Who builds the map?

On our journey in Spain in November, Pilar Pinchart was present at our lecture at ETSAM in Madrid invited by Juan Herreros. In the discussion after the lecture Pilar was very interested in the notion "The New Economical Landcape". The day after we had a conversation on this topic, and more, at the beautifull space in Hotel de las Letras in Madrid.

See also a series of other interviews by Architect Pilar Pinchart at  tv skfandra! Hans Ulrich Obrist, Abalos + Sentkiewicz, Florian Beigel+ Phil Christou, Anton García-Abril, Reiner de Graaf, Juan Du + Chad Mc Kee, Peter Barber, Stefano Rabolli...


CLOSEUP: DAHL & UHRE from skfandra on Vimeo.

La Byen Synges

Når bystyret i Tromsø trakk søknaden om innlemmelse i Samisk språkområde, mistet vi en viktig mulighet til å befeste et viktig kulturelt lag i våre offentlige rom; til å tilføre en kompleksitet som skaper møter mellom mennesker og fortellinger. Tromsø gikk glipp av muligheten å formidle at byen anerkjenner at den er et sted hvor to verdener møtes.

Nye visuelle språk og ideer oppstår i kampsonene. I høst har vi sett New York gallerier plukke opp Occupy Wall Streets «scruffy cardboard signs» og 15-M bevegelsens visuelle språk bli brukt i Vodafones mobilabonnementskampanje. Vi har sett vrengte kofter. Protestaksjoner er en del av vår kulturelle produksjon og blir etter hvert plukket opp av reklamebransjen, mote, film og kunst.

Tromsø kan ikke kreve av de samiske miljøene at de alltid skal måtte hente den kreative energien i kampen for rettigheter og synlighet - en synlighet som Norge og Tromsø markedsfører for alt den er verdt.
les mer i Nordlys 12.01.2012 :

Open publication - Free publishing - More debattklima

going south x 2

On our way to lecture on "Appearing and Disappearing Landscapes" in Valencia, we are "hijacked" to give a lecture at ETSAM in Madrid. The title of this lecture is a light reference to Eduardo Bru’s book "Coming from the South". We read this book at the Europan Forum in Cordoba some years ago, and it informed us then.
We will elaborate on some of our findings seeing our projects as touchstones in the Nordic landscape. At the Europan Forum in Oslo KED was involved in series of discussions on the tensions in Spain, Portugal et al.So being present in Spain today must be quite an experience. Belinda Tato and Ecosistema Urbano from Madrid are now in Hamar working for two months, in direct dialogue with the people in Hamar, with the project Dream Hamar. We find this Spanish/Norwegian interchange really enlightening. Angel Borrego Cubero, professor at ETSAM, was interviewed by Bryan Farrel in May under the title "The beauty and vision of Spain’s "revolution". Here he talks about the role of young architects in the new Spanish realities.
We really look forward to our Spanish journey.

III CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL ARTE Y ENTORNO

Knut Eirik and Kjerstin are giving the opening Lecture at the 3rd International Conference on Art and Environment at the Art and Environment Research Centre (CIAE), Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) 16th of November.

North latitude: Ethics and aestethics of living 16 17 18 nov 2011:
“We understand that a society is projected towards the future in accordance with its own traditions, yet there is strong confrontation with the new realities that value the citizen, the environment or sustainability. That is why this conference which focuses its attention on environments in certain environments of the Nordic Council (Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Norway or Iceland). The capitals of these countries are world leaders in terms of environmental culture. Committed to a set of values, they are examples of societies facing the challenges that lie ahead and can provide us with interesting strategies stemming from their proven experience.”

3 days with, lectures, paper readings and round table conversations + warm weather and long nights! We are really looking forward to meet the organizers, mediators, students and the other lecturers:
Maria Hellström Reimer (Malmø) A visual artist and professor in design theory at Malmö University, School of Arts and Communication. Tone Lindheim (Oslo) Landscape architect, partner in Bjorbekk & Lindheim landscape architects. Luis Navarro (Valencia) Writer and promoter of the 90s underground collective for aesthetic action known as Industrias Mikuerpo and the fanzine, Amano, and coordinator for the independent publisher Literatura Gris, committed to the recovery of the situacionista legacy and formed part of Maldeojo, a collective of critical thinkers. Fernando Gaja i Díaz (Valencia) Urban planner and Senior Lecturer in Urbanism and Regional Planning at the Department of Urbanism (UPV). Amador Fernández-Savater  (Madrid) Independent researcher and engaged thinker. Perhaps the label that best defines him is editor as his thoughts and energies are directed toward thinking processes: the challenge of registering, synthesising, coordinating and communicating fragments of discourse.  Boke Bazán (Valencia) Senior Lecturer in the Master’s Programme in Design and Illustration at the Faculty of Fine Arts of Valencia, (UPV) and in Master’s Programme in Design Engineering at Valencia’s ESET school (Universidad CEU).Peret; Pedro Torrent (Barcelona): He works in graphic design, illustration, photography, sculpture and stage design. He has held 16 individual exhibitions (Spain, France, Japan, and México) and about one hundred collective ones in 24 countries. Luis Eslava Studio (Valencia) Luis Eslava and Lorena Sauras “gear their studio towards the creation of global projects, product design and spatial design.”

