2017 Vår

In the context of humanitarian emergency operations and as a contribution to the global response to mass displacement, the In Transit III Studio aims to develop design solutions, urban planning strategies, and tactical urbanism interventions to increase the livability for people in transit and their host communities. The projects will be developed and based on the following situations/locations: Emergency operations and first reception centers for refugees in Italy; and Resettlement programs in Portugal.

BACKGROUND
A collaboration between the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC)/NORCAP and the Oslo School of Architecture (AHO) was established in 2015 as a part of a NORCAP initiated project called ‘BUILD’.
The ‘BUILD’ initiative demonstrates that the two partner organizations have a mutual interest in developing new thinking and fresh approaches to architectural solutions in humanitarian response and resettlement projects. The NRC/NORCAP recognizes the need for bringing in expertise from academia and the world of architecture in humanitarian response, while the AHO on the other hand is acknowledging the importance of including current global affairs into the school’s curriculum and the potential of external partnerships.

Works from the In Transit I Studio (Spring 2016) and the In Transit II Studio (Fall 2016) have already been shared with the United Nations and governmental partners. The In Transit III Studio will also directly contribute to the NORCAP ‘BUILD’ initiative. The students at the In Transit III Studio will have the opportunity to influence the future of humanitarian response. Please note that the three In Transit Studios are only connected thematically, and each semester focuses on different cases and challenges.

COURSE CONTENT AND STRUCTURE
The studio is specifically designed to function as a testbed for merging academia with field experiences, with the aim of developing new thinking and fresh approaches to physical and social structures in humanitarian response and resettlement solutions. In this regard, the studio will focus on the following themes and incorporate these in all project proposal concerning DIGNIFIED RECEPTION FACILITIES / RESETTLEMENT PROGRAMS
FOR REFUGEES / IDPs:

LOCATION / SITE SELECTION FOR HOSTING NEW ARRIVALS (REFUGEES / IDPs): The potential for integrating humanitarian response with urban planning mechanisms is, in general an unexplored subject. The focus is usually on the challenges that come with rapid urbanization and mass influx of people to cities, rather than exploring the opportunities for the host communities of accepting new arrivals. There is a need to develop projects that present a new form of urban planning focusing on refugee integration as an opportunity for revitalizing poor urban neighborhoods. Location and access to services are important factors in providing access to services and livelihood opportunities.

PROTECTION, SAFTEY, AND REDUCING THE RISK OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE: The physical layout of a temporary displacement site or other situations hosting new arrivals, will directly affect the safety of the ones living there, as well as for the surrounding neighborhoods. The decisions made by the architect/planner will impact the daily lives of vulnerable persons and the population in general. Access to sanitary facilities, placement of functions, street lighting, proper Child-friendly and female-friendly spaces, are a few examples of elements that need to be considered.

THE NEED FOR SOCIAL INFRASTRUCTURES: Using architecture and design as a mean to ensure the psychosocial well-being of disaster-affected populations. Places that serve everyone in a temporary situation: recreational space; meeting places; a kitchen; play areas; urban furniture, or other social gathering points - are especially important for those with no option to maintain their social habits in unfamiliar and often hostile environments.

The themes listed above will be discussed in two different contexts:

ITALY: Emergency Response and first reception centers

“The number of refugees and migrants reaching European shores this year passed the 300,000 mark today, UNHCR figures show. This is considerably lower than the 520,000 registered sea arrivals during the first nine months of 2015, but higher than the 216,054 arrivals during the whole of 2014.
A closer look at the two main countries of arrival, Greece and Italy, reveals important differences. Arrivals in Italy this year follow the same pattern as last year, with 130,411 refugees and migrants entering in 2016, compared with 132,071 during the first nine months of last year. However, more people arriving in Italy are staying there.” – William Spindler, Spokesperson for The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)

How do we transition from temporary arrangements to permanent solutions?

PORTUGAL: Resettlement Programs
In response to the refugee crisis and despite the internal economic crisis, Portugal has stepped up its commitment to relocate around 4.500 refugees until 2017, in addition to 5.000 through bilateral agreements with other EU countries. Before this decision was made, Portugal usually receives around 30 refugees under their annual resettlement quota and a thousand spontaneous asylum applications.
Source: International Organization for Migration (IOM) Portugal.

How will the new arrivals be integrated in the society, and what are the urban and physical implications of these programs?

