Dear students,
we are looking forward to seeing your reorientations projects posted here on the blog tomorrow morning.
The final review will take place Monday 19 December at 09.00 in store auditorium.
Tuesday 20 December all the master studios will present their work in a common session in store auditorium.
See you soon!
G+M
Showing posts with label ::Magdalena. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ::Magdalena. Show all posts
Saturday, December 17, 2011
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
Ánde's parcours
Dear students,
allow yourselves a break in the charretting and read this portrait of your DAV teacher Ánde Somby (published in Klassekampen Saturday).
G+M
Tuesday, December 6, 2011
consultations
Tone and I will meet you tomorrow for consultations. We'll start at 9.00, please make a list with 30min each - see you all!
/M
/M
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Friday, November 11, 2011
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
reading & readability
Dear students!
You have now received the texts for theme #4 - Flexibility:
Ecology and Flexibility in Urban Civilization from Steps to an ecology of mind by Gregory Bateson
Theory, practice and landscape by Stan Allen in dialog with Florian Sauters, from Natural metaphor: architectural papers III
Wishing you good reading!
Not being able to be there at this week's presentation I had the intention to give you all comments on the blog. Yesterday I spent quite some time looking through your New Hierarchies assignments.. ..but for several of them I simply had to give up trying deciphering (due to different reasons; unreadable text, unmanagable formats, lacking explanations etc - I think each and one of you knows what is applicable in your case..)
I really do believe you are capable of producing intriguing and readable work - obviously that is part of the assignments. Also consider that your audience on the blog is about hundred times larger than the one in the auditorium..
All the best - and looking forwards to seeing your Joik Thoughts next week!
/M
You have now received the texts for theme #4 - Flexibility:
Ecology and Flexibility in Urban Civilization from Steps to an ecology of mind by Gregory Bateson
Theory, practice and landscape by Stan Allen in dialog with Florian Sauters, from Natural metaphor: architectural papers III
Wishing you good reading!
Not being able to be there at this week's presentation I had the intention to give you all comments on the blog. Yesterday I spent quite some time looking through your New Hierarchies assignments.. ..but for several of them I simply had to give up trying deciphering (due to different reasons; unreadable text, unmanagable formats, lacking explanations etc - I think each and one of you knows what is applicable in your case..)
I really do believe you are capable of producing intriguing and readable work - obviously that is part of the assignments. Also consider that your audience on the blog is about hundred times larger than the one in the auditorium..
All the best - and looking forwards to seeing your Joik Thoughts next week!
/M
#4 - Flexibility
Flexibility
A ‘high’ civilization shall contain whatever is necessary (…) to maintain the necessary wisdom in the human population and to give physical, aesthetic, and creative satisfaction to people. There shall be a matching between the flexibility of people and that of the civilization. There shall be diversity in the civilization, not only to accommodate the genetic and experimental diversity of persons, but also to provide the flexibility and ‘preadaptation’ necessary for unpredictable change. (Gregory Bateson, Ecology and Flexibility in Urban Civilization in Steps to an ecology of mind. 1972/2000, p.503)
Even though Bateson wrote this paper in 1970 it contains a strong prediction of the coming climate changes and a foreseeing of the challenges that planners and architects have to deal with concerning profound ecological matters. Bateson prescribe the survival of our civilization as closely linked to our understanding of natural processes; We are not outside the ecology for which we plan – we are inevitably a part of it. (IBID p. 512) The new invention gives elbow room or flexibility, but the using up for that flexibility is death. (IBID p. 503)
When global forces and global economical fluctuations influence even the most remote places, it seems more than ever necessary to build a flexibility outside the global consumer economy - to be resilient to economic alterations (of the kind that stifle the European economy – or the American economy) – to be prepared for devastating environmental impacts (of the kind that affects Bangkok these days) or to foresee future effects from expected climate changes (as e.g. rise of the sea level). The closer a society is related to nature the more awareness and understanding there often is towards shifting environmental conditions – such as prediction of alteration, planning for uncertain futures, adaptation to inevitable changes and improvisation for the unforeseen. The modern man’s turn away from nature (the lost contact or acceptance of the inevitable in the nature) has a long legacy, and from the Enlightenment it has developed an absolute belief in man as superior to nature.
