Fifteen striking elements crown the flat roof of the Marine Education Centre in Malmö. The low building appears to nestle among the sand dunes to the west of the city, forming a gentle transition from the sea to the coast. With good reason the people from Nord Architects call these spaces a “landscape for learning”. While the main focus of the education centre is on providing programs for school classes, together with universities and institutes the marine team also carries out research work in the areas of sustainability, marine biology, and fishing. Many of the courses and workshops are held outdoors, but for group work and conferences spaces that offer more comfortable temperatures are available inside the building. An open passageway runs between the two volumes that stand under the large roof. In the units each of the different functions is grouped around a generously dimensioned and top-lit access corridor. The axes of the rooms and of the roof are slightly staggered in relation to each other, creating an animated zig-zag structure in the external skin. Reflecting the different functions inside, the facade surfaces vary from coloured precast concrete elements to large areas of glazing, and to strongly structured wood panels, which are also found in the interior.
The roof structure consists of 40-cm-high steel beams, clad inside and outside with the same kind of wet-painted aluminium sheets. The uniform cladding visually combines the roof and the elements standing on it to create a homogeneous surface. The timber structure of the trapezoidal roof elements rests on the steel sections. Only four of these elements are glazed, the others carry solar panels that face towards the sun. The rooflights also have a solar panel and are clad on two sides with aluminium sheets, while a large area of triple glazing on the side with the flattest slope brings daylight into the building and at these points almost doubles the clear room height of three metres. SD
