Bergen Arkitekthogskole

This project was awarded a distinction from the assessors for outstanding quality. 

tutors: Anders Rubing (APP), Thomas Wiesner (DAV), Harald Røstvik (Sustainability), Sigurdur Gunnarson (TTA)

The project is an expression of care for the rythm of place and historical tendency, local identity and memory. It principally searches for possibilities and answers within the community itself. On this basis, the project seeks to address and further strengthen and/or maintain existing material and immaterial qualities rather than introducing new ones. Among these qualities is the quality of local social and organizational life.

For a long time Fjell has been a stigmatized area in Drammen, regarded as an underdeveloped part of Drammen. However, despite of this, it is one of the most lively parts of the town in terms of organizational and social life. The diverse communities are active in the cultural stage of the city, but they are usually forced to establish and organize themselves outside their neighborhood due to lack of proper spaces for organization within Fjell. The essence of the project lies in the understanding of the infrastructure of this organizational life and how it plays out in the city. Through this knowledge, the project propose different spatial, economical and practical strategies to stimulate further enhancement. It is recognized that the diverse communities of Fjell need a customized shell around themselves and a venue to express themselves; in their own unique way. The overarching intention of this project was therefore to create a place, a proper physical environment that facilitates spaces where the residents can manifest relations, between themselves, the neighborhood itself and the rest of the town. The establishment of such a place will be done by restructuring and further adapt existing local assets such as the largely empty Fjell center.

The architectural aim of the 03 Assembly Palace has been to restructure this and create a building that better respond to the needs and activities of current and future context. The suggested building provides flexible spaces for formal and informal activities. The architectural ambitions of the diploma has been to create a building that reflects openness and change by offering the users the possibility to adapt the building both programmatically and with regards to exposure of activity with light and flexible elements.

An important part of the project is the acknowledgment of the stigmatization of Fjell as a value rather than a liability. It is part of the essence and character of the place.The project explores how stigmatization is translated in physical space and include a careful study of existing assembly halls and similar offers in the municipality of Drammen.

The 03 Assembly Palace learns from their general inability to be a place for everyone in a diverse city, and uses this information to become itself a catalyst for change, a tool for all parts of Drammen to adapt to new situations in an increasingly global and diverse society.

The final exhibition of ‘’03 Assembly Palace’’ by Atdhe Belegu. 


This project is about a rythm, an atmosphere and a specifik sense of place. It acknowledges the historical tendencies of that place and strives to work within the frames of it. 

The 03 Assembly Palace is the cultural stage of Fjell, a bridge into the neighborhood. A place where the communities can celebrate themselves and become part of each others celebration. 

The inventory of the 03 Assembly Palace includes key elements like the mobile tool box which the different groups of communties or single users can fill with the proper tools for conducting a service, a meeting, a hobby or a cultural event.