In the northern regions flexibility and adaptation has historically been crucial for surviving in a notoriously harsh climate. A combined living from both fisheries and small scale farming (and for some: additional hunting) provided resilience towards fluctuations, and was a unique way of maintaining a renewal of the natural resources. The success of adaptation, sturdiness and change in the region, is dependent upon the will to develop open, cooperative structures, and on the collective esteem from people living there. Any system of nature and culture is in reality based on interaction and dynamic, and it is therefore easy to argue that a planning method that is going to handle such dynamic systems has to be elastic and dynamic too. This in opposition to a linear and hierarchical planning regime, that to a far extent is built up on simplification and limitation.
Bateson talks about survival not in resisting change, but in terms of accommodating change. It means that your thinking has to be every bit as fluent and adaptive as the kind of systems you are talking about. In other words you can not apply rigid or dogmatic principals to systems that are themselves fluent, adaptable, changing and always incorporating feedback. (…) It is a way of thinking that mirrors the dynamism of ecological systems themselves.
(Stan Allen in dialog with Florian Sauters, ‘Theory, practice and landscape in Natural metaphor’, architectural papers III, 2007)
In our concept Mosaïc::Region (competition about a future understanding of the Øresundsregion: www.mosaic-region.com) the mosaic-metaphor is used as a picture of complexity and ‘of everything that happens’, both on a physical and on a metaphysical level. A mosaic inspired planning must contain a strategy for seeing, finding, and adapting everything that goes on. If one piece of the mosaic is painted in a different colour, the picture changes, - not much, but the sum of many small pieces changed, eventually gives a totally new picture. The colours of the pieces are depending on political visions, local initiatives (spatial practices) and the collective will in the region.
The global society will soon lose the most essential elbow room for existence of a modern civilization in the way we have been accustomed to see it, namely oil and gas. The future planning has to take into account the consequences this will entail. On the background of contemporary global crisis and ecological disorders, planning has to become a continuous, interdisiplinary and integrated process in a search for new answers and systems of flexibility.
GL/MH
A ‘high’ civilization shall contain whatever is necessary (…) to maintain the necessary wisdom in the human population and to give physical, aesthetic, and creative satisfaction to people. There shall be a matching between the flexibility of people and that of the civilization. There shall be diversity in the civilization, not only to accommodate the genetic and experimental diversity of persons, but also to provide the flexibility and ‘preadaptation’ necessary for unpredictable change. (Gregory Bateson, Ecology and Flexibility in Urban Civilization in Steps to an ecology of mind. 1972/2000, p.503)
Even though Bateson wrote this paper in 1970 it contains a strong prediction of the coming climate changes and a foreseeing of the challenges that planners and architects have to deal with concerning profound ecological matters. Bateson prescribe the survival of our civilization as closely linked to our understanding of natural processes; We are not outside the ecology for which we plan – we are inevitably a part of it. (IBID p. 512) The new invention gives elbow room or flexibility, but the using up for that flexibility is death. (IBID p. 503)
When global forces and global economical fluctuations influence even the most remote places, it seems more than ever necessary to build a flexibility outside the global consumer economy - to be resilient to economic alterations (of the kind that stifle the European economy – or the American economy) – to be prepared for devastating environmental impacts (of the kind that affects Bangkok these days) or to foresee future effects from expected climate changes (as e.g. rise of the sea level). The closer a society is related to nature the more awareness and understanding there often is towards shifting environmental conditions – such as prediction of alteration, planning for uncertain futures, adaptation to inevitable changes and improvisation for the unforeseen. The modern man’s turn away from nature (the lost contact or acceptance of the inevitable in the nature) has a long legacy, and from the Enlightenment it has developed an absolute belief in man as superior to nature.
