Nuuk pressroom

The local press in Nuuk is contiunosly following the Tuujuk an Blok P project (in the middle of the world/in the hearth of Nuuk) as it evolves through diaolgues with the public, think tanks, city walks/Nuuk Safaris etc. The journalists are making their own contributions through interviews with people living in the area, interviews with politicians and so on. The newpapers are inviting to a series of chronicles on the topic "The appearing and disappearing Nuuk". The small editorial on top of this post, "Democracy commits", is quite stunning with its strenghtening of the importance of direct, face to face, eye to eye dialoge between the politicians, the architects and the residents of all kind. And the editorial anounces these new attitudes and methods as very appropriate and to the point for the larger debate on the future of Greenland, relating to aluminium melting plants, exploitation of Uran and mining concessions of all types.
The point, the editorial states, is for the politicians to be very aware of what is said and to take it to their heart and mind. The language in this articles is Greenlandic an Danish. More english short versions is to follow.

NUUK CITY WALK

This Postcard is a starting point for an exploration of the Nuuk to come. The shivering line guided the followers of the Nuuk Safari. This site in the capital contains many aspects of Greenland colonial history, and is a political hot topic. The long line in the middle is Blok P, which at one point in history contained 1% of the Greenland population. The conversations on the Nuuk Safari unfolded all shades of this history. One social worker characterized Blok P as "an evil circle shaped as a building". The housing minister of the Self Governement, who took part in the Safari, has stated that Blok P is to be demolished in 2011, it is a main political ambition. A series of proposals from different architects in the last 20 years has proposed solutions for revitalization of Blok P. None has come to life - and the standard is on a level of beeing derelict. A large part of the surrounding blocks and rowhouses is also in the searchlight of demolition - in time to come. So, this postcard, and the wallking line, is empowered by memories, anger, hoplesness and posssibly new hope. Its an explosive postcard, now in the hands of the people of Nuuk.

Nuuk today

Nuuk Safari 1 took place on a beatifull Saturday. Lots of people, including two ministers from the Self Government. The architect Helena Lennert from TNT Nuuk was a brilliant guide and storyteller in the language of Greenland, translated by herself to Danish. KED took a small part in this unfolding story, translated by Helena. The walk through the (in)famous Blok P and its larger surroundings was stunning. An appearing (and disappearing) Nuuk is on the table of discource ! A discource that is extencively unfolding in the newspapers, on TV and radio. All media where present on the Nuuk Safari, and the following coffe gathering in TNT Nuuks office (now also D&Us center when staying in Greenland). More to come with links to TV-films, editorials in Newspapers, coffe visits in peoples home, with the Mayor, and much more.

Seismograph City - Berlin

The Seismograph City exhibition has now moved to Berlin. Nordhavnen / Excentral Park - Edge Dynamics is exhibited together with other projects under the the title Sustainable Strategies in Dialogue.

Eröffnung/Opening: Freitag, 22. Januar 2010 um 18.30
Ort/Location: Studio bei Aedes am Pfefferberg, Christinenstr. 18-19, 10119 Berlin
Ausstellungsdauer/Duration: 22. Januar - 4. März 2010

The City not only defines itself as a generator of cultural, social, economic and ecological processes, but also as a seismograph of global developments. Climate change and its impacts, present new challenges for cities, which in Hamburg have guided a re-evaluation of necessary activities in this regard. In 2011, as "European Green Capital", Hamburg will be designated Climate Capital of Europe. The Seismograph City exhibition gives a fascinating view of the current status of the architectural and urban planning development of this Hanseatic city, in dialogue other cities and countries worldwide.

NUUK SAFARI-illoqarfimmi angalaaqatigiinneq

Today we have been reading a paper titled "The Tromsø Experiment: Opening up for the unknown" (written in Melbourne!) to be published later this year. The poster Nuuk Safari extends practices and methods from The City Development Year/CDY in Tromsø to Nuuk in Greenland.
D&U, with tnt nuuk architects, is involved in the transformation of this city and its center. Self-Government of Greenland and the City of Nuuk, by its Mayor has invited us into this very challenging task. May bee the most important thing for us to learn is Inuit Qaujimajatuqangit "the Inuit way of doing things".
Next week we take off to the second Nuuk Think-Tank. Dialogue, debate and city walks. The project blog is up and going, you can follow the process at Nunarsup Qeqqani // Nuup Qeqqani - In the middle of the world // In the heart of Nuuk..

Cornerstone Ceremony // MySpace, E9 winner, to be built in Trondheim

The winning entry in Europan 9 in Trondheim, the student housing project, is to be built, and will be opened in 2011. This image and the clip from Adresseavisen in Trondheim is from the Cornerstone Ceremony at the site on Wednesday the 27th.
The Minister of Research and Knowledge, Tora Aasland, was present at the ceremony. So where the Mayor of Trondheim Rita Ottervik, Torunn Hegre from the board of the builder, SIT, and Bård Flem from SIT who has been a driving force in making this come through ,and many more as you can see. Juan Elvira and Enrique Krahe from the winning Spanish tema MEK was eagerly present. Hilde Bøkestad and Frederik Shetelig from the Europan Board gave a small speech on Europan and the importance of this event in Trondheim. The president, KED, was not there due to storms in Nothern Norway. The Cornerstone contains drawings, newspapers of the day from Madrid and Trondheim and more interesting things

Europan 9 winner, MySpace, to be built in Trondheim

On Wednesday the 27th of January at 14.00, Knut Eirik as president of Europan Norway, is invited to Trondheim at the corner stone ceremony for the Europan 9 winning entry, MySpace. The builder, Studentsamskipnaden i Trondheim is proudly inviting to this important event. Both for them, the city, Europan and the winning Spanish team based in Rotterdam and Madrid; Murado, Elvira and Krahe.
The Knowledge and Science minister Thora Haug will be present. So will the architects.
The project is now starting construction and will be finished in 2011, an important year for Trondheim. More to come on this issue later.

Arctic Frontiers 2010

Tromsø-24-29 January 2010
Arctic Frontiers policy section will be broadcast live via the internet in English and Russian.
Click here to view the full schedule and links.

My favorite presentations:
wednesday 27.2.

The Principles and Practices of Inuit Governance Gary N. Wilson Department of Political Science, University of Northern British Columbia

Oil and Gas DevelopmentsCurse or Blessing for Community Sustainability? The Relationship between Regional Authorities and theOil and Gas IndustryPeter R. Sinclair Memorial University and University of Waterloo, Canada

Encircling the Field

Students from the AHO Landscape Master course; Appearing and Disappearing Landscapes are encircling the field of Jæren. Here is Jin’s notation of art and sites.

"The images on the white background are from Jæren, including the paintings on canvas from Kelly Kielland. The red soft is the installation art in Jæren. Below it are the photograph works from Rune Guneriussen."

Learn more on the studio blog
.

City as Biotope - The Book

I’m sitting whit a fresh copy of city as biotope mosaic::reading // mindfield malmö in my hands. Magdalena and Gisle has really done a great job editing this book! The freshness from the blog is captured and our BAS students have also wonderfully presented the essence of their projects. Happy happy!
You can order it from our friends in 70°N by mailing firmapost@70n.no or buy it from BAS by contacting line@bergenarkitektskole.no for 200,-. It is also possible to download as low res pdf here: City as Biotope PDF (44,5M)
Thanks to all the students and contributors!