IN SEARCH OF A NEW RURAL - Architectural experiments in the Northern Norwegian coastal periphery AAR4605 URBAN DESIGN II (BYFORMING II), 15 SP / ECTS AAR4905 URBAN DESIGN THEORY, 7.5 SP / ECTS PROF. KERSTIN HÖGER, LECTURER MAGNUS JØRGENSEN NTNU 08.11.2010 “Utopian thinking has a long tradition and a strong presence in Northern Norway. It has been important for surviving in a harsh landscape, and keeping dreams alive in a demographically dispersed region. [...] On the one hand Northern Norway has always been a prosperous land, where big dreams can come true. On the other hand the region is a complex field of unrealized dreams and visions.”

- Gisle Løkken (Northern Experiments, 164) AAR4605 STUDIO

In 2008 the master studio The Barents Project was conducted at the Department of Urban Design and Planning, NTNU. The project was focusing on future potentials of smaller settlements along the coast of Northern Norway. The result became the project “Breathing Cities” which later took part in both the publication Northern Experiments - The Barents Urban Survey and the Pan Barentz Exhibition as part of the Barents Triennale. It has later been subject to great attention and presented in various fora, inside and outside the region. The project addressed three negative trends and one potential that somehow summed up the situation for greater parts of the peripheral coastal settlements. (1) Centralization and urbanization. The growth of our cities and city regions with all they can offer of job

opportunities, urban lifestyles, entertainment and culture are draining the rural areas of people. (2) The post-industrial trauma. The economy of the coastal settlements was traditionally based on primary industries and to a large degree mono-functional. Changes in the economy and modes of production has led to a move of industrial facilities and factories to more centralized areas, or abroad. Many local societies struggle with adapting to a post-industrial reality and many of the settlements are still depending on fisheries, raw materials and industry. This leaves few relevant jobs for young people with education even if they want to move back. (3) Internal competition. There is a cultural warfare going on between neighbouring settlements in order to attract potential inhabitants and tax payers. The weapons are incredible expensive cultural institutions financed by public money leaving respiratory societies mercifully kept alive under central Governmental administration. In reality: bankruptcy. (4) The potential lies in the void between two golden ages: the prosperous days of the fishing industry and the petroleum bonanza. The former is almost a bygone age as the fishing industry has been heavily mechanized and moved out of the local communities. The latter is nothing but vague promises. In reality, a possible golden future fuelled by the oil and gas industry will due to challenging geography and lacking infrastructure only benefit a few settlements, if any at all. We cannot expect any growth. To land the fluid gold is in fact no matter of course as experienced with ENI's strategy for the Goliat field. Ships can just as well tank up directly at the offshore source. This void in history should be used to actively discuss a transformation of the rural periphery. To search for an alternative - a new rural. The studio will aim to dis-/uncover future potentials for rural settlements that are anti-urban, meaning we will search for new ways of rural living that are diametrical different from the ones of the city. There is no city. No cafe latte. We will work in peripheral environments that are pristine, beautiful, but inherently boring. The aim of this project is not to change any of that. We will seek to re-invent the rural condition based on the essential qualities on which it was once founded: the landscapes of nature, habitat and production. It will not be sentimental. In Search of a New Rural is a design studio that will try to explore the potentials of future rural living through research based design. The studio will focus solely on the coastal-rural condition of Northern Norway, but we hope the explorations might be relevant for the greater discussion on how we deal with rurality, nature and landscape. We will define a specific site on a territorial scale. Topics to be discussed includes industrial changes (mining, shipping, oil, gas versus fishing, farming and ecological diversity), social and demographic changes (decreasing and ageing local population versus increasing migrant workers; local versus urban lifestyles), infrastructural changes (maintenance and neglect versus new construction of transportation, health and educational systems and services), nature and landscape changes (destruction, re-naturalization, cultivation) and climate (dark and cold winters, global warming, Arctic ice meltdown, harsh weather conditions).