In the northern regions flexibility and adaptation has historically been crucial for surviving in a notoriously harsh climate. A combined living from both fisheries and small scale farming (and for some: additional hunting) provided resilience towards fluctuations, and was a unique way of maintaining a renewal of the natural resources. The success of adaptation, sturdiness and change in the region, is dependent upon the will to develop open, cooperative structures, and on the collective esteem from people living there. Any system of nature and culture is in reality based on interaction and dynamic, and it is therefore easy to argue that a planning method that is going to handle such dynamic systems has to be elastic and dynamic too. This in opposition to a linear and hierarchical planning regime, that to a far extent is built up on simplification and limitation.
Bateson talks about survival not in resisting change, but in terms of accommodating change. It means that your thinking has to be every bit as fluent and adaptive as the kind of systems you are talking about. In other words you can not apply rigid or dogmatic principals to systems that are themselves fluent, adaptable, changing and always incorporating feedback. (…) It is a way of thinking that mirrors the dynamism of ecological systems themselves.
(Stan Allen in dialog with Florian Sauters, ‘Theory, practice and landscape in Natural metaphor’, architectural papers III, 2007)
In our concept Mosaïc::Region (competition about a future understanding of the Øresundsregion: www.mosaic-region.com) the mosaic-metaphor is used as a picture of complexity and ‘of everything that happens’, both on a physical and on a metaphysical level. A mosaic inspired planning must contain a strategy for seeing, finding, and adapting everything that goes on. If one piece of the mosaic is painted in a different colour, the picture changes, - not much, but the sum of many small pieces changed, eventually gives a totally new picture. The colours of the pieces are depending on political visions, local initiatives (spatial practices) and the collective will in the region.
The global society will soon lose the most essential elbow room for existence of a modern civilization in the way we have been accustomed to see it, namely oil and gas. The future planning has to take into account the consequences this will entail. On the background of contemporary global crisis and ecological disorders, planning has to become a continuous, interdisiplinary and integrated process in a search for new answers and systems of flexibility.
GL/MH
Monday, October 24, 2011
two texts
You have now received two texts referred to during our seminar last week: Inside the cave, outside the discipline by Catharina Gabrielsson and An ant's perspective on architecture by Bruno Latour and Albena Yaneva.
As you all know Yaneva also gave an interesting lecture at the BAS seminar in Oslo in September on mapping controversies in architecture - here is a link to that work:
http://mappingcontroversies.co.uk/
As you all know Yaneva also gave an interesting lecture at the BAS seminar in Oslo in September on mapping controversies in architecture - here is a link to that work:
http://mappingcontroversies.co.uk/
Monday, October 17, 2011
some reading
You have now received by e-mail a text by Catharina Gabrielsson, who you will meet Friday. The text is, inter alia, a reading of Doreen Massey's understanding of space vs Norberg-Schultz' place phenomenology and Frampton's critical regionalism - worth reading to refresh on how the concept of space can encompass multiplicity and dynamics..
Another reading tips, in norwegian, is this article: Flerkultur på viddene in the latest issue of Morgenbladet.
Another reading tips, in norwegian, is this article: Flerkultur på viddene in the latest issue of Morgenbladet.
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Is my red the same as your red?
Here is a scan of the article based on the Is my red the same as your red? lecture, published in What's the question?.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Friday, October 7, 2011
lecture notes / #1 - Landscapes in Change
Transcriptions, keywords, thumbnail-slides & references from two of the intro lectures:
- mapping / observation
- impacts of global pressure on vulnerable landscapes and societies
- mapping / observation
- impacts of global pressure on vulnerable landscapes and societies
Thursday, October 6, 2011
I would prefer not to
You have all received Iñaki Ábalos' article I would prefer not to as inspiration for the work with your assignment Vulnerability.
Looking forward to seeing you all on Tuesday (schedule for the session to be posted soon).
/M
Looking forward to seeing you all on Tuesday (schedule for the session to be posted soon).
