Snøhetta has completed the new Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design (KMD) of the University of Bergen.
This open, robust and interactive building gathers KMD’s 350 art and design students under one roof, while simultaneously connecting the faculty and the city of Bergen.
October 11 marked the official opening of the Snøhetta-designed Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design (KMD) in Bergen, Norway.
Replacing the former Bergen Academy of Art & Design (KHiB), the new KMD has undergone a historic fusion, assembling the previously scattered faculty buildings under one roof.
This new 14,800m2 cross-disciplinary faculty is now the second largest cultural building in Bergen after the 1,500-seat Grieg Concert Hall.
The building is organized along two axes, one internal, dedicated to students and staff, and one external, open to the public.
Under the KMD roof, these axes cross each other in the 1,300 m2 and 19,000 m3 project hall, one of the most prominent and dominant features of the building.
It is here, in the transition zone between the public and the private sphere of the school, that the building offers exciting opportunities for students, professors, and visitors to connect, discover, and learn from one another.
It is a multi-use, semi-climatic space running through the entire construction.
The building’s entrance is connected to the large outdoor public plaza, Kunstallmenningen.
The plaza, together with the large glass wall of the project hall, makes KMD an inviting and open building in dialogue with the city center of Bergen. Source and photos, Courtesy of Snøhetta.