STUDY TRIP
During the excursion week, the studio will travel to Portugal

The aim of the course is to give students the opportunity to explore and reflect on applied aesthetics in physical form, from both a practical and theoretical side. The course has a close cooperation with the workshops where students will explore physical form as well as materials, surfaces, formats etc. They will also reflect on and discuss the various topics and their own physical explorations.

The topics are for example: How material gives a response during exploration? Haptic perception. Surface, pattern, texture and blind testing of design objects. Context – the relevance of what context the objects are created for.

Architecture links and connects polities and their material spaces of inhabitation. The processes that shape and transform contemporary life are marked and inscribed directly into the forms and processes of material transformation of cities and landscapes, which act as very complex sensors. A new intensification is taking form in the Anthropocene, with vast areas of the Arctic and Subarctic being transformed into extractive regions for mineral resources and densely inhabited regions in southern Scandinavia governing them. The aim of this research design studio is twofold: to measure and characterise the material basis of these processes, and to design ways to augment the ability to respond to their intensifications.

The project revolves around the inquiry into the material characterisations of a millenary shift characterising contemporary life on our planet. A new intensification is reshaping the relations between the forms of cohabitation and the material structures and processes of the Earth.

The studio researches and develops methods of inquiry into the extent, scale and intensity of the energy and material flows that sustain contemporary human life. We consider these flows and their solidifications, encrustations, and severance as a process of construction over time and across space: as an architecture and as a landscape, shaping the forms of the interactions between polities and their material base. The technosphere is analysed in its dynamic formations: a large and rapidly growing collection of complex objects resting atop and within a vast and growing layer of waste, only minimally recycled back to sustain human life.

We focus on the technosphere of Scandinavia and its extractive industry and the metropolitan region of Oslo, and inquire into its physical transformations, linking the institutional structures of cohabitation, to the different dynamic processes of accumulation, sedimentation, transformation, assemblage, recycle, abandonment, innovation, decay and waste of the materials that form it. We articulate new forms of representation of these intensifications by asking a rather simple question: how heavy is a city? How heavy a landscape?

The complex answer to this simple question will help to understand new forms of territoriality emerging in the intensified grounds of the Anthropocene, with different rhythms and times of change, as well as different interests involved. The detailed readings and survey of the marks and traces that characterise the technosphere will reveal contested, asynchronous and divergent dynamics. These require architectural knowledge to guide an integrated transformation process.

A multiplicity of interests and territories: the shifts, delays, extinctions, decays and accelerations in the transformation processes of the contemporary technosphere are the structures that form the starting points for a series of strategic designs for new institutions to negotiate complex territorial, architectural and landscape transformations.

At its best, the hotel room represents the essence of the human dwelling: It must satisfy basic requirements regarding practical needs and comfort. In addition it should provide to the user a feeling of temporary ownership and well being for the duration of the stay. Which architectural tools are at our disposal to make the hotel and its facilities a good temporary home?

The site and area chosen for the studio is a rural situation on Iceland. Bardardalur is located in the central northern part of Iceland and runs from the fjord Skálfandi, east of Akureyri, right into the central highland lava plateau Sprengisandur. The studio project area is around Svartá, a tributary to Skjálfandafljot in Bardardalur. This is an area with close proximity to some of the main routes trafficed by tourists. The program will primarily cater to these groups, but also to the many others who have an interest in the natural and cultural attractions to be found in the area.

The main goal of the studio is to develop architectural strategies and solutions for temporary accomodation for travellers and tourists. An important part of this will be to facilitate good opportunities for experiencing local nature and culture. Iceland has an abundance of spectacular nature, but so far very little has been done to prepare these attractions through planning and design of the interventions that modern mass tourism require. In a rural community environment relying mainly on sheep farming for its livelyhood it is demanding to find the right balance between new interventions and the existing situation, while at the same time satisfying basic needs for comfort and organization. The predominant feature of the natural landscape is the stark contrast between the almost desertlike volcanic terrain and the exuberant fertility surrounding the waterways. In addition to the regular tourist, the area can be expected to attract ornithologists, geologists, glaciologists, biologists, recreational fishers, historians, hikers, offroad bikers, horseback riders, etc.

Iceland has a rich building tradition and a closer study of this will be part of the preliminary phase. At the time of settlement the climate was considerably warmer and Iceland has had significant access to timber. With cooling, these forests have disappeared and the timber in the remaining vernacular architecture is mostly driftwood, mainly larch from Siberia. Today, global warming again opens for planting forest and Iceland is in need of a strategy to direct the development of this potential. The studio aims to reintroduce Norwegian timber technology by showing examples of a modern timber architecture with a potential for further development as the resource basis slowly changes.