City as Biotope - the book!

We are very happy to present the book - fresh from printing and vernissage in Bergen!
You can order it from us 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!

happy expo

Happy students and teachers at the master studio expo at BAS. Learn more about the three studios: Architect in a foreign culture, Eco Urbanism and our City as Biotope.

seismo 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.

thursday is sun day

January 21 marks the day for the return of the sun to Tromsø, after two months of its absence. To celebrate this Tromsø Film Festival invited the whole city to a public projection of the classic silent movie Nanook of the North at the snow cinema on the main square. To make it less silent they also invited Matti Bye ensemble to play their custom composed music to the film - from the shoe shop window. Besides the fact that the event was really stunning, we're lucky to have a really good friend amongst the musicians - so now we're off to play with him, in the sun, before their return to Stockholm.

City as Biotope - book and exhibition

City as Biotope: the exhibition will open January 22 at BAS. 9.00-10.30 the students will go through their proposals and present the studio together with Gisle.
We've spent some weeks after christmas preparing the book City as Biotope - mosaïc::reading // mindfield malmö, that is now being printed and will be presented at the exhibition opening.

opera team

We're prequalified for the Kristiansund Opera competition together with winning team Mestres Wåge arquitectes, Barcelona, and Nordplan, Førde!
Our competitors are: Brisac / Gonzalez with Space Group, Jarmund / Vigsnæs with Wingårdhs, Snøhetta and CF Møller..

on peri-urban landscapes

Gisle and Magdalena have contributed with an article, Om framtidens landskap (On future landscapes), in the publication Landet utanför edited by Carola Wingren and published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry (KSLA).
Landet utanför contains articles by among others Gunilla Kindstrand and Mustafa Can; journalists, writers, landscape architects, planners and it is downloadable here (it's all in swedish).

Professor Carola Wingren writes in the foreword:
Några som också uppehåller sig vid det skånska landskapet, och som givit förslag på hur planeringen av det ska gå till i en framtid, är Magdalena Haggärde och Gisle Løkken, två arkitekter verksamma vid arkitektkontoret 70°N arkitektur i Tromsö. Deras vinnande förslag i RealDanias tävling om Öresundsvisioner 2040 som gick av stapeln 2008, antyder tillvägagångssätt som är mer öppna än dagens planeringsmetoder. Deras idéer om en ny planering möter på många sätt de värden som Mattias Qviströms forskning lyfter fram, med komplexa landskap fyllda inte bara av bostadsbebyggelse eller jordbruksaktivitet utan landskap fyllda av en biotopliknande mångfald och där territoriella gränser inte är de exakta värden som olika företeelser har att anpassa sig till. Haggärdes och Løkkens förslag Mosaïc, upprättat i samarbete med Dahl & Uhre arkitekter samt två handfull gäster och forskare, bygger bland annat på Deleuzes och Guattaris texter där de liknar området mellan den typiska staden och den typiska landsbygden vid en ”folding” eller ett veck fullt av möjligheter, där allt kan hända. Haggärdes och Løkkens planeringstankar är i vissa avseenden lika de tankar som Tomas Germundsson och jag själv utvecklar i vår artikel om en planering baserad på andra begrepp än gräns och territorium, där vi istället föreslår en planering grundad på begrepp som förloppslandskap, handlingslandskap och värdelandskap. Förloppslandskapet, ett begrepp som myntades av kulturgeografen Torsten Hägerstrand, innefattar det föränderliga landskapet över tid som beskrivs i flera av de tidigare artiklarna. Det är på sätt och vis en vägran till förenkling som griper tag i det Haggärde och Løkken skriver, när de betonar vikten av att arbeta med komplexiteten istället för att förenkla.

Google DAV

Our students Miia-Liina, Mathias, Tone and Kristian did a very nice project while in Malmö: A sunny day at Fredriksberg.
Knowing that Fredriksberg is a huge traffic junction their activities of pic-nic, romance, badminton and others could really be seen as an act of détournement.. or in their own words:
Through a series of evocative actions, we examine the hidden qualitative layers of the traffic junction in Fredriksberg, Malmö. The mono-programmatic appearance of the site is questioned by occupying it with everyday activity unfamiliar to it. The actions, documented in photos and film, form a loose narrative of a day trip to the site and are to be found in Google maps and Youtube.

It is now all published and clickable in both Google maps and Google Earth - take a trip to Fredriksberg!

18xMalmö

Here are our City as Biotope students at the final presentation: Kristian, Tone, Zlatan, Tove Helen, Herman, Kolbjørn, Mathias, Miao, Kuo-Chen, Stine, Roberto, Tove, Ragnhild, Christian, Martin Johannes, Miia-Liina, Laura and Gaute

Happy new 2010!

photo by Frank Kræmer