Oslo 3/3

One of the things that really struck me in Oslo was the shear volume of (re)development that was occuring - and not just around the Opera House, but to the West beyond the Royal Palace, and just in front of my hotel, the Government Plaza has also been under a long process of development since before the tragedy in 2011. There is also a new National Museum slated for opening in 2020, that is being constructed right next to the Nobel Peace Centre. It could just be that Oslo Sentrum/Centre is so compact (not much wider than the distance from Kent Uni to UCA iirc), that it has simply condensed the appearance of development. Granted, Oslo also has *many* districts, and I only wandered around maybe 3?

Vigeland Park is (in/near) the Majorstruen district (and for whatever particular reason, my inner voice goes full Geordie when saying Majorstruen); and it is named after a prolific sculptor - Gustav Vigeland - who signed a contract with Oslo municipality to provide him a studio, apartment & future museum; and in return the city would be provided almost all his works, past, current & future. Vigeland park was a major undertaking and was never completely finished (several planned gates are missing for instance), but the three key items were finished - the Wheel of Life, the Monolith & the Fountain.

Another structure I visited was the Villa Stenersen - one of the so called “Iconic Houses” (such as Villa Savoye”) that mark a key piece of international domestic architectural heritage. Unfortunately, I was unable to go inside as it is only open on Sundays (someone forgot to check ahead… *ahem*, whoops).

Ultimately, I ended up doing a long loop around from Vigeland Park, through the suburbs of Vinderen to Blindern & Oslo University (which I wanted to mosey around due to it being the location of a film I’ve seen - ‘Thelma’, as well as a friend’s old haunt), then hitched on the metro back through Majorstruen to Sentrum. That was a hot day.

I think I preferred Oslo to Copenhagen, but I would like to go back to both cities, although next time I think I’d prefer not to go alone. Visiting new places by yourself is a *lot* of fun, and I’ll still love to do so, but we’ll see ^_^.

Oslo 2/3

One of the other new developments I visited whilst in Oslo was the Snøhetta-designed Oslo Opera House, which itself is one of two cornerstones of redevelopment in that area - the other being the so-called ‘Barcode’ development of city offices that house prominent international businesses such as pwc & Deloitte (amongst others).

The lines & views of the Opera House lead to quite a few attempts at some playful photography. I’ll let you be the judge of how successful that has been.

Oslo 1/3

After a train cancellation nearly threw my entire travel plans off (I ended up getting to Oslo 4hrs later than planned), I was grateful that I even made it to the hotel on the Saturday. On the flip side, I did manage to spend a couple of hours wondering around Gothenburg - and popped into their Botanic Gardens for some shade. The train & bus ride up from Gothenburg to Oslo was rather lovely (and unsurprisingly) reminded me of Scotland in parts.

The first visit was to Oslo City Hall - designed by Arnstein Arneberg & Magnus Poulsson via competition awarded in 1918; and construction started in 1930 but was finished after WW2 in 1950. The interior felt almost mythical, with large murals and gorgeous stonework.

After wandering through City Hall, I walked over to Akershus Fort, and popped into the Resistance Museum which was thoroughly interesting - learning even more about Norway under occupation during WW2. A couple of pieces I already knew about - such as the Shetland Bus & the sabotage operation(s) against the heavy water plant (Operation Gunnerside). However, learning who Quisling was, along with how governments-in-exile operate and day-to-day survival in occupied Norway was very educational.

Following this, I headed back to the opposite side of the quay to Aker Brygge - a new development with the Astrup Fearnley Collection Gallery designed by Renzo Piano. Like a lot of modern gentrification & redevelopment projects, I was underwhelmed. I enjoyed elements of the Astrup Fearnley structure - such as the shadowplay within the courtyard, the gallery spaces themselves and at least one of the methods of rainwater collection designed into the roof.

Copenhagen

Last week I visited Copenhagen & Oslo (about 3.5 days in each). Both were lovely cities, although neither grabbed me quite like Berlin did.

After spending two days cycling round Copenhagen, I do feel that it is one of the easier ways to get around - especially if you want to cover the different districts quickly. I was staying in Vesterbro, just by Københavns Hovedbanegård (Central Station), and managed to get over to Christianshavn, & north to Refshaleøen. Didn’t quite manage to get as far as Århusgadekvarter (N. of the Inner City), or explore over to Fredriksberg.

