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60 313 Resource Atlas Varanger

Emnenavn på Norwegian Bokmål: 
Resource Atlas Varanger
Credits: 
6
Course code: 
60 313
Level of study: 
Master
Teaching semester: 
2023 Autumn
Assessment semester: 
2023 Autumn
Language of instruction: 
English
Year: 
2023
Maximum number of students: 
16
Person in charge
Janike Kampevold Larsen
Required prerequisite knowledge

Admission to AHO and successful completion of three years bachelor level studies (180 ECTS).

General mastery of digital tools such as CAD, Illustrator, InDesign

Part of course series: Resource Atlas

The course is open to students from: Architecture, Design and Landscape Architecture

Course content

– an exploration and mapping of the potential for agriculture production in the Northern Varanger region

We are not only in a climate crisis; we are in a nature and biodiversity crisis. The drama of biodiversity and carbon storage plays out in our areas. Area is under pressure throughout the world, and loss of area is one of the fiver major reasons for loss of biodiversity. Area in the Arctic is becoming more accessible as temperatures rises.

In order for small communities to thrive in a changing Arctic climate, new ways of living and producing need to be explored. Anticipating future possibilities, the municipality of Vardø wishes to set aside areas for agricultural production in their new zoning plan, and need to assess historic agricultural areas as well as the potential to establish new ones. This course maps the potential for agriculture in Vardø municipality, a near Arctic region in northern Norway. This involves mapping existing land use practices such as reindeer grazing routes and berry picking, threats such as overgrowth and sea-level rise, and competing interests such as windmill development. It also involves a profound consideration of the area’s past colonial history by the forced agriculture and settlement initiative by the Norwegian state in the 1700 hundreds. Leaning on the cross-institute research project Common Resources-Strategies for a circular, balanced and shared management of areas under pressure, the course is founded in an idea of circular resource network. It builds knowledge on local landscape practices and local biodiversity and explores the friction zones between site specific practices, heritage strategies and future use of area. The course discusses ways of ‘making’ and ‘doing’ landscape and how they may be ‘unmade’ or ‘undone’ both by climate change, preservation practices and zoning decisions.

The course is a research elective. It is based on landscape analysis and in-field registration of biology, geology and topographical outlay, and is framed by theories on planning, heritage and landscape practices at the intersection of Science and Technology Studies, discourses on care ethics, environmental humanities and design.

The analytical and practical components of the work will be exemplary for future challenges in the Northern hemisphere. The course will be looking at the Varanger territory as a testing ground for soil construction, for collaboration with municipal management, and novel mapping techniques. 

Phase 1: Collection and representation We collect information of the area by studying earlier landscape analyses, archive material and maps. Preparation of Illustrator maps.

Phase 2: Documentation In-field registrations by walks and visits with local reindeer herder and sheep farmers. We document by digital registration of data, photography, drawing and writing. Registration takes place during the field trip in September.

Phase 3: Projection We discuss our findings and their relevance for future practices. Geodata and environmental data will be used.

Output:

A series of descriptive texts, imagery, narrative sections and GIS maps that show current situation in the areas in question and projections of future uses, negotiated in relation to sea levels rise, overgrowth, grazing area and energy production.

Exhibition: Common Resources

Results will be exhibited in a large exhibition in Vardø, featuring the total amount of work by Tine Hegli’s In Balance – Arctic Cycle studio courses in Vardø over the last two years and the Resource Atlas course series in the same period. This exhibition will also be brought to AHO.

Resource Atlas – book format (joint project)

Result will be published: joint course output will be a high standard publication of local resources for future development.

This atlas will be a document that stresses the importance of sustainable land use and careful resource practices.

Learning outcome

Knowledge:

  • landscape assessment tools and methodologies
  • knowledge of ideas of permaculture and soil production which will be more and more usual in the Arctic.
  • Environmental humanities perspectives on area, biology and development

Skills:

  • GIS and Illustrator mapping of land area and resources
  • Landscape analysis

General competence:

  • Students will get a comprehensive understanding of dynamics of place development, of mapping and landscape analyses.
  • Students will get a thorough introduction to current environmental humanities theories on landscape in the Anthropocene.
Working and learning activities

The course is structured around weekly seminars and work session. Students must expect to spend the Tuesdays on the course. Each Tuesday will start off with a 2-hour seminar on current theories and transfer into research and map production.

Fieldtrip to Varanger. In-field observation and documentation, soil sampling and construction of a Hügelkultur-bed.

Excursion:

Field trip to Varanger in September, will be coordinated with studio courses. We will arrange accommodation at a very low cost. Flight to Kirkenes, student tickets. Minibus from Vardø from Kirkenes. During the field trip there will be one or two days of intensive digging of a soil construction site – a Hügelbed.

. This will be hosted by Ida Højlund Rasmussen, PhD at Institute of Urbanism and Landscape, and the outcome of the workshop will enter into her doctoral research.

Curriculum

Course literature will be available in Leganto.

Form of assessmentGroupingGrading scaleComment
Project assignment-Pass / fail The students work on a given/selected project throughout the course and the assessment is based on an assignment that counts for 100% of the grade.
Vurderinger:
Form of assessment:Project assignment
Grouping:-
Grading scale:Pass / fail
Comment: The students work on a given/selected project throughout the course and the assessment is based on an assignment that counts for 100% of the grade.
Workload activityComment
AttendanceStudents are expected to attend all course days and be active participants in the seminar activities.
ExcursionThose who do not have the opportunity to participate in an excursion will be given an assignment/a project that replaces this.
Forventet arbeidsinnsats:
Workload activity:Attendance
Comment:Students are expected to attend all course days and be active participants in the seminar activities.
Workload activity:Excursion
Comment:Those who do not have the opportunity to participate in an excursion will be given an assignment/a project that replaces this.