My diploma project deals with the typology of the rural school, which has been left behind in the dust of societal development. A once important typology, developed and erected with the Norwegian people in mind, now lies dead as they either grew outdated because of their limiting size, or as the pupils were shipped to larger and more central schools.

In my diploma project I’m using the former primary school of Flø skule as a case study for what these former school buildings can be.

The overall question for my research is “Where lies the key to reuse a former school building?”. There might not be an definitive answer to this question, and the answer varies from case to case. In the case of Flø skule, I’m researching into how the nature of Flø can be a part of adapting and reusing the school building.

Flø is known for both it’s bouldering and surfing possibilities, as large boulders scat-ters the pasturefields of Ytreflø, and the raw, unshielded coast towards the west makes for strong winds and big waves. At the same time, Flø skule offers something unique to Flø as a settlement, as it is a village emptied of any public resources in the form of low effort activities.

From my point of view, the building typology of the rural school offers qualities within the building that one can’t easily find in other buildings, and these qualities should be mixed with the qualities if its context.