The New Media Building: Sivert Aarflot House

Tekst: Karl August Swanstrøm

08. nov 2021 - Oppdatert 12. november 2021

Del på:

The new Sivert Aartlot House opened in autumn 2021 and is Volda University College's latest addition to ensure we are providing high-quality facilities for every department and its courses. The new building is used by the students from the Department of Media Programs which includes the Bachelor's degree courses in Journalism, PR & Communication, Media Production, Animation and the Master's degree in Media Practices. Each course has its own base in permanent locations. 

The building offers nearly 4,000 square meters of space and includes the latest professional-level facilities featuring TV studios, photo studio, edit suites, sound suites, animation studio, "Future Lab", meeting spaces and colloquial spaces. The editorial spaces of the journalism course includes its own news bulletin TV studio, radio studio, enclosed edit suites and open workspaces.  

Media education through 50 years

In 2021, it is 50 years since the first media students were greeted at the District University College in Volda. In the 1970's and 80's, Volda was the only and the first institution to offer television and radio courses in Norway and has always been an attractive place for students from all over the country. The later additions is the PR and Communication and Media Production courses. With the Animation and the more recent "Master in Media Practices", more international students has applied their way to Volda University College. 

Media education representing "The Volda Model"

The media programs in Volda has always been practical orientated with the students being able to study by using professional level equipment to make film, TV, radio, newspaper or online media. The students will then have met the same kind of equipment in their professional work life as they have used during the time of studies in Volda. The students will also be having internships both internally at the University College and externally in work life. 

The new building

Through the Campus Development Plan in 2015, Volda University College prioritised to build a new building for the media department. The building is fully digitalised with 90 km cables through walls, ceilings and floors. It's environmental friendly with 30% lower CO2 emissions than reference buildings. 

Who was Sivert Aarflot?

The house has its name after Sivert Aarflot (1759-1817) who was a pioneer in enlightenment through media publishing. He was a farmer from Ørsta who was a teacher and police man in Volda, he published the first folk book collection, had the first print workshop and the first newspaper on the countryside in Norway.