Stavanger Culture School and Stavanger Cathedral School.

Stavanger Culture School and Stavanger Cathedral School.

Stavanger Cathedral School.
Main entrance plaza.

Stavanger Cathedral School.
Inside amphitheatre and quayside entrance.

Stavanger Cathedral School.
Atrium with view of Bjergsted Park.

Stavanger Cathedral School.
Main stair in the atrium, looking towards the quay.

Stavanger Cathedral School.
Performance space with seating fully extracted.

Stavanger Cathedral School.
From the theatre foyer.

The quayside plaza with the existing building complex at Sandvigå 27, at dusk.

The art installation EKKO by Susanne Christensen and Kenneth Varpe consists of a line of light binding the buildings together. The line pulsates with the movement of the tide, and motion activated sound compositions by Pål Asle Pettersen can be heard from speakers at ground level.

Stavanger Culture School.
Facade facing the new plaza.

Stavanger Culture School.
One of the dance students at the opening event.

Stavanger Culture School.
From the foyer.

Stavanger Culture School.
Main stair.

Stavanger Culture School.
Music hall.

Stavanger Culture School.
Music rehearsal room.

Stavanger katedralskole.
The pedestrian bridge connects the school atrium with the Bjergsted Park.

The pedestrian bridge from Stavanger Cathedral School to the Bjergsted Park.

Landscape plan.

Landscape section.

Stavanger Cathedral School, plan level 1.

Stavanger Cathedral School, plan level 2.

Stavanger Cathedral School, plan level 4.

Stavanger Cathedral School, section.

Stavanger Culture School, plan level 1.

Stavanger Culture School, plan level 3.

Stavanger Culture School, section.



The Bjergsted Vision is a planning initiative gathering a number of cultural institutions to the Bjergsted area on the Stavanger seafront, near the new Concert Hall. The Culture School, a local school for cultural activities, and Stavanger Cathedral School, a college focussing on culture, are the latest additions to the cluster.

Following a design competition in 2007, Arkitekturverkstedet/Asplan Viak’s project combines the two schools, incorporates an existing building and creates a new urban space facing the harbour, connected through the buildings to the Bjergsted Park on the flanking hill.

The college centres on a common space penetrating the building and tying the park to the sea. The cultural school echoes the simple volume of the nearby concert hall. Both buildings are based on a heavy orthogonal core, containing the performance halls, wrapping the outer spaces in a lighter, freer zinc-clad shell.