PRESENTATION

Today was my first presentation about architecture at BAS without drawings or models. I was presenting my essay concerning sustainability and the use of local materials, showing mostly pictures and telling about my findings and my views, and the response was good. I've done loads of presentations before, but this one was the first about architecture in a theoretical perspective, so I was a bit nervous. All the more rewarding when people came up to me afterwards and told me that it was exciting and focused!

The picture is of the village of Rocamadour in France, a great example of how the use of local materials (in this case limestone from the cliff on which the village itself stands) can result in "an unrestrained harmony", to quote the essay. (Ha ha, I'm so pretentious!) Picture credits: Wikimedia Commons.

THOMAS AND THE GOAT WILLOWS

My former classmate Thomas is the definition of sympathetic, and a rather clever tree-bender. At the beginning of our secound year, we joined forces in attacking a couple of goat willows with our braiding abilities and our sharp scissors, creating, as you can see, something looks like a rather nice tree, out of what used to be just a mess.

Last week, we followed up by not only re-pruning the first trees, but also making sense of several other bushy things of the kind which keep popping up around our school. I completely forgot to do a before-shot, but above, the reader may see what it looked like afterwards. Another shot below, with the sunset, Thomas, yours truly and the tree, in that order.

To find out more about creative bending, braiding an dpruning of living trees, check out Ivan Hicks' book Tricks with trees, of which I own a much-loved copy.

WES AND MATILDA

Today, while sitting at the desk in our classroom with my brilliant fellow student Matilda, who makes the world's most beautiful ink drawings, I suddenly felt like I was part of a Wes Anderson film. It may have had something to do with the amount of symmetry, an element which he uses a lot in his movies. At one point, I felt I was Bill Murray, but now I'm much better, thank you very much.

WEAR SUNSCREEN

We were talking about this song in the classroom some time ago. I'm doing great in Kenya, but I miss you guys!

ANDERS IN OSLO

BAS OSLO 2011 from Anders Sletten Eide on Vimeo.

My friend and classmate Anders Eide made this video when BAS was visiting Oslo last week. It seems to me he's onto something.

Things you should know about Anders: He really loves architecture and is always ready to discuss it. He can be a bit silent, but if you talk to him, you are guaranteed to get an interesting observation or question to make you think. He knows how to dress properly. He has good taste. He's fun. He's nice. Finally, he's talented, but always looking to improve.

Some parts of the video were shot in the apartment in which I live in now. It's in the attic of the red building on the left side of the street in this picture:

LEAVING/24

After two years at Bergen School of Architecture, I'm taking a break of sorts. I won't be returning until 1st September 2012, more than a year from now. I'm leaving the school grounds, leaving Bergen, and strangest of them all, leaving my class. (See picture above, taken by Ane Oline Finstad.)

The next year will be spent working with lgbt-issues in Norway and Africa, including four months in Kenya spring 2012. The work is very important, and it's going to be amazing. For those interested, I will be writing about that on another blog, but I will also be updating this one. I still consider myself an architecture student.

School is great, but it's also hard. Being away for a year will probably remind me how lucky I am to be doing what I love, and I'm already looking forward to coming back. Sadly, I'll not be joining the same class, Class 24. They're the greatest people you'll ever meet, extremely good at what they're doing, friendly, interested, always up for a good discussion. I've made so many friends along way, perhaps without realizing it until now, when I'm suddenly leaving. Hey people, in case you're reading this: If one thing could have held me back, it was you.

Thanks!

SUNSET IN AN EMPTY CLASSROOM

I stayed at school until midnight yesterday, supplementing the Client project. Still not finished.

ANE OLINE/ CONTRASTING MATERIALS

How do you show a solid timber wall? 

The last week of September was devoted to the not-at-all-ancient art of Visual structure (see the first blog post about visual structure). One part was the familiar assignment of contrasting materials. This time, however, it was on another scale, working with walls, big piles of sand, piles of wooden planks and the like. We grouped into pairs, and I collaborated with my dear classmate Ane Oline Finstad.

An intelligent woman, wonderful to work with. (Loves horses.)

All pairs were given an object in some part of the school grounds, and we wanted to work with the wall. As we had learned the last time we worked on visual structure, one way of showing an object is to contrast it with an object of a totally different materiality. In order to make our wall even more visible, we decided to surround the middle of it with a lighter, non-geomtrical figure. Here's a sketch I drew during our first discussions.

What we did, was to find as many contrasts as we could. The wall was geometric, the clouds were blobby; the wall was matt, the clouds were shiny, the wall was one object, the clouds were several objects; the wall was planted firmly on the ground, whereas the clouds seemed to be floating, at least hanging, etc., etc. Our classmates seemed to think we ended up making the wall a lot more visible, in a quite beautiful way, and I can't help but agree.

EDIT 24th October 2011: Removed the picture of Ane Oline. Still love her, though.