Master project 1 - spring semester 2024
to Snow building workshop
to Clay building workshop
to Willow building workshop
to Master project 1 - autumn semester 2023
I started an Instagram page for my Master project that can be found here:
I am working on a workshop series called “Building with natural materials” as my MA1 Master project. The series consists of three workshops that are building with snow, clay and willow. The idea is to design and build small temporary structures or shelters with co-creators in public spaces out of materials we ourselves collect from nature and use as such. I am trying to collect a group by inviting people from MAPS, KHiO and the architecture school. Now I am planning the workshops, writing invitations and making small try-outs.
In the current state of climate crisis natural resources need to be used in a responsible way based on circulation. In today’s world, what kind of material marks can we leave of ourselves, if any? Some things are supposed to outlast us, such as museums. Buildings in themselves store memory, knowledge, skills and resources. But should new buildings be made to last forever or to return to nature themselves? The different workshops will demonstrate different lengths of time the different natural material pavilions can last. They connect us in different ways to the nature, all of them requiring a close observation of the cycle of the year and the weather. They also change differently - melting, dissolving, growing / dying.
In the snow building workshop, the aim is to think of an interesting site in a public space for a snow building. What kind of a snow building it could accommodate? What would the building try to say? We plan and sketch together how the building would look like, how it could function and think about building methods, tools needed and execution of the process. When is the weather good enough for the building process and what is possible to make of the kind of snow that is available at that moment? After the building is finished, we can arrange some kind of an event there, such as maintenance meeting of the melting building.
In the clay building workshop I want to make visible the possibilities, challenges, meanings and beauty that unburned clay has as a material and that are in many ways underestimated for example in the current building industry in the Nordic countries. The clay building could be located for example in an abandoned brick factory building by Alnaelva. The new space could in the best case point out potential the existing building has, for example to become a meeting point for people sharing an interest in building with natural materials. Another possibility I’m thinking of is to make a clay building in a previous clay digging place, such as Torshovdalen. Putting unburned and burned clay side by side like this, I want to highlight the influence that human processing can have on the circulation of materials.
For the final part of the workshop series, I am going to suggest a workshop of building a living willow shelter at Losæter for our Production 2 course. I am interested in working in dialogue with the living willow structures and different shelters made of natural materials already in Losæter that present an alternative way of building in the Bjørvika neighbourhood. Losæter is a perfect location for organising a workshop since many workshops have been arranged there and the activities there are based on communal work. I want to form a group consisting of the people already in Losæter and people that can be new to it but share the same values and interests, in this case building with natural materials.
I am planning of documenting the workshops by making a series of artist books called “How to make: a snow castle, a little clay house, a living willow shelter”