No longer a fringe pursuit, transformation will arguably in large part be the future of architectural practice. The demand for a more sustainable building culture necessitates reuse first and new-build second. However, these seemingly opposing approaches are not mutually exclusive, as adapting an existing building for continued or new use frequently involves transformation through addition.
This semester the Transformation in Practice studio will center on the city's periphery to build into, on top of and around Oslo's suburban idyll. The studio will employ a typical architectural commission, transforming and extending an ordinary detached house. Designing domestic extensions in the suburbs is often the bread and butter of architectural practice in the early years. Although the mundane world of suburbia may feel like a stepping stone towards more lofty commissions, they usually entail modest size projects that require complex problem-solving. Nevertheless, they often hold the seeds of more significant ideas. So, the reciprocal ecosystem of house and garden will be essential as the studio asks: ‘is densification possible without the wasteful demolition of existing buildings and environments?’
The residential neighbourhoods of Oslo are a patchwork. The townhouses of Ullevål Hageby or Arctanderbyen are modeled on the British garden cities. The Byggmesterfunkis in Tåsen and Vinderen are Norwegian interpretations of Bauhaus modernism. Sveitserstil in Nordstrand travelled from the Berlin school of the mid-nineteenth century before finding its way into the design of domestic houses along the newly built Norwegian railway. Many of the timber buildings in Rodeløkka are vernacular houses moved from the outskirts of Oslo during the Industrial Revolution. Between these categorisable types is a plethora of ordinary suburban vernaculars that freely mimic, translate, and appropriate their neighbours while showing a noteworthy resistance to the influence of "High Architecture".
More than two-thirds of Oslo's inhabitants live outside the inner city, making the need to densify existing neighbourhoods a point of contention. The current dilemma is how to handle a forecast of continued growth inside a perimeter that is sanctified to protect the natural environments surrounding it. Crossing the line towards the outback is a no-go zone, and there is strong opposition to building tall buildings. One of the primary sustainability strategies involves increasing density within already built-up areas to diminish the need for cars, reducing CO2 emissions and protecting green spaces in urban environments.
The changing regulation for building individual houses has the clear ambition of preventing further densification of suburban areas with detached housing. While city officials are considering the implications of such a revision, the municipality put a temporary building ban in place. A divisive measure, the building ban was lifted on the 15th of February this year. In the age of climate change and circular economy, the value of everything that already exists increases. Desirable, yet environmentally inefficient, the detached house with its private garden will need to be radically reimagined.
This is architecture as general practice, working on ordinary everyday things. Working within the constraints and resources of a particular site and its environs, the studio will engage with the changing measures put in place by the regulations. The output of the studio will consist of well resolved projects with distinctive formal qualities built on clear intentions. The new architecture of the extension must enhance the existing place through a more sustainable form of development, one of addition without subtraction. Depending on the site, projects will engage with the transformation, connection and extension of existing buildings, as well the design of autonomous new additions.
The studio is closely linked to the practice work of Kastler Skjeseth Architects.