/M
Thursday, September 22, 2011
#2 Vulnerability
Vulnerability
The notion of vulnerability is invariable related to the concept of life – either it is human life or life in nature as such. The consciousness of mortality is disturbing and exposes life as fragile. Life does not exist in closed systems, but do always relate to other life forms or systems of varying extent and size - in this relations dependency occur, and not at least a continuous struggle for a position of surviving. It is a slow drama that has been going on since the creation of earth, and encompasses all natural systems of all scales from the smallest biotope to global circuits.
To be relevant the planning process must consider a wide range of subjects and disciplines beyond what is normally regarded as the field for architecture. There is an increasing pressure on natural resources in our time, and with an even stronger growth in the global population the potential crisis and vulnerability due to this fact seems obvious. Global climate-crisis, financial crisis, uneven distribution of food and welfare, poverty and injustice – in combination with an rapidly increasing exploitation of landscapes for industrial use and urban expansion at the expense of ecosystems, natural habitats and biodiversity, draws a seemingly dystopian picture of the future.
The architect has the unique possibility of being a mediator between the different forces and currents at work – many of which we have observed during our recent journey trough the landscapes and cultures of the high north. The north has always been considered with a colonial view on exploitation of both land bound and sea bound resources – and a historical dependence on fluctuations in global economy is now facing a rapid change into an even deeper reliance on multinational companies with the consequence of an increased consumption of the landscape.
In our project mosaïc::region (70°N/D&U, 2008) we used the concept of vulnerability like this: Vulnerability mapping is a piece in our anti-generic mindset where plurality and diversity is crucial, and where the unique strength of the mosaic can be cultivated and magnified. This applies of course to preserve and strengthen a natural diversity, but it applies just as fully to the ‘sociotopes’ that for different reasons are exposed for economical and political pressure and transformation – in both cases we are talking about strengthening trough linking together, and opening up for new opportunities rather than to preserve.
Mapping of vulnerability means to gain a genuine understanding of a wide range of aspects of a context. It can be seen as a hyper mapping of the super normal - a survey that gives a flexible and evolving strategy where the vulnerable first and foremost is protected by intervention and not primarily trough making of new boundaries. Reading, mapping and understanding the layers of vulnerability has the potential of making changes. Knowledge calls for awareness about the consequences of human activity. Planning must be precautionary and attentive to even the smallest elements, and being susceptible and observant for currents of vulnerability that may have the power to change the plan.
In future planning we need to find and analyze both the obvious and the invisible – to make an operative and expedient plan that opens for hidden knowledge. Trough experimentation it is possible to make a flexible plan that works with the complexity there is, and that can use the contextual vulnerability as a potential for a new dynamism. It is all about making the future more sustainable and open for the unknown.
A credible map of sustainability has yet to be drawn, but there can be no doubt that other aspects already trailed and trialled have run out of whatever credibility they had. (Iñaki Abalos)
The notion of vulnerability is invariable related to the concept of life – either it is human life or life in nature as such. The consciousness of mortality is disturbing and exposes life as fragile. Life does not exist in closed systems, but do always relate to other life forms or systems of varying extent and size - in this relations dependency occur, and not at least a continuous struggle for a position of surviving. It is a slow drama that has been going on since the creation of earth, and encompasses all natural systems of all scales from the smallest biotope to global circuits.
To be relevant the planning process must consider a wide range of subjects and disciplines beyond what is normally regarded as the field for architecture. There is an increasing pressure on natural resources in our time, and with an even stronger growth in the global population the potential crisis and vulnerability due to this fact seems obvious. Global climate-crisis, financial crisis, uneven distribution of food and welfare, poverty and injustice – in combination with an rapidly increasing exploitation of landscapes for industrial use and urban expansion at the expense of ecosystems, natural habitats and biodiversity, draws a seemingly dystopian picture of the future.
