BUBBLE ARCHITECTURE BY DUS ARCHITECTS

DUS Architects is a Dutch company working with what they call public architecture. That means human-centered architecture that varies in between large urban strategies to small interventions like the one mentioned under.

The Bubble Building was a temporary project in the middle of Rotterdam centre for three weeks. Five-sided steel frames was lying inside baths of soap-bubble water encouraging people to interact and create their own architectural structures. A webblog was made to collect the images from the people using the pavillion.

I really like this project for its ability to create instant joy and interaction in the city based on a very simple concept. The cooperation is essential to make the building appear, and the experience of it lies in the making itself. The fantastic piece that you construct will eventially *pop”, and the building experience therefore has be stored in your memory. Somehow a temporary experience is therefore more beautiful, it forces you to be in the moment to be able to catch it all.

I also just want to add their manifest which I find inspiring and true: Look up more about these fantastic people at DUS Architects homepage.

MOMENTARY MANIFESTO
FOR
PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE

1. DO
Design by doing is architectural beta-testing. Build 1:1 models in the public domain that function as immediate site analysis, architectural test case and social condenser. Put your practice to theory. Do the unthinkable: build a manifest, write a building.

2. MAKE IT BEAUTIFUL
People like pretty things.

3. USE NEW OLD MATERIALS
Celebrate mass consumption. Reveal the beauty of the everyday, by using ordinary objects in a different manner. Look beyond traditional construction materials, and re-introduce old crafts with new fabrics. Create social value from worthless stuff.

4. COOK
Food is social construction material. It unites people. Cook, drink and dine together. A mere cookie can be the answer to a big brief.

5. CREATE A PUBLIC
Shakespeare said it: “all the world’s a stage”. Architects have the world’s largest audience. Discover for whom you are designing and respond to the res publica with the proper act. Public architecture is the staging of all events of life, and our tools can be those of performance artists.

6. MIND THE DETAILS
All details contribute to the architectural atmosphere. If you want people to meet, tie the drinks together and hand them out in pairs. A piece of rope is architecture too.

7. ACT UNSOLICITED
Reprogram the brief, the building and the profession. Consider re-use of vacant office buildings rather than designing new ones. Use your own office 24/7 and program the space as club at night. Partake in society, rather than architecture competitions.

8. BE PERSONAL
Establish human relationships. This social construction material is just as important as bricks and mortar. Communicate and educate. Host an excursion and exemplify the unknown. Step onto the street and speak the language of those who will live in your buildings.

9. PUT EVERYONE AROUND ONE TABLE
Different people have different agendas. Place the client, manager, municipality, resident and neighbour around one table and they will communicate. Everyone is amateur and professional. An amateur can be a true expert at “residing”, and a professional client may have no knowledge of architecture. Make the architecture at the table the subject of conversation and catalyst for the process. This creates mutual understanding, and speeds up the design process remarkably.

10. DESIGN THE RULES AND THE GAME
Arrive early. Architectural decisions are made in the urban planning process. Design this process and ensure a great outcome.

11. PLAY THE CITY
Play the city, don’t plan it. Cities are shifting. Incorporate existing bottom-up initiatives and let these inform the top-down. Design a script rather than a blueprint; be the director. Reserve space for change and celebrate the informal.

12. SHOW THE GENIUS OF THE LOCI
Reveal the potential of the place by building a temporary building overnight. Hand it over to the public, accompanied by one simple rule: a free stay in exchange for a personal contribution to the building. The qualities will show on site.

13. CONFUSE
Create architecture that is mutable and open to multiple interpretations. People will discover it and thereby make it their own. Architecture that confronts each person?s imagination creates opportunities for communication between the private and public domain, and between individuals.

14. BE BIASED
Carry a strong signature and be opinionated. Who wants to listen to someone with no ideas?

15. ABSTAIN FROM AUTHORSHIP
Celebrate change. See architecture as an open source; a gift in which others are challenged to participate. In order to bring about social relationships through architecture, one has to give up copyright claims.

16. BE THE CURATOR
Urban renewal is the future. Within extant city layouts, new architecture is about reprogramming; about social planning, temporary events, sports, education, art, and media. Find the right experts in these fields and curate the environment in which they can act together.

17. BE AN URBAN ARCHITECT
The public domain is the future. Real architectural quality often does not lie in the building, but in the public domain. Design this domain as if you would a facade.

18. BUILD MENTAL MONUMENTS
There’s always a need for places for people to gather. Combine the real with the virtual in pop-up buildings; like an analogue facebook or a physical webforum. Make momentary monuments: one-day events can last a lifetime in the collective memory of the visitor.

19. SMILE
Enjoy what you do and have fun.

PATRICK NADEAU

This guy has a great approach to the integration of nature in out urban society! All though it is a littlebit too sterile and “stylish” sometimes for my sake, I think he has a lot of great ideas and dare to challange and break rules. The pictures is almost without people, which I find quite strange, since I suppose the projects has to to with how humans experience these installations of his..

So take a look!! All though his site is in french.

“ALBUM” BY THE BOUROULLEC BROTHERS

Whatever these guys do, they inspire me A LOT! Now the Vitra Design Museum has put together a huge exhibition about them called “Album” which has the purpose to give an glimpse of how the two geniuses work in their processes. Models, drawings, sketchbooks and images is put together in a stunning way. It is almost as watching a futuristic or parallelled version of a museum of natural history.

