Vika Skola

Sammanfattning

Vikaskola is the only kindergarten located in Stora Vika, west-north of the Swedish city Nynäshamn. The school was designed and opened in 1952 by the Norwegian architect Karl W. Ottesen. The construction of a kindergarten in Stora Vika was very important back then. This coincided with the gradual renaissance of Stora vika and the increased number of population in the area over time, especially after the opening of the cement factory in the area. The school underwent renovation and expansion several times over the years. In the eighties, a library and a closed sports hall were added, and in the nineties, new classrooms were added to the school to accommodate about seventy children. In 2017, the school was closed due to several factors, the most important of which were the lack of available resources and the reverse migration from Stora Vika. This led to the need for children to travel daily from Stora Vika to another school in the nearest neighboring city, Ösmo. This has created a big problem for the families and increased the demands to reopen the school. Vikaskola is a renovation and expansion project of the school, not only to become a larger and more functioning kindergarten but also to be a building that reflects its benefits on the Stora vikas community as a whole. The new design of the school suggests great possibilities for expansion by adding many service blocks and a series of entrances and corridors connecting the west of the school to its east. It was necessary to intervene and solve the problems that fall within the current design of the school, from linking the school with all its departments together to solving the problems of vertical connection between the school floors. The new design proposes separating the educational block, including classrooms, library, and laboratories, from the common public block on the ground floor. The school's reception hall has been expanded to become more welcoming to visitors, with the possibility of using it for new functions, such as displaying children's work or hosting events that are parent related. The ground floor of the school also contains the administration block, in addition to the gymnastic hall and the small clinic attached to it. Workshops and a multi-use hall were added for the public. In addition to enlarging the school restaurant, which can be used as a lounge for the attached showroom while plays are displayed. As for the educational block, a special entrance was made for it, connecting it to the outside, six classrooms were added, and an open playing field was created in the middle of the block to achieve greater benefit from the geographical location and greater safety for children while playing, away from the main streets as is the case currently. When we talk about the materials that have been used in the design, the focus was mainly on wood, stone, and concrete. These are the elements that we see in abundance in Stora Vika in general. The direction during the design process was to preserve as many details as possible that accompanied the school during its period of operation, until the necessity of solving some outstanding problems in the old design led to the transformation of a large number of the school’s facades as a result of the expansion process.