The architect has the unique possibility of being a mediator between the different forces and currents at work – many of which we have observed during our recent journey trough the landscapes and cultures of the high north. The north has always been considered with a colonial view on exploitation of both land bound and sea bound resources – and a historical dependence on fluctuations in global economy is now facing a rapid change into an even deeper reliance on multinational companies with the consequence of an increased consumption of the landscape.
In our project mosaïc::region (70°N/D&U, 2008) we used the concept of vulnerability like this: Vulnerability mapping is a piece in our anti-generic mindset where plurality and diversity is crucial, and where the unique strength of the mosaic can be cultivated and magnified. This applies of course to preserve and strengthen a natural diversity, but it applies just as fully to the ‘sociotopes’ that for different reasons are exposed for economical and political pressure and transformation – in both cases we are talking about strengthening trough linking together, and opening up for new opportunities rather than to preserve.
Mapping of vulnerability means to gain a genuine understanding of a wide range of aspects of a context. It can be seen as a hyper mapping of the super normal - a survey that gives a flexible and evolving strategy where the vulnerable first and foremost is protected by intervention and not primarily trough making of new boundaries. Reading, mapping and understanding the layers of vulnerability has the potential of making changes. Knowledge calls for awareness about the consequences of human activity. Planning must be precautionary and attentive to even the smallest elements, and being susceptible and observant for currents of vulnerability that may have the power to change the plan.
In future planning we need to find and analyze both the obvious and the invisible – to make an operative and expedient plan that opens for hidden knowledge. Trough experimentation it is possible to make a flexible plan that works with the complexity there is, and that can use the contextual vulnerability as a potential for a new dynamism. It is all about making the future more sustainable and open for the unknown.
A credible map of sustainability has yet to be drawn, but there can be no doubt that other aspects already trailed and trialled have run out of whatever credibility they had. (Iñaki Abalos)
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Read this!
General comment to all assignments #1 Landscapes in change - observations:
-the assignment intends to observe, explore and encounter spatial practices more than ‘wikipedian’ facts – let it show that you have been there, seen and observed, smelled the air, walked the streets and landscapes, met engaged and engaging people – allow yourselves to be touched and intrigued - let your Murmansk observation be an assemblage of spatial practices, narratives and observations of dynamics and substructures.... or what ever stories you encountered...!
All the best
G+M
-the assignment intends to observe, explore and encounter spatial practices more than ‘wikipedian’ facts – let it show that you have been there, seen and observed, smelled the air, walked the streets and landscapes, met engaged and engaging people – allow yourselves to be touched and intrigued - let your Murmansk observation be an assemblage of spatial practices, narratives and observations of dynamics and substructures.... or what ever stories you encountered...!
All the best
G+M
Encountering northern landscapes
HammerfestMelkøya
Sennalandet
Alta rock carvings
vulnerable Vidda
Samediggi biotope
Kiberg
Barvika bird watching
Hamningberg - Pomor houses
Beach ridges - leavings from the land elevation
Vardø
Boat house (literally..)
