our recently completed Innoasis.

Thank you to our determined and competent team and our strong and visionary customers and collaborators for another fantastic year of cooperation.

23

The vision for «Embrace” is to build a safe house for women, children

and youth in Cape Town. It will be a small community center that hosts the creche, youth programs, offices, workshops, and an outside area with a playground and a garden for growing vegetables.

The client an organization with the name “Little Angel» has a heartbreaking history that gave rise to the idea of an embracing volume around a central yard with an existing large tree.

Its perimeter walls will be a thick protecting wall against the sloping terrain as well as the hostile neighborhood.

Inside, we envisioned a light timber structure with covered galleries open- ing up to an inner courtyard with a playground, social meeting places and kitchen garden.

Helen & Hard together with Urban Think Tank work voluntarily with this project and we are happy that the project recently starts the application phase.

Urban-Think Tank