Some highlights included the Danish Design Museum (which was well worth the look - graphics, furniture, architecture, city development, electronics, consumer goods, tonnes of stuff); the drydock in Refshaleøen (where part of a canal system is being constructed); and lovely food.

One of the biggest (…pun unintended) things I saw was BIG’s Amager Bakke waste conversion plant - which can be seen from pretty much anywhere from Indre By & Christianshavn. It is located between Christianshavn & Refshaleøen, and is still under construction. Another of BIG’s projects I encountered was the Urban Rigger floating container housing concept - which aimed to create a floating student accommodation using recycling shipping containers. Whilst I saw the proof-of-concept design floating somewhere north of Paper Island (incidentally, the location of a previous yeargroup’s site), I am uncertain as to whether the housing system was given the go-ahead.

There were some beautiful industrial warehouses that had been converted for use as bars, restaurants and clubs next to the Arts Commune (opposite the Police Station), which I unfortunately completely forgot to photograph! I did manage to get some photography done around the Arts/Culture area though which also comprised a music school & secondary school.

I barely scratched the surface of what there was in Copenhagen, but still managed to see a reasonable amount (if not necessarily catalogue it all). Plenty of reasons for a future (re)visit!

End of Year Show

For the past couple of weeks we’ve been prepping for the end-of-year show. It has been rather fraught at times, but we’re there. Just some tidying up to do on Monday, and then we’ll be set for the private view on Friday @ 16:00.

One year left. Oh, and a thesis to do over the summer. I really need to figure out what I want to write about…

Project 04 - Formative Review 2

We had our final crit/review prior to submission today (portfolio hand-in is in 4 weeks). I think it went ok - our tutor believes that I can push myself and my work to a level above that which I am currently achieving, which is v. positive; and I was also told that my presentation today was the clearer and more concise (which is also heartening - and about time since I’ve had 3-4 attempts to get it right now!) compared to my previous ones.

There is still a lot of work to be done - I still lack some preceding support pages, or just need to re-arrange and fill them out (such as the site analysis + history, which is a bit bare-bones atm, along with a “super-site” map with wider context). Nasios (my tutor) also thinks I can push out 1-2 good (as in, level above) pages each week over the next 4 weeks. I don’t wish to disappoint, for if I can, that will be a huge boost to me not just academically, but confidence-wise. I need to make sure I get some rest tomorrow, for now is the time to prepare for the sprint finish.

Also, that bloody technical 1:20 section w/ exploded axo is going to kill me. Really. I ain’t even kidding. >_<

Project 04 - Formative Review 1

We had our penultimate formative review of this academic year yesterday, and whilst I feel that I received useful feedback and have a good direction to go in, I’m still not optimistic about my progress. Maybe its the tiredness, or the looming deadlines (trust me when I say that 1 week passes quicker than you ever thought possible when you’re working 60hr+ weeks).

Anyway, onwards. I’ll be coming up with a timeline of sorts for the structure’s evolution and analysing how the Technology brief will best be attempted. Still need to work on the Communications portion - and we have another presentation next week for our Creative Practice module.

Tonight, I’m eating chocolate, playing games and watching movies. I need a night off.

Project 04 - Model Development

The project is ramping up rapidly now - despite the campus closure due to England’s aversion to snow. Last week was predominantly model making - both a 1:200 site model which was fabricated using both a CNC router (for the pine base) & laser cutter (for perspex & MDF pieces); along with plaster casts of 25x25x15mm & 50x50x15mm cuboids for volumetric concept modelling.

Translating my initial intuitive models to 1:200 site based concepts was, and still is a bit difficult, but I’m getting there. Having gone through 3-4 iterations (both physical and/or CAD based), there are still problems with my current iteration that I will have to fix on the go as it were. The crit is <2 weeks away, and we have a mini-brief for Technology to complete in that time as well if memory serves. There is also the continued Communications task, based around the keyword/concept of ‘folding’, (which I have attempted to wrap into the main project) we’ll see how that turns out.

I’ve had to take some personal time these past two days as I’ve had a pretty rough week and a bit, nothing major; just a lot of soul searching and a desire to put myself back on track. I really am grateful for the friends I have.

Whitstable (Part 2)

Took another trip up to Whitstable this morning to do some more photography. I’ve needed to take a couple of days to “reset” myself in a manner of speaking, been dealing with a lot of personal bollocks recently.

Work update to follow.