2022 Vår

What if the ground of the city was publicly owned? What if housing was a common good? With that premise in mind, what type of housing models and urban configurations could be imagined?

In this studio, students will draw new collective housing alternatives and new urban commons. Either focusing on exploring the architectural qualities of those co-housing spaces—from the entrance space to the inside of the apartment—or on the common ground of the city. The goal is to reinvent and design new shared spaces and inhabiting practices based on cooperation and equity.

The premise of the brief for the students this semester will be to consider that land in Oslo is a public asset and that housing is a non-profit sector. By changing the status quo, new opportunities for housing arise and the loss of public space in urban areas overtime can be prevented. Ranging from the scale of the neighborhood all the way to the scale of the dwelling unit, the detailed architectural and landscape proposals will address through models and drawings new ways of living together. 

If a site belongs to the public, the choice of when, where, and how to build is completely free. The first task of urban planning today is thus to return to the authorities a power which it previously had, the power over urban land. (Hertweck, 2020)

Over the past decades, the city administrations around the globe have relinquished governance over the housing market to the voracious forces of neoliberal urban development. Policies and politicians fail to address the problem of the increasing need for affordable living spaces and more inclusive urban spaces. In the meantime, the architect’s role is being reduced to that of a consultant or service provider for developers and land owners, but rather than standing up and reclaiming our role in serving the general interest we sit silently and compromise. Today there is a window of opportunity, it is time we all use our knowledge and skills to support radical political and activist agendas.

Living space is a scarce resource in the twenty-first century - this has become increasingly clear over the past decade. More and more people are living in cities, yet urban living space is limited and property speculation has made it unaffordable for many. (Kries, Müller, Niggli, Ruby, 2017)

In 2019 in Oslo, the movement Boligopprøret (Housing rebellion) has shed the light on the precarious and unstable living conditions of the municipal housing system and the lack of social housing policies in Norway. The system acts as a poverty trap for minoritized and vulnerable population groups while widening the inequality gap between owners and renters. Activist groups such as Reduser Husleia (Reduce the rent) ask for radical changes in the way we consider housing, demanding to take profit out of the housing sector. Other initiatives such as the social enterprise Nedenfra or Tøyenboligbyggelag offer alternatives, advocating for citizen-led urban planning and exploring the implementation of a not-for-profit housing sector in Oslo. Inspired by many international examples such as the co-operative housing model in Zürich, Berlin or Catalonia Spain (Triviño Massó, 2021) Tøyenboligbyggelag demonstrates that an equitable solution to the housing question is simple and that it has the potential to promote meaningful political and urban changes in Norway.  

Co-operative housing production is aiming at the creation of social capital, which assembles tangible as well as intangible resources for shared interests while simultaneously including demands of minority groups. … Moreover, engaging with co-operative practices by means of housing production can also serve as a role model and active tool for promoting political and urban change from within the system. (Hehl, 2020)

Primarily defining housing as a profitable commodity is a fundamental trigger of the global housing crisis. (...) Instead of promoting speculative operations for a minority, the micro-political agency of co-operative practice can transform housing into a matter of mutual necessities and a resource for the common good. (Hehl, 2020)

How can we—through designing new housing typologies and public spaces—shape better neighborhoods in order to provide everyone with more equitable housing solutions and more inclusive public spaces? 

This studio semester will be linked to the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2022: Mission Neighborhood—(Re)forming communities, happening in Oslo in September 2022.

Footnotes:

Hertweck, Florian, and Université du Luxembourg, eds. 2020. Architecture on common ground the question of land: positions and models. Zürich, Switzerland: Lars Müller Publishers. p.78

Mateo Kries, Mathias Müller, Daniel Niggli, Andreas Ruby, Ilka Ruby, eds. 2017. Together! The New Architecture of the Collective. Weil am Rhein : Berlin: Vitra Design Museum ; Ruby Press. p.35

Clara Triviño Massó, 2021 in Safe Space zine 4. “The right to housing: a right not guaranteed”. Oslo: Safe Space Publishing. pp.16-24

Rainer Hehl, Patricia Ventura, and Sascha Delz, eds. 2020. Housing the Co-Op: A Micro-Political Manifesto. Berlin: Ruby Press. pp.5-7

The field of preservation and transformation has long been consigned to the fringes of contemporary architecture. However, a paradigm shift is occurring across the discipline. This is emphasized by the awarding of this year’s Pritzker Prize to Lacaton Vassal, with their motto: “Never demolish, never remove or replace, always add, transform and reuse.”

