2023 Vår

The diploma semester (18 weeks) is an architectural study on a theme chosen by the candidate. Program for the diploma has been prepared by the student in the pre-diploma course (6 credits).

Each student has one main appointed supervisor from AHO´s academic staff. In addition, the student can make use of the entire academic staff at AHO, and have the possibility to consult special expertise from outside of AHO, which is supported by the school by a limited amount.

The ecological crisis is only one of the results of a global systemic crisis: uneven global and local development, increasing inequalities and living conditions, displacement and migration. There is a necessity for a broad understanding of the complex economic, political, social, and environmental forces that influence urban and rural development and transformation today, as well as an urgent need for holistic, interdisciplinary and experimental approaches to address these challenges and opportunities in urban planning and architecture.

The point of departure of the Architecture and Design Laboratory is to understand architecture and the city as a dynamic system and the design process as a field of research. The aim is to develop alternative strategies and ways to operate and catalyse change within global transformations affecting urban and rural areas today.

The studio will explore in the spring 2023 the notion of Commons – spaces and resources that are “held in common”. The commons have traditionally been defined in terms of forests, water, the atmosphere, fisheries or grazing land – resources that are shared, used and enjoyed by “all” or a collective. Today, the “commons” is also understood as cultural resources – information, literature, music, arts, design, film, radio, software and sites of heritage. For centuries there have been struggles over what is to be defined and practiced as “commons” and what is to become private or public property. Currently such struggles can be seen over natural and digital resources but also over urban spaces manifested in movements around community gardens, sharing of land, alternative forms of ownership and co-creation of spaces.

The aim is: to reflect, understand and design spaces in relation to the current climate crisis.

Programme: Space of Commons
The students will work individually and in groups, developing proposals for a Space of Commons: Infrastructure / Park / Buildings.
Considering spaces of social interaction for and from the community, aiming to create alternatives for a common multi-species ground in the city, towards a socio-ecological future.

Site: We will explore a site in-between: Water and Land // Global and Local // Seoul and Oslo

The semester is organized in three parts where projects are developed with the following progression:

A Research/ mapping
B Scenarios, strategies and programme
C Spatial resolutions/ interventions/ projects

Through architectural projects, Studio Positions continues to critically discuss and investigate how architecture reflects on, contributes to, and provides for dwelling in our contemporary diverse society.

Contemporary societal discussions, directions in art, philosophy, sociology and ecology, and architectural discourses provide the framework for architectural projects that are developed individually or in collaboration, with emphasis on the three fundamental aspects of architecture – structure, material, and space.

Projects will investigate architectural (structural, material, spatial) responses to identified circumstances, either situated in or inspired by specific places in Oslo. Projects will discuss the social and cultural challenges that mark our time, and reflect on how these challenges have influenced our relationship to architectural space and how we interact with it.

Each student will develop an individual architectural program throughout the semester through works and words.

Through both a sensuous and technical approach to the task, students will investigate a personal architectural interest and engage deeply with a chosen theme, both intellectually and formally, through their architectural project.

The studio aims at investigating new and fundamental approaches to architecture that facilitate more livable (sustainable) futures – concerned not only with how architecture is made, but also the presence of architecture and the aesthetic experience it produces.

The work is integrated with Studio Positions’ ongoing Erasmus+ teaching collaboration – EUROPE IN TRANSITION.

This studio builds upon the assumption that Norwegian petroleum production will be phased out in the near future. This gigantic industry will leave behind an enormous amount of structures, counting offshore installations like oil-rigs, housing-rigs, sub-sea installations and infrastructure, as well as land-based building structures, urban areas and industrial landscapes. The studio aims to answer how we can reuse these remains in a meaningful way, how we determine their heritage value, and how they can form the basis for new forms of architecture. Being the main factor for national wealth and a monument of the 20th century, carrying both symbolic and social value, this industry deserves meaningful memorials.