Kirkenes
Bjørnevatn
Nikel
Murmansk
Encountering spatial practices in northern landscapes
A huge thank you to all the experts, informants, guides and helpers we encountered during our journey through Finmark and Kola:
Ingrid Neeraas Dahl & Øyvind Sundquist, planning department Hammerfest: presenting Hammerfest municipality’s view on planning
Snorre Sundquist, director Husbanken Hammerfest: explaining the role of husbanken in a historical and present perspective
Lene Edvardsen, academic director Husbanken Hammerfest: discussing what connects circumpolar communities: climate, renewal, indigenous issues
Reidar Nilsen, journalist: giving historical background of Hammerfest's shifting monocultures; whaling, fishing and now oil & gas
Jørgen Kristoffersen, municipal business manager Alta: presenting prospects and prosperities of Alta
Halvard Braseth, sociologist: reminding us of Zygmunt Baumann's words on Insecure security / Uncertain certainty / Unsafe safety
Sunniva Skålnes, architect / dr, senior advisor Samediggi Kautokeino: untangling the misconception of northern landscapes as untouched, enabling us to read its inscribed signs of history, narratives: cultures
Unni Steinfjell, duodji teacher Kautokeino: elucidating how practices and survival are connected to the ability to read details in the landscape
Inger Marie Nilut, joiker and teacher: telling about the position of joik in sami culture
Sara Marja Magga, information manager Samediggi: presenting the sami parliament
Tore Jan Gjerpe, engineer and social scientist Asplan Viak Karasjok: giving a radical view on Karasjok in past and present
Robert Jensen & Reidulf Ervik, politician & planning manager Vardø municipality: visioning the prospects of Vardø through projects and processes
Svein Harald Holmen, project manager: highlighting the importance of committed engagement and synergetic processes for renovation of historical buildings and sites
www.sveinharaldholmen.com
Tormod Amundsen, architect: exemplifying how a special interest and expertise develop unexpected potentials; finding, facilitating and promoting ornithological sites
www.biotope.no
Thomas Nilsen: illustrating the big view and prospects in the Barents region: a new border relation of unknown potential
www.barentsobserver.com
Fisherman: Kiberg running high on king crab economy
Jonny Andersen: the northern multiplicity man: fireman, fish-farmer, crab fisher, tourist guide, our excellent bus driver, and a lot more
Vanja Madsen & Guro Vrålstad, project managers Pikene på broen Kirkenes: mind the map; cultural complexity and initiative as a subversive act in a masculine environment
www.pikene.no
Stiger, Bjørnevatn mines: migrant workers and the structure of resource extraction in remote landscapes
Igor Shaitanov: our 24/7 indefatigable guide and gate opener to the undercurrents of Murmansk culture and night life
Dimitriy Borovkov, owner of Power Hit Radio and planner in the governor’s office: an overwhelming source of information and critical reflections about life in Murmansk in combination with a multiple involvement in cultural and political undercurrents
Guide & Elisabeth: introducing the underlying reasons for the appearance of Murmansk as a harbour to the north; the ice-breaker Lenin
Garage man: the Russian man in his kingdom; the garage
Evgeny Goman, theatre producer and director, teacher and idealist: working day and night for the idea of realising the first youth house in Murmansk – in spite of bureaucratic resistance
Planners at the planning department in Murmansk municipality showing plans and ideas for the city’s future development
Friday, September 2, 2011
The struggle for Greenland’s oil
Our colleague Berit sent us this link to an article worth reading:
Islanders hope to be more than spectators amid a clash of interests over the region’s future, write Sylvia Pfeifer and Christopher Thompson
Read the full article at: Financial Times
Islanders hope to be more than spectators amid a clash of interests over the region’s future, write Sylvia Pfeifer and Christopher Thompson
Read the full article at: Financial Times
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Landscapes in Change - start seminar
We are very happy with the start seminar and think the lectures by Joar Nango, Magnus Jørgensen and Paul Wassmann, and the discussions, created an opening for you all to enter the studio and this week's assignment: Landscapes in Change: expectations - your ideas about what we are going to meet when traveling the northern landscapes next week.
Friday, August 26, 2011
Welcome
Dear students:
We are very happy that you have chosen this studio about the coming and vanishing arctic... and the prosperity and challenges in this - seemingly immense and dispersed region. Arguably the Arctic has the same significance for the future well being of the globe, as other more emphasized global regions such as the Amazon. The limelight is on in the high north, and we want architects and landscape architects to be aware and prepared for a future, expected exploitation that might transform the Arctic in a way that will challenge our existence beyond the limitations of the territory..
Gisle + Magdalena
We are very happy that you have chosen this studio about the coming and vanishing arctic... and the prosperity and challenges in this - seemingly immense and dispersed region. Arguably the Arctic has the same significance for the future well being of the globe, as other more emphasized global regions such as the Amazon. The limelight is on in the high north, and we want architects and landscape architects to be aware and prepared for a future, expected exploitation that might transform the Arctic in a way that will challenge our existence beyond the limitations of the territory..
Gisle + Magdalena
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