2360 + 16 views on the book online!

Nunarsuup Qeqqani/Nuup Qeqqani - Midt i verden /Midt i Nuuk - The Book has been available on ISSUU in Danish for views and downloads for a while now, The Greenlandic version is just published, and we belive an English version (In the Middle of the world/In the Middle of Nuuk) is coming soon.  view or download the Danish version here

NOMINATION

Nunarsuup Qeqqani/Nuup Qeqqani is nominated to a Scandinavian Award,category urban planning. link to Arkitekturmässans Award. Congratulations to project owners, collaborators and dialogue partners in Nuuk and the world!

The Conversation on art + architecture!

Welcome to the first conversation event in Herreros Arquitectos exhibition project, The Banquet: The Conversation on art + architecture! Thursday September 8th at 19:00 to 21:00 at ROM for kunst og arkitektur in Oslo.

Defining, designing, building and activating spaces are the creative base for architecture. Ultimately these are also concerns which affect contemporary art practices in general. The method of research in the physical environment and in the human nature and psychology is another. Art and Architecture from their different positions, base their work upon the understanding of the society and cultural codes for delivering concepts and new ideas.

We acknowledge the independency and eligibility of each profession but also question: Are art and architecture just two parallel lines? If not, how and where do they meet? Are there crossing points? Is there something more than gravity fields, a mutual attraction that forms common environments for understanding, describing and transforming the world? Do they fuel, intensify or fertilize each other? Or is it just the sharing of clients and concepts that is inspiring them to collaborate on mutual interests? Is there an art + architecture? Conceptually or even physically?

In the panel:
Joseph Grima, Editor in chief of Domus magazine and ex-director of StoreFront gallery in NYC
Gunnar B. Kvaran, Director Astrup Fearnly Museum of contemporary art
Marit Justine Haugen, Artist and architect, Haugen & Zohar Architects, Oslo
Dagur Eggertsson, architect Rintala Eggertsson Architects, Oslo
Knut Eirik Dahl, architect D&U, Tromsø and professor at the Institute of Urbanism and Landscape at AHO in Oslo
Juan Herreros, architect, Herreros Arquitectos, Madrid
Among others and the public.

MIDT I VERDEN MIDT I NUUK

Vi hører fra Nuuk at utstillingen er godt besøgt, at skolene begynner å gi tilbakemeldinger og at Illimarfik virker interessert i å koble det på deres undervisning… I dag kommer 25 studenter fra bygge og anleggskolen og 5 fra kunstskolen på omvisning. Kommuneqarfik Sermersook er også invitert til å medvirke i KNRs debatprogram ”Tamassa”.
Utstillingen er lagt ut som nettpublikasjon, klikk zoom og les! det kan ta noe tid før sidene oppdaterer seg...

Open publication - Free publishing - More byudvikling

RECAST - scener fra Jæren

I dag, 5. mai åpner utstillingen RECAST - scener fra Jæren på KINO KINO i Sandnes.

Utstillingen tar opp arkitekturens rolle i forhold til endrede forutsetninger og utfordringer som nord Jæren regionen står overfor når oljealderen går mot slutten. I de siste 40 år har oljeindustrien vært en avgjørende drivkraft i forbindelse med den omfattende utviklingen som har funnet sted. Stavanger, som Norges oljehovedstad, har gjennomgått et stort framskritt fra å være en av Norges fattigste byer til å bli en av de rikeste.

Et tilbakevendende spørsmål er hva som vil skje med videreutviklingen av byregionen når oljeressursene i Nordsjøen ikke lenger er drivkraft i den lokale økonomien.

Utstillingen er laget i samarbeid med Stavanger Arkitektforening og ARKITEKTURENS ÅR. Det er et av 3 lokale prosjekter som markerer SAF’s 75 års jubileum. AHOs master studio "Appearing and Disappearing Landscapes" (våren 2010) og Snøhettas Sandnesprosjekt presenteres i denne utstillingen. More to come.

