Already in 1860 did the Ministry of Education commission blueprints for school buildings. The Danish architect and master builder Thøger Leonard Binneballe (1815-1900) was given the task of making sample drawings for rural schools. He was the master bricklayer for Oscarshall (a small castle just outside Oslo) and Stortinget (the Norwegian parliament building), and he was the site manager for Rikshospitalet (the national hospital) in 1870. He was also the architect behind the first tenement houses in Christiania (later Oslo) in 1844.

In 1863 the ministry issued a guidance document about the building of rural schools and sent a copy to every parish. It included 8 different design's by Binneballe with detailed specifications such as the school should: be built on well drained land

have 2-3 feet high plinths

be detached

have the four corners pointing exactly to the east, west, north and south. The site plans showed the location of the wood shed and the outdoor privy. The blueprints had detailed room plans, sections and elevations as well as technicals details for windows, doors, mouldings, cladding, doors and decorations for the apex of the gable. Further, it was advised that the classrooms should have south facing windows and that larger schools should strive to have one or two windows on the wall behind the pupils as well.