The Heart in Ikast by C.F. Møller Architects

C.F. Møller is behind a major project next to the International School Ikast-Brande with a much-awaited expansion with several halls, multi-functional and educational facilities. The project will make the educational facilities at the school even better, and at the same time create a new meeting point centred on an area of fast growth in Ikast.

’Hjertet’ (the Heart), as the project is called, includes a multi-purpose building, as well as an activity park, to create a new relation to the neighbours Business College HHX Ikast, Ikast Brande upper secondary school, the teacher training college, and the International School Ikast-Brande, which was also designed by C.F. Møller. ‘The Heart’ combines education, activities, community, exercise and recreational pursuits in new ways. The international pupils will thus be a natural part of a very wide-ranging group of users, including sportsmen and women, musicians, skaters and users in a social psychiatry project.

Overall, 35 user groups were involved in the development of the building and park. “The aim of the Heart is to combine many different facilities and parallel activities, and to use all of the rooms, all the time, all day long, so that the building is always used actively from early morning to late evening – expressed in an architecture that resembles a small town, with varying roof heights and a square which gathers, leads and distributes the users,” says Julian Weyer, architect and partner at C.F. Møller.

Building with room for everyone
The Heart will cover 3,660 m² in total, and features a central square with a performance stage. The square will distribute users out to the various rooms in the multi-building. One wing will have the school’s teaching rooms, which in the afternoons and evenings can be changed to multi-rooms and art workshops for associations and evening schools.

For young people and younger sports enthusiasts, the street sports hall will be particularly interesting, as it will be designed so as to retain a sense of being outdoors. There will also be a café with a service kitchen, and two shops. On the first floor of the multi-building there will be various large and small rooms for relaxed movement activities such as dance and yoga, as well as cultural events and performance culture, and counselling services for young people in the municipal Youth and Education Advisory Centre.

“A unique example”
“The Heart” will be a very open and accessible building, which will also draw attention through its use of many small, informal venues and seating areas, to reinforce the multi-building’s capacity as a social gathering point that is not just a place to spend active leisure time. A number of local and national collaboration partners have joined the field to ensure the project in Ikast-Brande Municipality comes to fruition, including local businesses such as Bestseller, and major Danish foundations Realdania and the Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities.

“This is a quite unique example of how broadly the user groups of the leisure facilities can be combined. This project gives a great boost to leisure time activities, a socioeconomic initiative and the school’s teaching opportunities. Strong contact is also created between the many different users, and young people can also obtain advice on their life choices, close to where they meet anyway, to pursue active and social lives,” said Esben Danielsen, director of the Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities (Lokale og Anlægsfonden), in conjunction with the publication of their support for the project. Source by C.F. Møller Architects.