Go through the Exhibition

Nuuk TV interviews Jakob Bjerg Exner, Sermersooq Municipality (Kommuneqarfik Sermersooq) just before the exhibition Midt i verden /Midt i Nuuk (in The Middle of the World/ in The Middle of Nuuk) opens its doors. Link: NUUK TV

Exhibition opening in Nuuk

The Mayor of Nuuk, Asii Chemnitz Narup, giving her welcomming speech at the opening day of the exhibition. The text is the short version of her warm and hopefull words.

“at work with 0047. La Biennale di Venezia 2010”

Wednesday September 8: Performing Northern Experiments
Northern Experiments is 0047’s ongoing program on the High North and the spatial consequences and possibilities of the increased activity and international interest in this part of the world. In the context of the “At work with” program, 0047 has invited a series of lecturers to shed light on this theme.
VENICE: 2PM Knut Eirik Dahl, professor, Dahl&Uhre, Kelly Doran, architect LRA and Øystein Rø, director 0047

read more

Nuuk // summer laboratory of the young at heart

Klik på billedet for at få en appetizer for diskussion med med unge nuummiutere omkring Nuuks fremtid - byen de i fremtiden skal vende hjem til.

Klik her for at downloade hele diskussion.

Through a discussion over one month between us and the director of The Bank of Greenland, Peter Petersen, some stunning dialogues has appeared. These dialogues is soon presented as a chronological skype/mail conversation. Hopefully also in english. What you find here, the Summer Laboratory with the young at heart, came up in these discussions as a theme connected to what is needed, what is important politics in relation to get the educated young people back to Greenland. And what kind of transformation in Nuuk can be related to this. Helena Lennert in TNT Nuuk headed this summer laboratory in a beatifull way.

Innspill til arkitekturpolitikken

bildet er lånt fra arkitektur.no

Nå kan du få med deg presentasjoner og videoer fra seminaret som ble avholdt 9. mars i Arkitektens Hus. Et sammensatt utvalg av blant annet NALs medlemmer presenterte innspill til arkitekturpolitikken.
Mange av innlederne fremhevet ansvaret offentlige bestillere og byggherrer har for å oppnå dette. Seminaret ble et viktig bidrag til det videre arbeidet med arkitekturpolitikken fra profesjonen som skal sette den ut i livet.

Se video: Knut Eiriks innlegg om EUROPAN i del 3: forbildeprosjekter

They explore the future Jæren Landscape

This is the title on the journalist Odd Pihlstrøms article in Stavanger Aftenblad Monday the 15th of February. Odd Pihlstrøm opened up and connected us to a series of voices in the Jæren agricultural Landscape. Four of this voices, and Odd Pihlstrøm, attended our debate studio set up at Ona Lighthouse (see the attached article) in a beautiful afternoon on the brim of the Atantic. An open and intense discussion took place for three hours, with the student eagerly participating – Oh What a Perfect Day.
On our three day journey in Jæren, brilliant organized by Alice Labadini, we set up five such studios in different places with impressive participation from cutting edge environments in Stavanger.
De utforsker framtidens jærlandskap - PDF,
See the studio-blog: appearing-and-disappearing-landscapes.
Photo: Odd Philstrøm, Stavanger Aftenblad

Nuuk pressroom

The local press in Nuuk is continuously following the Tuujuk an Blok P project (in the middle of the world/in the hearth of Nuuk) as it evolves through dialogues 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 newspapers 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 strengthening of the importance of direct, face to face, eye to eye dialogue between the politicians, the architects and the residents of all kind. And the editorial announces 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 these articles is Greenlandic and Danish. More English short versions are 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 Government, 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 being derelict. A large part of the surrounding blocks and row houses is also in the searchlight of demolition - in time to come. So, this postcard, and the walking line, is empowered by memories, anger, hopelessness and possibly new hope. It’s an explosive postcard, now in the hands of the people of Nuuk.

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..

Kalaallit Nunaat 2010

In the middle of the world, in the land of the people, change is happening. In the first week of 2010 we were a part of a think tank in the heart of Nuuk with the Self-Government of Greenland, the Municipality of Sermersooq,
tnt nuuk architects, social workers, artists and journalists discussing steps towards social and environmental sustainable city development. More will follow when we togehter with Helena, Aviaaja and Flemming from tnt nuuk launch the blog Nunarsuup Qeqqani at the end of January.