This seminar will provide a framework to practice as an architect, with a focus on working with existing buildings. Students will be introduced to practitioners that work with our existing building stock, both in Norway and internationally, from the restoration of listed buildings, to the transformation of existing buildings, to the reuse of building elements.

The building industry and the laws that govern it have traditionally been geared towards the construction of new buildings, but in this seminar,  students will also learn about the regulatory and legal frameworks that govern the reuse of existing building. Gaining a knowledge of these frameworks is integral to general practice and key to the realization of an architectural project.

The seminar will be organized in modules covering the topics listed in the learning outcomes guided by lectures and discussions with professionals from the field. Students will produce a report speculating on the potential future transformation of a case study. Coursework will include resolving fictional scenarios drawn from real situations in practice.

The seminar is not only relevant for students wanting to work in with existing buildings but also those wanting to gain knowledge of general practice. During the duration of the semester students will engage with contemporary architects, conservation architects, planning authorities, heritage authorities, and others working within the building industry from the fields of business and law. Lectures and excursions will support and supplement students' individual case study analysis.

Students are expected to attend all course days and be active participants in the seminar activities. 

The elective will be closely linked to the practice work of Kastler Skjeseth Architects. http://www.kastlerskjeseth.no/.

An important aim for the Multistory Buildings studio is to explore, study and play with the architectural potential of loadbearing structures of in terms of materiality, design and how the structure can play an active role in framing good spaces for different use.

The most important issue about making architecture sustainable is to design and build inviting spaces with durable materials and structures capable to adapt to new users and, if possible, chancing programs over time.

For the semester task the students will be able to choose between 3 different plots and and develop a main program for their project.

Current topics to consider:

• New building facility in existing context
• Living and working in the city, interface with the surroundings.
• Access conditions and availability
• Community, privacy
• Flexibility, generality
• Minimization, maximization, body dimensions
• Accessibility, universal planning
• Noise, silence, sun and daylight conditions.
• Vision and transparency
• Structures, technical guides and material use
• Fire safety and escape conditions
• Energy, resource use, resilience.

The architectural profession has siloed itself. With increasing focus placed on image and form, the agency of the professional architect can be seen to have steadily diminished over the last 50 years. As the environments in which architects work grow in complexity, official reports chart the demise of the profession.(note) Routes to building no longer necessarily start with the architect; what remains of the architect’s services, reduced to accommodate other statutory, construction and management specialists, now occupies a smaller space in the decision-making process. However, there is a growing practice of architecture that is breaking free from this mould, embracing the complexities of politics and people and finally admitting that architecture without these influences is just glorified furniture design. This new mode of practice is emerging with a very different set of role models, creating new types of outputs that relate to a very different set of role models, creating new types of outputs that relate to a very different set of values. While the profession begins to wither, the discipline of architecture is re-emerging. (Bryant, Rogers, Wigfall, 2018)

This Elective course is intended to be a discussion platform around the role of the architect in the 21st century. Often reduced to the simple role of a consultant or service provider, the architect’s socio professional status is being challenged by the forces of contemporary neoliberal urbanism. Nonetheless, this context has also engendered an increased diversification of the definition and scope of the architect’s role. New organizational and operational models as well as more engaged political strategies can be seen in young emerging practices around the world. 

In this elective course, we want to develop a body of research centered around those new roles. From the architect-entrepreneur to the architect as a political agent, a lot can be learnt from those practices. New forms of resistance—whether they be non-profit organizations, cooperatives, traditional company structures or start-ups—all, in their own way, open new paths for the future generation of architects. We start this discussion with Jeremy Till’s own insights on the book he was writing,

First, architecture is a dependent discipline. Second, architecture, as profession and practice, does everything to resist that very dependency. The book explores that resistance. [...] but what if that book is about the clash of those two truisms and the gap that opens up between them? The gap between what architecture—as practice, profession, and object—actually is (in all its dependency and contingency) and what architects want it to be (in all its false perfection). What then? (Till, 2009)

Chris Bryant, Caspar Rogers and Tristan Wigfall, "The Changing Forms and Values of Architectural Practice", New Modes: Redefining Practice, Architectural Design, vol.88, September/October 2018, p.7.

Jeremy Till, Architecture Depends. Cambridge Mass: MIT Press, 2009, pp. 1-2.