STATUS PENTAGON!
STATUS PENTAGON!
It is now over 60 years since the first brick was laid in the construction of Pentagon 1’s ABC building, but when will the next brick be laid for further development of the student town? The municipality has assessed SiÅs’ regulatory proposal for densification and renovation of the Pentagon. Has the municipality said no to the building plan, or was it approved? How many homes are we talking about, will we get a local café or will the student town’s outdoor areas become a sea of asphalt and concrete?
Journalist: A. Mathilde R. Christensen
Translator: S. Faseeha F. Gillani
The backdrop of the student housing chase
In line with the development of Ås’ study offer, there has been a great need for student accommodation. What began as 32 male students at “Den høiere Landbruksskole paa Aas” in 1859 developed into NMBU in 2014 with close to 7,000 students today. The background for Pentagon 1’s ABC, Grotten, Hemsen, Inferno, and Jubilo became a reality in 1964-1967 with approx. 400 students, is the state requirement that all study centers should have their own student welfare organization. The long queue for student housing at SiÅs, on the other hand, has become increasingly visible since 2015. SiÅs basement dormitories was what the 200 in the housing queue had to make do with at the start of their studies in 2023.
Pentagon’s future prospects
SiÅs meets the housing shortage with a zoning plan for the Pentagon 1 area. Pål Magnus Løken, managing director of SiÅs, writes that “the plan involves new construction, complete transformation of the old buildings - but we will reuse the concrete structures in their entirety, + build more floors on existing buildings.”. Despite the municipality’s positive attitude to the proposal, it is sent back to SiÅs for further processing of some points.
The municipality wants to create too many homes, according to the right-wing group leader in the municipal council, Zara Jasmine Mushtaq Berg. The processing SiÅs has to do is on the following points: move the car park to a parking basement for a larger outdoor area; lack of charging points for electric cars and electric bicycles; lack of measures for traffic flow in Meierikrysset; towering new blocks behind ABC are to ber removed from the plan, and this number of dormitories should be incorporated into the other planned homes; missing plan for the outdoor area, green areas and trees; preservation of arable land; more consideration for the landscape with regard to height of construction.
Birds-eye view:
Does money grow on trees?
After SiÅs has changed the regulation proposal, the proposal will presumably be put out for consultation and public review at a new meeting on 17/4. With approval, “the construction of the new homes will start before Christmas.” The plan is to complete by the start of the semester in 2026” according to Pål Magnus Løken. The aim is then to move in in August 2026. On 18th March, the Ministry of Education granted a 95.3 million grant to SiÅs for 266 new student housings. This will go to construction stage 1 of the plan for 40% housing coverage, with four new residential blocks north of Veden. If everything goes according to plan, SiÅs will apply for a grant for the rest of the project to renovate old Pentagon 1 and the remaining parts of the new buildings in 2025, corresponding to approx. 530 dormitory units, according to Løken.
Out with the old in with the new?
You may be wondering what will be left of old Pentagon 1, the saunas and the ABC basement? Many of us have experienced the standard of the pentagon dormitories, when the dormitories of the 60s must be ready for 2024 housing standards. It has its charm, and both the fixtures and exterior design are an integral part of the Ås spirit. These 60 years of some buildings have a high cultural-historical value. Fortunately, this has been emphasized in the renovation plans and the design of the new building’s facade, in line with how architect Leif Olav Moen designed Pentagon 1 in the 1960s. The collective solutions, on the other hand, will draw inspiration from Skogveien! The municipality therefore wants the height of the new buildings to take account of the old buildings in the landscape. The two loft-dwelling student unions in Inferno and Jubilo will also be included for a smooth transition.
Some design elements from the 1960s have not survived the age of technology. Each block had its own common areas for socializing and watching TV. This role has been taken over by the collective to a large extent, nevertheless these common rooms such as the ABC basement will remain in renovated form. A recent architectural proposal by Dyrø and Moen Arkitekter, is a coffee bar in the student town, and turned out to be not as popular among the students as one might think.
Enviorns:
The Pentagon Forest and student solidarity
The decision for 200 homes in what is now called “Ås Hageby” received a majority in Ås municipality, and was adopted in the autumn of 2023. This is a production and recreational forest, with cultural monuments and discoveries dating back to the Stone Age. The development of the embankment forest together with the expansion of the Pentagon student town could present challenges in connection with both traffic and noise conflicts, but this is little discussed by both the municipality and SiÅs. It is important that we students, not only in this specific context, but throughout the process, get involved and express our opinions and experiences of the living environment and the building process. We have a great responsibility for the future students who will live in the developed student town, and therefore we must be able to accommodate the diversity of students this applies to.
Will Pentagon 1 be upgraded to be worthy of five stars again, or will we lose part of Å’s identity at the same time? Will the Agrarian Metropole’s Thora and Thorvald again “reveal a sincere gratitude for their Pentagon” after renovation and densification, will it be experienced as something new and foreign, or can the student spirit manage to integrate into the new building masses? It will be up to us!