PROVISIONAL SEMESTER STRUCTURE The studio will start in week 5, so it is recommended (but not a precondition) that the participants will choose an intensive Experts in Team-village week 2-4. The studio will consist of five intensive phases and a parallel theory seminar. The students choosing this course should be prepared to work a lot, but in return you will get a substantial amount of input and meet a motivated teaching staff. Week 5 Design exercise 1 We will start right away with the first design exercise so it is important that everybody is present at the studio start-up. Week 5 - 6 Phase 1: Utopian Case Studies In order to free the mind from existing realities we will start the studio with critical case studies of utopian projects from the two avant garde movements of the 20th century. These studies will include works by Frank Lloyd Wright (Broadacre City), Constant Nieuwenhuys / The Situationsts (New Babylon), Japanese Metabolists (Tokyo Bay, Unabara, Swimming City), Archigram (Instant-/ Walking- /Anti- cities, Underwater City), Archizoom (No-Stop-City), Andrea Branzi (Agronica), et al. From the studies we will derive visions and ideas as well as mapping and illustration techniques for our coastal-rural site. The case studies should be presented in the studio at the end of the phase and will be gathered in a compendium as a reference work for the rest of the term. Week 7-10 Phase 2: Research and field trip Based on a chosen territorial area at the Northern Norwegian coast - which still has to be defined (possible sites include Lofoten, Vesterålen or Senja) - we will conduct profound mappings, experiential field trips and site investigations. In addition to the site visits we will also make shorter study trips to relevant destinations in the extended Trondheim and Møre regions. In this phase we will get closer to the site and its related topics. Referring to Reyner Banham’s logic of Los Angeles - The Architecture of Four Ecologies (1971), we will seek to define a number of suitable ecologies based on the landscape attributes of the study area. We will explore the natural landscape and resources of our territory such as water bodies (ocean, fjords, sounds, lakes, ponds), land formations (cliffs, beaches, meadows, plains, hills, mountains, islands, archipelagos, peninsulas) and resources (animals, plants, wood, minerals, fossils, wind, waves, sun). Based on this research we should be able to deconstruct the existing (obsolete?) ecologies and investigate new grids and resolutions for more sustainable ecologies. Week 11 Design exercise 2 We will kick off the first design phase with a second design exercise. Week 11-15 Phase 3: Design phase 1 In this phase we will develop the ideas and concepts from the preceding phases and design exercises into concrete proposals. All designs should relate to the previously defined ecologies and should derive from the landscape qualities of their respective ecology. All designs should be sustainable, some even self sustainable. There should be developed specific strategies and typologies for the different ecologies considering criteria like low tech - high tech, nomadic - static, soft structures - mega structures, founded - floated, etc. The

typologies should be adaptable to change in use or programs. The phase will be concluded with a midterm presentation before the Easter holiday Week 17-20 Phase 4: Design phase 2 In the second design phase we will refine the projects, build models and prepare the studio report and presentations. The final presentation will be in week 20. Week 21-23 Phase 5: Presentation and corrections The last phase will be devoted to finish remaining work on the studio report, illustrations, texts and models. The evaluation will consider work of all five phases of the project. AAR4905 INTEGRATED THEORY SEMINAR Parallel to the design studio there will be a compulsory integrated theory seminar (7, 5 ECTS) on landscape urbanism. The theory seminar will consist of a series of lectures and literature studies. It will partly be co-arranged with the faculty lecture series (Fellesforelesningen) where we will invite prominent lecturers to hold intimate seminars with the participants of the studio. Other people involved will be Associate Professor Eivind Kasa from the Department of Architectural Design, Form and Colour Studies and doctoral candidate Martin Braathen from the Department of Architectural Design, History and Technology. As part of the theory seminar every student should write an essay. The essay should relate to the topics of the design studio project. Week 5 -6 Utopia and the Avant Garde w/ Martin Braathen Week 7-11 Typological landscapes w/ Eivind Kasa Week 12- 15 Landscape urbanism w/ external lecturers Week 17 Presentation and approval of topic and outline Week 22 Submission of final essays POST PRODUCTION The intention is to adapt the project into an exhibition that could be shown as a part of the Norwegian Architects Association’s Year of Architecture 2011. This demands a bit of work during the summer, but we hope to get some funding for this to hire some of the participants to assist in this work. There is also the possibility of making the studio report into a publication if the result is good enough, so this could be an extra carrot for the students.

INSTRUCTORS Professor Kerstin Höger kerstin.hoeger@ntnu.no Lecturer Magnus Jørgensen magnus.jorgensen@ntnu.no STUDENTS Max. 16 PARTNERS Martin Braathen Eivind Kasa Experts TBA Landscape Architects TBA Urban Designers TBA Land Artists TBA LANGUAGE English LEARNING GOALS The learning goals are related to the development of urban design skills, interdisciplinary research, abilities to deal with complex and multifaceted problems, concept development, visionary thinking and presentation techniques. The studio seeks to provide a comprehensive package linking method, theory and design. REQUIREMENTS Urban Design or Landscape experience on bachelor level or higher. Together with the application should be provided two examples on earlier design work in pdf-format: One on urban scale and one on architectural scale, and a motivational letter. This could also be mailed directly to Magnus Jørgensen at magnus.jorgensen@ntnu.no RECOMMENDATION FOR EXPERTS IN TEAM Intensive Experts in Team village week 2 to 4

READINGS i.e. The Architecture of Four Ecologies, Reyner Banham, 1971 Northern Experiments: The Barents Urban Survey 2009, 2009 0047, Espen Røyseland, Øystein Rø, Magnus Jørgensen, Gisle Løkken et al. Ecological Urbanism, Mohsen Mostafavi, 2010 Rem Koolhaas / OMA, Bruno Latour, Andrea Branzi, Stefano Boeri, Martha Schwarz, Raoul Bunschoten, Herzog & de Meuron et al. The Landscape Urbanism Reader, 2006 Charles Waldheim, Ed. Mobility and Place – Enacting Northern European Peripheries, 2008 Jørgen Ole Bærenholdt, Brynhild Granås, eds. Breathing Cities, 2008 Magnus Jørgensen, Synnøve A. Sæle, Kari Dalland, Rune Stangeland, Ingunn D. Lindbach, Ragnhild Førde et al. Department of Urban Design and Planning, NTNU Exit Utopia – Architectural Provocations 1956-76, 2005 Martin van Schaik, Otakar Mácel, Eds.

in search of a new RURAL