2024
Students: Alexander Glushko, Chenjie Hu, Edouard Lemoisson, Estere Savicka, Francesca Spada, Ga In Sim, Jeffrey Li, Julia Petrachenko, Leo Duyck, Lisa von Schaewen, Louis Queloz, Lyuye Gao, Mariana Pinho, Marie Langholz, Neus Bosch, Nicolas Gemelli, Noémie Guillouzic, Oscar Larfeuille, Paulina Beron, Phileas Schulhof, Pietro Trentini, Raul Sartorius, Saga Montell, Sebastian Brantner, Sofia Di Nunzio, Toni Bosch, Xuanjia Ye, Wai Sum, Zaida Vasconcelos.
Source: Library of Congress.
i. Territory
The complete and synchronic image visible in the map of Oslo is the result of the constructions of its various generations. The city’s earliest traces are medieval, still visible today as ruins at the base of the Ekeberg hill, where Oslo was founded in 1049. These traces reveal a physiocratic system of production tied to natural resources. The primary aesthetic forms in the territory were monasteries with inner gardens that controlled farms and churches such as the Cathedral of Saint Hallvard. The only connection to the inland region was the Alna River. In
1624, after a fire destroyed the medieval city, Oslo was rebuilt westwards, in the shape of
a grid with clear Renaissance inspiration, north of the Akershus fortress. This grid
became the urban nucleus and the territory developed futher along a series of branches connecting
the various inland farms to the Akershus fortress and the new harbor being constructed. The city
structure mirrored the productive system, primarily based on trade.
The city’s axis of development shifted towards the Akerselva River, the main connection
to the forests inland for timber trade.This level within the palimpsest is significant because the farms and roads connecting them to the central grid trace a spine for all subsequent urban development, offering insights into the current morphology. Oslo’s suburbs grew around these same farms, so that today’s neighborhoods retain their old names. At the ends of these roads, churches, chapels, and cemeteries were built, mimicking the grid-like urban and road systems of these suburban areas. The grids of cemeteries, mapped across the city, represent the entire suburban development system. During industrial development, the urban compass and primary axis shifted again, moving from the Akerselva River. As Oslo became the capital, the Alna River regained importance as the most efficient transportation system for industries, connecting the inland region to the harbour. Around the river, the city’s main railway was built, reinforcing this axis and connection. The synchronic coexistence of all these forms, eras, and generations constitutes the structure and understanding of Oslo’s urban fabric.
- ii. Object
- Is there a greater solitude than that of an Egyptian mummy cataloged in foggy London, lying in the shadowless world of fluorescent light? Everything stolen from the depths of the earth demands the return of the magic of history. Objects can be reborn and find their place in their new context.
- —Sverre Fehn, “Three Museums”
There is something sublime in decomposition. It expresses both the transience of a being and its vitality, otherwise impossible to notice. In the object analyzed—the Økern Nursing Home, built by Fehn in 1955—this dialectic is intentionally expressed. On one hand, a strong rational grid of walls and pillars imposes itself on the terrain, hosting small cabins where elderly residents live. On the other hand, these same structures open through large windows to the surrounding garden, allowing nature to enter and establish a dialectical relationship between the rational and the irrational, the unplanned. The building develops on a single floor, organized around two cloisters separated by common rooms and restaurants. The references abound, but one connection stands out: the relationship between this single building and the surrounding territory and productive systems. In a suburban area bordering the industrial part of the city, Fehn mimics the structures of medieval Oslo convents. All the cells face the garden or the external landscape, enclosed by rows of trees. In this space, each inhabitant’s vitality is expressed through the personalization of their private space.