FICTIONAL FRIDAY: DUSSO'S THEED

This amazing image is the work of Yanick Dusseault, and depicts the city Theed of the planet Naboo in the Star Wars universe. Naboo is known for its combination of advanced techonology with classicish (my word) architecture.

The focus is on Theed's large royal palace, which supposedly had another tower added by each new monarch, to show his or hers... er... capability. Or something. Looks bloody beautiful, anyway.

STREET OF FRIENDS

Erlend lived here.
The tram stop for Håkon's old apartment was here.
This was the street where I called Heidimarie and asked about the wonderful wine she and Erik served at their wedding.
This was where Petter and I met each other before he went to New York.
This is where I bought dinner today.
This was the street I walked up to go to Heidi's birthday party on the 20th July 2011, after which I caught a cold and decided to stay home for the weekend.
In Thereses gate I've walked home with Ole Thomas and Tamar after a night out.
In Thereses gate, I met Patrick by coincidence earlier this fall, after several years.
And in Thereses gate, Marta took this picture a morning when there, by some stroke of magic, was no one out, a morning earlier this summer.

Thank you!

VINEYARD CLASSICISM

This facade is amazing. Simple, and yet intriguing. I suppose the thick stone walls are keeping the wine cold, while the arches and niches make it interesting. The building doesn't really look like a château to me, but it's supposed to be the vineyard Château Mouton-Rothschild in Médoc, Southern France. (Study trips are a great occasion for discussing (and drinking) wine.)

JA

Back in Oslo for at least a year (and it feels great).

Picture taken on 13th August by yours truly. The word "ja" means "yes" in Norwegian (which supposedly is one of the easiest languages to learn for people with English as their native tongue).

COMPLEX BUILDING

Today was the start of our mini-diploma: the complex building course. Over the next three months, the class will be exploring, investigating and finally redesigning parts of Haukalnd University Hospital in Bergen, Norway. This is the concept sketch I presented:

Wish me luck!

MUST BE I'M FORGOTTEN YOU'RE NOT THOUGH

The fountain is still standing, 108 years later. Meet you there?

(Architect: Frederick Olmsted. Picture credit: Collection of James Mendola, Buffalo, NY)

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: ROOFED CITY OF THE YEAR 2000

I can't read the text properly, but this is obviously a "*something* city in the year 2000"! Under a wet and rainy sky (Who knew that a chocolate factory predicted climate change 112 years ago?), people are leading happy suspiciously well-lit lives under a roof, enjoying green grass, fountains and masonry buildings with domes and pediments, as well as bicycles, horses, and trams for transportation. Is this vision to blame for the phenomenon of shopping malls? Never mind, Bergen is cold today, so bring me to the year 2000!

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.

EVENING SCHOOLYARD

I had actually forgotten how good I feel when spending my nights at school.

ON WORKING CONDITIONS FOR THE CRAFTSMEN OF MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE

THE BOATHOUSE

Earlier this summer, I was at the opening of a new cultural scene in Oslo, called Naustet, which means "The Boathouse". Inspired by traditional Norwegian boathouses and built directly above the water in the new waterside neighbourhood Bjørvika, this little gem was designed and built by students from Norway's three architecture schools, in the joint workshop called Trestykker.

"Tre" means both "three" (as in three architecture schools) and "wood" (as in made from) in Norwegian, and the whole thing is sponsored by different companies within the wood industry in Norway, including free materials.

The doors, back wall and wooden floors both inside and on the outside, are made from the excellent material Kebony, which has many of the same properties of tropical wood, but is made from local trees such as pine and maple, combined with leftovers from sugar factories.

The walls are clad in polycarbonate panels, which are partially opaque, depending if the sunshine is direct of filtered through clouds. Before sunset, the walls seem to be glowing.

