2023 Høst

The second half of the 19th century was marked by radical social reform, creating new architectural needs and prompting new building types. In Norway, the penal reform of 1850 led to the building of near 60 prisons all around the country, while the mental illness act of 1848 spurred entirely new types of hospitals. This course studies the relationship between social reform, legislation, and architecture, taking Norwegian architectural history as its point of departure. The course research will form part of the new 5 volume series Norwegian Architectural History (Pax, 2024–2028), while the course itself will end in an exhibition. 

– 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.

This is a course exploring practices of walking as a way of knowing and engaging with the city. Most of us experience our neighbourhoods and cities through walking. Walking is thus a crucial part of living in a city, but is an experience that is given little attention in urban planning and architectural practice. This course digs deeper into that. The overall aim is to explore what kind of insights practices of walking can produce and how these might add to more established forms of knowledge within architecture and design, urbanism and landscape. This is amongst others important as cities are increasingly planning for walkability and the joys of walking. The course will also take up issues of walkability as a feature in discussions about sustainable cities. 

The theoretical component of the course will consist of readings on the history of urban walking, as well as introduction to tools and methods for recording and documenting explorative practices of urban walking. The more practical component of the course will consist of a set of explorative urban walking sessions combined with testing out ways of recording and documentation. 

OCCAS Moving Monuments: Rome offers a study of historical monuments, pursuing a double aim: It both invites an in-depth, critical analysis of specific sites in Rome and an understanding of the history and media through which these sites are transformed. 

Initially, the students are asked to pick a monument in Rome from a preselected list. Throughout the term, they will work with and investigate their chosen monument in ways that challenge and expand the notion of “monument” and include manifestations in books, images, films, texts etc. To aid the investigation, weekly seminars led by OCCAS teachers will present a spectrum of approaches to architectural research. 

“Moving” may refer to the concrete transportation of architecture, but also to the recreation and circulation of monuments in various media and materials, museums and models, print- and preservation strategies. Experts in respective fields join forces to share their insights about past monuments but also about the methods that enable us to think, write and talk about them.