Responsible
teachers: Gisle Løkken and Magdalena Haggärde, (70°N arkitektur)
Students: Anders, Andreas, Anna Liisa, Arne, Arnulf,
Christian, Elise, Eva, Ingeleiv Andrea, Jøran, Kazhben, Lara, Lassi, Livie,
Maria Eugenia, Matt, Pernille, Pia, Soheil, Stefanie, Stephanie, Stine, Sum,
Sveinung, Teemu, Victoria Helene
….the essence of the
deserted island is imaginary and not actual, mythological and not geographical.
At the same time, its destiny is subject to those human conditions that make
mythology possible. (…) What must be recovered is the mythological life of the
deserted island (…) The deserted island is not the origin, but a second origin.
From it everything begins anew. The island is the necessary minimum for this
re-beginning, the material that survives the first origin…(Gilles Deleuze,
Deserted Islands and other texts, 1953-1974)
Studio content:
Context; Lofoten
is the history of extremes; extreme nature, extreme weather conditions, extreme
natural resources and extreme survival. The archipelago of Lofoten floats in a
timeless mythical narration of battling between man and nature rooted in the
origin of human presence in these territories. The fact that Lofoten for centuries has
hosted the world’s most precious fisheries of codfish, and now the
sea bank assumed to hide a prosperous amount of oil and gas, signify a
latent and incommensurable conflict that can irreversibly change the landscape,
and its conditions. The people living in these territories, connected to the landscape and
the resources for innumerable years are now facing not only external threats
from global economies and climate changes, but also internal, national
political decisions and structural changes in the fisheries which menace to
deprive the resources from the local communities. In this context the
municipality of Flakstad has started a ground breaking process of re-defining
the position of three old fishing settlements (Ramberg, Napp, Fredvang) - still
fighting for the right to exploit the surrounding renewable recourses - but
also taking advantage of a year by year growing influx of tourists. The
intention is a renewed development towards a more holistic and sustainable
future that is susceptible to the inevitable changes, but at the same time it
is crucial to try to be in control of the changes' impacts on the landscape and
the societies.
Working method;
We will follow an analytical approach to the landscape inspired by Henry
Lefebvre’s method of progressive and
regressive reading. The method is highly spatial and sees the landscape as
an intrication of abstract and concrete retrospective and forward -looking
bodies, events and factual history. Lefebvre sees regression as a way of understanding the past when especially emphasizing
the traces and splints of history being most significant in the present. For us
it is a way to evoke the basic conditions that have constituted an area, like
ownership, relatedness and heritage, political conditions, geological and
geographical forces, trans human ecology and biology, laws and jurisdiction,
etc. The past and the present is always provisional,
incomplete and in progress, and If you
really were to take a slice through time - says Doreen Massey in her book: ‘for
space’ - it would be full of holes, of
disconnections, of tentative half-formed first encounters. ‘Everything is
connected to everything else’ can be a salutary political reminder that
whatever we do has wider implications than perhaps we commonly recognise. This
means that the regressive investigation
sees the past retroactively by emphasizing what has happened and what could
have happened by mapping of forces and phenomenon in play. The progressive method focus on the movement
which anticipates its completion, which means what have created something new. The
regressive-progressive method may be
used for spatial understanding of landscape and architecture, and for
socio-cultural conditions. It is important to study how people live, use and
dwell in the landscape, or in general what produces the meaning of the space.
The way the space is appropriated is based on distinctions like differences in
classes, power positions, function etc., or is linked to how the space is
arranged and inhabited. It is an knowledge based orientation that can be used
generating new spaces, defined by Lefebvre in general as:
Conceived space; which is the way space is seen by architects and planners – like the
codified and institutionalised understanding of space – where space is abstract
and self-referential within the discourse.
Perceived space; which is life the way it is experienced and perceived.
Lived space; which is
the heavily symbolic and culturally imbedded space directly experienced through
associative images and symbols – and which draws on the culture and the place’s
common experiences and interpretations – commonly known as the culture’s loci.
The intention
using Lefebvre’s approach is to create a foundation from where we can
investigate. Not least the possibility of reading the landscape along his many
different notions of imbrication (overlapping information), as: flux and networks / different dimensions and
different forms / ages / appropriations / territories (in law, size, time) /
rhythm (circulation-rhythm, job/leisure etc.) / management / built and unbuilt
space etc.
In addition to
Lefebvre we will use a broad source of theoretical knowledge to help us
elaborate and confront our findings within a discourse of complex understanding
and transcendence. The situation in Lofoten provides a dichotomy of crucial
issues that demands a holistic and open approach. But it is unhelpful if it leads to a vision
of an always already constituted holism. The ‘always’ is rather that there are
always connections yet to be made, juxtapositions yet to flower into
interaction, or not, potential links which may never be established. Loose ends
and on going stories. ‘Spaces’, then, can never be that completed simultaneity
in which all interconnections have been established, in which everywhere is
already (and at that moment unchangingly) linked to everywhere else. (Massey, 2005)
Learning Outcome:
Skills,
knowledge and competence: We will work on elaborated methods to develop our
ability to investigate complex and contested landscapes. We will learn to
approach with respect and non-bias to uncover both the obvious and the underlying
invisible structural forces in the landscape, the stakeholders, and the interests
at stake.
As architects
and planners we will encounter these issues and processes based on
investigations and theoretical studies – learning to create a relevant foundation
of complex knowledge and understanding. The studio will provide tools and
measures for expanding the planning process to become comprehensive and relevant
both regarding of global and structural forces, and for individual and local
interests – not loosing the one perspective in the other. The aim is to slowly
develop and confront the planning process for it to become more in contact with
the real, and to elaborate planning processes along trajectories developed by
Deleuze & Guattari as lines of
flight. Manuel De Landa describes lines of flight as something to follow
and something expected to redeem new responses – as an operator which transcends the real and ascends to the virtual (De
Landa, 2002). The notion of transcendence is even an opening for experimental
approaches that can be highly subjective and can give new and unexpected
experiences and results - and will therefore require skills and knowledge to become
relevant.
By combining investigation
methods and at the same time stimulating individual research, we will learn to
develop our own understanding and methodical approach. The overall intention
for the studio will always be to enhance our individual abilities - preparing
ourselves to act in complex and unclear situations.
Studio structure:
The studio
will create a studio blog for all assignments and works to be posted. The blog
will be used when reviewing the assignments, which will be in a studio-plenum.
The studio is
structured along 6 different assignments each with a two weeks working period.
The final assignment is regarded more complex and is given approximately 5
weeks working period. In between the assignments there will be a field trip to
Lofoten both focusing on comparative locations in Lofoten and Vesterålen, and
on our primary field of study in Flakstad municipality (the places of Ramberg,
Napp and Fredvang). Each assignment follows a theme-structure based on the
studio’s didactic approach. Lectures, assignment texts and literature will
follow each assignment, and will be the foundation for the work beside
individual tutoring. All assignments will be individually presented every two
weeks. In connection with the field trip we will join a seminar in Ramberg on
the topic Fremtidens fiskevær (The future
fishing community), and the DAV will take place as an further alternative
approach to the territory.
Themes:
Keywords: new
hierarchies / rhizome / schizoanalysis
Keywords:
connectivity / layering / overlapping information
Keywords: vitality
/ global forces / ecosystems
Keywords:
space and time / lines of flight
Keywords: borders
and margins / transcendence
Keywords:
points of departure / consolidation
See you all soon!
/GL & MH
