1st Prize to MDH Architects in Moholt Student Village competition!
MDH Arkitekter, in collaboration with Arne Henriksen and MASU Planning have today won the competition for Moholt Student village in Trondheim! Aprox 113 000 m2 of studenthousing, kindergarden, shops and student facilities.
Moholt 50I50 - From parking lot to a beating heart of a student village.
The project is an implant in an existing student village in Trondheim, Norway. Originally built between 1963-70, the existing Moholt student village with its approx. 1300 living spaces and approx. 2200 inhabitants is the largest of its kind in Trondheim and a little a mini society in itself.
By organizing an architectural competition for young architects in collaboration with established firms, the client sought a vision for 50 years ahead for their 50 year old student village.
Our winning entry in 2013 proposed to use the large and central parking lot to create a new heart for the student village with housing units, kindergarten, grocery store and sports activities. This would create a center and a sense of urbanity for the existing student village but also contribute to erase the invisible border between the student village and the surrounding housing area.
Later in the development phase a local library was added to the masterplan to further strengthen Moholt a new local center.
The client,- Studentsamskipnaden i Trondheim, is an organization for student welfare. Their mandate is to make everyday life for students affordable and easy so they can use their energy on their education. But the goal of the student village is not only to provide simple and affordable housing, but also to have an educational role offering social arenas and sometimes to even act as substitute family for students who are far away from home.
By offering different sizes of collective housing the student welfare organization works actively against loneliness among students, and promotes collaboration, collective responsibility and tolerance.
The student village kindergarten has special services on weekends to help student parents who need to prepare for exams.
The project offers attractive, affordable housing with ancillary programs for students. The project demonstrates how architecture can create a sense of place and a sense of belonging for a relatively institutional program with a high turnover in tenants.
The project is both a compact masterplan and an architecture project (5 towers of student housing, a kindergarten and a library) it is also the largest massive wood project in Europe in volume.
The project is built to meet passive house energy standards. The aim of the construction is to halve the CO2 production in comparison to traditional construction methods. The structures are heated and cooled with geothermal energy.
