Čoarvemátta opening day

Reminiscing the extraordinary experience it was being part of the opening of Čoarvemátta – the building housing the Sámi National Theatre Beaivváš & Sámi High School and Reindeer Herding School / Beaivváš Sámi Našunála Teáhter & Sami joatkkaskuvla ja boazodoalloskuvla.

From its very first day Čoarvemátta proved to be truly “the house of magic and knowledge” as expressed by the theatre director Rolf Degerlund.

We have still barely landed after the opening ceremony back in August:
The ambience, the strong and touching speeches, the fantastic concert-performance, the food by the arctic gastronomy students, the truly amazing art and duodji – and of course the people, many of whom have worked for years for the realization of this building.

Some highlights from the day:
Welcoming by Sara Ellen Anne Eira representing the school and Rolf Degerlund the theatre.
Official opening by Silje Karine Muotka, President of the Sámi Parliament
Compères: Marte Fjellheim Sarre & Inger Marie Nilut
Symphony performance “Beaivi áhčážan. Eanni eadnážan / The Sun, my Father. The Earth, my Mother.” by Arktisk Filharmoni & Beaivváš theatre based on poems by Áillohaš, Nils-Aslak Valkeapää
Composer and music supervision: Frode Fjellheim
Conductor: Anna F. Hartmann
Director: Rolf Degerlund
Choreography: Marte Fjellheim Sarre
Text selection and translation: Rawdna Carita Eira
Soloists: Ulla Pirttijärvi Länsman & Adrian Angelico
Actors / yoikers: Egil Keskitalo, Mary Sarre, Iŋgor Ántte Áilu Gaup, Nils Henrik Buljo
Light: Øystein Heitmann
Sound: David Solheim
Grand drape: Máret Anne Sara
Sámi anthem Sámi eatnan duoddariid by Áillohaš sung in unison summed up the heartwarming and soul lifting experience Ollu giitu!
Architecture team: Snøhetta, Joar Nango & 70°N arkitektur
Photo: 70°N arkitektur

Make a book - or read one!

Read Gisle's article in Arkitektnytt #5, inspired by our visit at Actar publishers in Barcelona:

"We need people who think and write, and editors who publish - and who dare to believe that it is still sometimes necessary to make a book, and not least to read one.”

Book launch and talk

This week's newsletter from ACTAR, including info on the Layered Landscapes Lofoten book launch at BAS:

Trofi Teknopark

We went to see one of our projects under construction, Trofi Teknopark. This is the first office building of passive house standard in Tromsø and after quite some work it is very soon to be finalized.

Visitors at the office!

Around 50 students and five teachers from AHO and EPFL (Lausanne) visited us on February 15.
They were on a studytrip to Northern Norway and Spitsbergen in relation to the semester course "Studio for production of architecture - a territorial and architectural constitution of Barents Sea". 
Gisle gave a lecture on "Planning on the edge of the melting ice".

Thanks for the visit!

Sjørosa architects

We got a visit from Sjørosa kindergarten group; Sigurd, Mathias, Amanda, Annabelle, Lisa and Emil worked the foam and glue!

go see

Tromsø Open House

BAS cruising

Deane Simpson and his master studio students from BAS tied up at Prostneset. Gisle joined them at their Hurtigruten ship for a discussion on Tromsø and the studio theme: tourism.

go goa

Professor Henrietta Palmer and teacher Michael Dudley with their students from Stockhom Art Academy post graduate course Advances Studies in Urbanism - Resources. 10 Bio-topical: Goa visited Tromsø last week. After seeing Steinsvik's I-box, and our projects at Strandkanten and Brinken, we finished the day with a lecture and discussion based on our projects Mosaïc::Region, Nordhavnen and Maniitsoq - and the search for planning tools that can work with complexity, openness and unknown futures.
We hope to hear from them again, when their research and publication are taking shape.. interesting people with an interesting project.

kalaallit visit

Politicians and planners from Nuuk paid us a visit this week to see and study some arctic housing and infrastructure projects.

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.

dialogue days

Peter Schultz Jørgensen, architect, planner and writer, is visiting us for some conversation, discussion and thinking on planning in our time. We have spent the last days in deep dialogue that is supposed to end up as a text in a book.
Peter is the author of the Weekendavisen articles Et kvalificeret brud and Den flydende by.

meet the president

The NAL president Kjersti Nerseth is visiting Tromsø and NAF as part of her norwegian tour. The aims are to inform about and discuss the new architecture politics, also on a local level. Thursday June 18 at 19.00 everybody interested is welcome to meet her and fellow NAL representatives at Formannskapssalen, Tromsø rådhus.

x-factor guided tour

Students from NTNU visited Tromsø and got a guided tour from Strandkanten, via Brinkvegen and Nøkken ending in Steinsvik's I-BOX.

Oulu MoNArchs

The international student group MoNArch from the Oulu school of architecture, Finland, visited us today and got a lecture and discussion with Gisle.

arctic visit

We got a visit from Mike Jacobs and students from Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation at Columbia University in New York. They are travelling the high north researching the realities of the arctic; climate changes, wildlife protection, oil and gass reserves, territorial claims.. We hope that you'll have a nice stay in Tromsø, and that you'll come up with creative solutions in your projects!

ecobox

Together with Dahl&Uhre arkitekter and Grønn Hverdag we have spent the last two days with Maisey and her ecobox course - one step closer to sustainability in buildings and energy integrated design..!

2008..

.. just started. We will continue our reports to you about:

aller/retour

We got a visit from extraordinary Yasmín, directly from México and graduation - congratulations miss Architect! After some days in Tromsø, with all kinds of weather, traditional food and great conversations she left together with Federico for a european tour. Thank you both for this time and see you soon!

C'est clair!

Some of the first days of the dark period (no sun above the horizon for the next two months) Clara Fraenkel of Ljusarkitektur visited Tromsø together with her collegue Deike Canzler to work with the lights of Strandkanten.