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SNOWSPACE: investigating spatial potential for the subarctic city
Credits:
20
Full course name in Norwegian Bokmål:
SNOWSPACE: investigating spatial potential for the subarctic city
Course code:
65 503
Level of study:
Master
Teaching semester:
2016 Autumn
Language of instruction:
English
Required prerequisite knowledge
Bachelor in landscape architecture/architecture
Course content
The studio will investigate how to develop an understanding of nature as infrastructure in the Northern urban context. How can the need for management of urban storm water, sea level rise, waterways and snow storage become spatial resources for city life in the Subarctic city. What is the potential for this to become a multi-layered infrastructure and an integral part of the Subarctic city enhancing its identity? The pressure for densification of urban areas to minimize transport and exploitation of unbuilt land, accentuates the challenges related to water/snow and the studio seeks to challenge this by investigating how the need for snowspace can release opportunities for the subarctic city.
While the programme takes the Arctic as its laboratory, the knowledge and know-how it produces aims to have valuable transference value to a more general range of landscapes facing climate and industrial change that affects the urban settlements.
Learning outcome
Knowledge:
The studio aims to give the students knowledge about landscape ecology, climate and hydrology in an urban context, with special focus on sub-arctic conditions included the northern social and political context for the practise of landscape architecture. Local knowledge and site-specific project work will provide and produce knowledge especially on water and snow in relation to spatial conditions in the city.
Skills:
The studio seeks to develop the students’ ability to harvest knowledge and develop their sensitivity to input from site, science and culture as well as the specific social and urban context. The studio aims at training the skill to make this knowledge instrumental to the development of strong concepts and design proposals with artistic quality. The studio will work with drawing/sketching, digital tools, physical models and presentation/communication of ideas/designs.
General competence:
The students are expected to learn how to use their knowledge and skills to conceptualize, coordinate and execute integral designs rooted in the specific local context and the knowledge of human-made and natural systems with special awareness of water and snow as spatial agents in the subarctic urban context. The studio aims to develop an awareness and critical reflection on topics that contribute to the general professional and public discourse and to position their work in relation to this.
Working and learning activities
The students will work with chosen localities in Tromsø in relation to the themes described above. The studio will work with models, mapping, visualization tools and design development. The students will also be involved in on-site field investigations at localities in Tromsø. This field-work will also include collaboration with stormwater experts in the municipality as well as scientists at the University of Tromsø.
Lectures, tutorials, workshops and group reviews have mandatory attendance at 90%.
Mandatory hand in of all designated deliverables.
Mandatory attendance to oral examination with external sensors.
Field trip: Oulu
Other modules:
August: 10 days Finnmark county traverse: landscapes, biological laboratories, settlements and cities
Workshops:
• Applied climate knowledge
• Urban stormwater
| Mandatory coursework | Presence required | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Presence required | Not required | Lectures, tutorials, workshops and group reviews have mandatory attendance at 90%. Mandatory hand in of all designated deliverables. Mandatory attendance to oral examination with external sensors. |
| Form of assessment | Grouping | Grading scale | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Portfolio assessment (Vurderingsmappe) | - | - | Final studio work is presented in group review evaluated by external sensors. Details on deliverables will be provided with the detailed studio plan but normally includes digital presentation and exhibition of model work together with printed posters/boards |