Construction of the Kongsvinger School was recently completed along the Glomma, Norway’s longest river.

Comprising 11,360 square meters (more than 122,000 square feet), it is home to classrooms, a sports hall, a culture hall, and a library. And it is more than just a school; the project has been designed with all the residents of Kongsvinger in mind.

“It is an area for play, recreation, sport and cultural experiences – the school will not close at the end of the school day,” said architect Marlies Levken of firm HLM Arkitektur. “We have received extremely positive feedback for the project from politicians, the city’s residents and, above all, the students.”

Levken said the building’s vibrant colors—particularly attributed to Steni Colour stone composite panels—have attracted praise, providing contrast to the calmer wood façade.

“The forest has been the main inspiration for our work, and the Steni panels have allowed us to play with shades of green and yellow,” Levken said. “We also wanted an urban feel on the ground floor, and once again the Steni panels delivered exactly what we were looking for.

Two major advantages of Steni panels are that they have very good corner details, and that there are no limits to creativity when it comes to colors, shapes or structure,” says Lekven. “In fact, some of the Steni panels feature quotations contributed by the students.”

Levken said one creative measure the design team took was to use large, mirrored surfaces, both on the façade of the sports hall and under the ceilings around the entrances, which produces a very exciting effect in that the Steni panels under the ceiling look twice as big. And the mirrored façade of the sports hall reflects the surrounding forest.

Lekven thinks that Steni panels are great for school buildings. “They inspire creativity and are extremely robust and resilient,” she said. “And they come with a 60-year warranty. I am currently working on a new school in Stavanger, where we are also using Steni Colour on parts of the façades.”

As many as 490 students will attend the new Kongsvinger School, but it was constructed for 720, making it one of Norway’s largest secondary schools. “Our working mantra was ‘The small school in the big school,’” she said. “The students have helped develop the concept, not least all the wonderful and exciting artwork. This has been an incredibly rewarding project to work on.”

The new Kongsvinger School has been honored with the Building Practice Award, with the following citation: “The Building Practice Award is a prestigious award for the Kongsvinger School and its new facilities, which through their execution, use of materials and interaction with the location and the environment help to elevate, renew and develop general building design.”

The building has also been nominated for the Building of the Year and Wood Construction of the Year awards.

As a façade product range, Steni Colour includes 60 standard colors and three gloss levels, and almost any custom color based on NCS or RAL can be specified, enabling a designer limitless creative options and styles.

The panels are installed as ventilated cladding and can be installed at any time of year, irrespective of the temperature and weather. Steni façade panels are diffusion resistant, which means that they can remain submerged in water.

Steni Colour requires minimal maintenance and can be cleaned with most cleaning agents used to wash houses. With the proper cleaning agents, graffiti can be easily removed without ruining the panels. A pressure-washer can also be used on the panels.

Steni products have a small carbon footprint, typically producing 14 to 17 kg CO2/m2. A life-cycle analysis has been conducted for Steni façade panels, which has determined that all have an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) in accordance with ISO 14025/ISO 21930/EN15804/. The calculation has been performed and verified by a third party, SINTEF. EPD documents have been approved by EPD Norway and Institut Bauen und Umwelt e.V. (IBU).

About Steni
Steni was established as a family-owned company in 1965. its façade panels have been designed to handle the harsh and demanding Norwegian climate. Today, the company’s majority shareholder is Accent Equity. Steni has approximately 115 employees and with a head office, production plant, warehouse and factory outlet in Lardal, Vestfold, Norway.

Steni’s sales organization reaches throughout Scandinavia and beyond, through distribution partners in Europe, the United States, Canada and the Netherlands. Façade solutions from Steni enable architects to design buildings with a unique expression that lasts for generations. https://Steni.com

Steni panel products are distributed in the U.S. by Omnis https://omnispanels.com/.