Re-Store: Petroleum
Fall 2023
The Re-Store Petroleum studio course built upon the assumption that Norwegian petroleum production will be phased out in the near future. This gigantic industry will leave behind an enormous amount of structures,
counting offshore installations like oil-rigs, housing-rigs, sub-sea installations, infrastructure and petroleum products, as well as land-based building structures, urban areas and industrial landscapes. The studio aimed to answer how we can reuse these remains in a meaningful way, how we determine their heritage value, and how they can form the basis for new forms of architecture. Being the main factor for national wealth and a monument of the 20th century, carrying both symbolic and social value, this industry deserves meaningful memorials.
The students were given existing structures as points of departure and asked to map the many different types and conditions, they were doing research on their material histories, qualities, values and potential for reuse, and developed architectural projects based on the findings. Petroleum and its many bi-products were examined as potential material for new forms.