The building stands in stark contrast to the other buildings of Bjørvika. While the rest are mostly glasshouses in a vulgar, petroleum-driven architectural language, who turn their back in the rest of the city, the Boathouse is a human-scale construction, made of wood, and talking to the city, actually turning its back on the water. In my opinion, this very last quality is also the best, and very brave, in a city that is forgetting what it has been for several hundred years. If the old Oslo, perched in the low, rolling hills, and the new Oslo down by the water are going to feel like one place instead of two, the communication has to go both ways.

The acoustic qualities of the building are excellent. There were three concerts during the opening, and I particularly enjoyed this one, by the wonderful Ingvild Våge. I also taped a video there, which I might post on the blog later.

The wood frames are made of plywood, which were pre-made, but glued and screwed together on site.

Let's hope that the Boathouse will find people to run it as a scene, and that Oslo will be inspired to create more architecture that relates to the site, is human in scale and materials, and dares to talk to the city. Good luck on next year's Trestykker!

FICTIONAL FRIDAY: OLYMPUS OF "IMMORTALS"

Fictional Friday is a series of posts on my blog, where I present fantastical and fictional architecture from books, television, films, computer games, art etc. every Friday.

This week, something for those of you who just can't have enough of inventive Classicism: In the otherwise unimpressive film 'Immortals', there was a rather beautiful set, designed for Olympus, the home of the gods. Imagined as a synthesis of unpolished marble, symmetry and geometry, this amazing piece of fictional architecture reminded me of the stark and beautiful Nordic Classicism (sometimes referred to as 'Swedish Grace') of the 1920s. Have a look, ignore the silly costumes, pay notice to the nice Lucie Fournier relief and make up your own opinion:

THE UNIVERSE AS SEEN FROM UTØYA ISLAND

If you look long enough, you'll see how the trees spell out the word 'love'.

MEDIANERAS

This is a strange and wonderful little film about people living in the city, and how architecture interacts with their daily lives. Great pictures and good music.

COURTYARD HOUSE

Last Saturday, we went out of Nairobi to the town of Thika to visit a friend. It was a beautiful day with loads of sun, and as we walked around, we passed the usual mix of old colonial arcade houses, modern apartment buildings made of concrete and food booths in the shape of Coke bottles.

When we arrived at our friend's house, I was very surprised that the rather normal looking facade was concealing this beautiful courtyard.

True, it was simple, and very small, in fact the smallest courtyard I've ever seen, but the light was pouring down in the middle and was being reflected by the bright colours, the gallery surrounds were providing shadow to rest in, while people were washing clothes, talking, playing music and enjoying the  fresh air.

Maybe this way of designing houses is more common than I thought, only I'm not able to see it from the outside?

ANOTHER SPACE

Roof view of King's College Chapel, Cambridge. Beautiful, isn't it?

THE GRUMPIEST ELF

V1

V2

V3

Taken in my parents' garden (designed by yours truly) with a self timer this afternoon.

MUSIC FOR ANOTHER FUTURE

This is for all you ruin porn lovers out there.

RAIN

Have you ever considered just how beautiful a group of tents can be, especially at a time when the rain has been falling very heavily, but is slowly leaving, and the sun is starting to shine through?

Picture taken summer 2004 at Utøya.

<3

QUEERS AND CAMERAS

I spent last week at a wonderful queer festival (That's new speak for gay camp) in Southern Norway. Going by the name of Jafnadhr, which is said to mean "justice" or something like it in Old Norse, it's an annual happening, organized by the organisation I'll be working for in the year to come, Skeiv ungdom (Queer youth).

All in all, it was a very nice week. The people were friendly, the shows were funny, the dinners (when there was enough food) were fabulous and the weather was fine. In between all the socializing, debates and bathing, there was also time to group up and learn about a lot of different subjects, and I joined a photography group, lead by the magnificent Mathilde Nicoline Bergersen (Check out her beautiful blog.). I own a rather simple compact camera which I bring everywhere, and use among other things to take most of the pictures of this blog, and I learned a thing or two about good techniques, composition and editing. I also took some pictures I was pleased with, including a few self portraits, group pictures and colour studies. Have a look.

Thanks to everyone at Jafnadhr 2011!