OSLO, THE CITY OF THE FUTURE?

BUSINESS AS UNUSUAL.

We are now finished with a five weeks entrepreneur course here at KHiO, and it has been a really good experience for me.

As a designer, I have thought about business in a very abstract way, and I have struggled to see the connection between who I am and how my future would look like business wise. I think it is because I see everything that is out there, and I think that “I could never have made a business based on anything like that!” After the entrepreneurship-course at KHiO spring 2012, I realised that everything is actually very firmly connected together; me and my business. I am actually able to make a business out of what I think is good, and it will work!! It is just that it is very few that has the same values as me. My business should actually be an ultimate collection of who I am and what my personal, real passions, goals and visions are, materialised as a plan to convince the world to embrace that.

I also realize that by thinking of my master as a potential business I am able to work in a way that is more directed towards a potential market, and therefore my outcome could become somehow more «useful» in the end. It is somehow a struggle to do projects that are more than just internal and subjective “art”-projects. Because as designers we are creators, and have an urge to express ourselves. But by adding the business-aspect, it is easier to make the project go from something monologue into a dialogue; with the user, but also the system in which we live.

When I think about starting a business now, I am totally convinced that I am actually doing that. It is no way that I won’t fulfill my dreams about doing what I really want to do in my life. And it is SO easy, because I will be doing what I LOVE.

20 business tips that I have collected from our lecturers:

1. Dare to be the best.

2. What do you love?

3. Every idea has potential value.

4. Always renew yourself.

5. Work on your people skills.

6. Never work for free.

7. Have a pallette of offers.

8. Place your work, ideology and talents.

9. Be here, right now.

10. Don’t sell on mondays, sell on thursdays and fridays.

11. Be a happy person all the time.

12. Always make a contract/agreement.

13. Set customer targets.

14. Do not show everything to everyone.

15. Collect and talk about examples.

16. Ask for business cards.

17. Talk about who you are and how you work.

18. Visit other design studios.

19. Outsource everything that is easy.

20. Be personal, be yourself.

WHY BOTHER?

That is Michael Pollans (journalist, writer and a dedicated gardener.)  entry question as he in NY Times “Green Issue” starts telling about how growing your own food can contribute to solve climate change issues. As referred to by f.ex. Britta Riley in her TED talk. “Measured against the Problem We Face, planting a garden sounds pretty benign, I know, but in fact it’s one of the most powerful things an individual can do.” He goes on by saying: “to reduce your carbon footprint, sure, but more important, to reduce your sense of dependence and dividedness: to change the cheap-energy mind.”

This is one of his best points in my view: With”cheap-energy mind” he refers to the fact that with all the very cheap fossil fuel today we are able to distant ourselves from a lot of the processes that are so highly necessary in our lives, like growing our own food, getting the garbage obtained at our house etc. This mentality is so paralyzing that we actually loose our ability to take action in big questions like What We Face. Because what causing it is so distant from us and others closest responsibility, it is impossible for us to realize how to take action. We are so dependent on others supporting our lives, and also solving our problems.

I think that if we identify this evil circle; that the factor (fossil fuel) causing the problem itself (climate change), is actually also pushing us further away from the point where we are able to find solutions, we can realize our true role.

ACT

ACTION

ACTIVISM

photo: new Tokyo house by Ryue Nishizawa.

CHAIR FARM

It is time to start growing our furniture! It has been long predicted that with new rapid prototyping technology emerging, we will have new ways of producing furniture in the future! But maybe it’s not technology in itself that will save us.

Werner Aisslinger is doing major leaps with his new chair concept. As a believer in urban agriculture and other ways of integrating nature into our cities he is now litterally plowing new ground with “Chair Farm”. The project was showed at the Salone del Mobile-exhibition “Instant Stories” earlier this week.

via Dezeen.

PEOPLE MEET IN ARCHITECTURE

Raumlabor Berlin made this fantastic tool for the Biennale in Venezia in 2010! The chair can be placed in different ways when single, but can also be stacked together into fantastic structures for various functional purposes. Gotta love this project! (See a Vimeo-video here, and visit their site here.)

From their site:
Architecture is an experimental laboratory for a moment related to the participatory work practice in urban areas. Architecture is understood not as an object, but rather as history, a layer of the history of the place. As architects, artist we are more of activists, because we operate within the city. Architecture is a tool, in the search for a city of possibilities, the city of tomorrow!

Yes we do love the great ideas of the 60s 70s and the optimism which is inherent in changing the world at the stroke of a pen to the better. but we strongly believe that complexity is real and good and our society today does need a more substantial approach. therefore our spacial proposals are small scale and deeply rooted in the local condition…. BYE BYE UTOPIA!

GARDENS FOR VICTORY

This is a promoting and training video for americans to start up with gardening for Victory Gardens during WW2. During the war, 40% of Americas food production were made from farms and households connected to this organisation.

Close your eyes and imagine all the CO2 emissions and environmental unfriendly activities that are done only for you being able to buy a package of tomatoes in the grocery store. The packaging, the transport, the chemicals for keeping away insects, for making them more red (!) etc. What if you were growing these tomatoes yourself? Maybe it is about time to again start thinking about Gardens for Victory? A victory that will be the most important victory we’ll ever make, the victory over Global Warming, and over ourselves and our habits.

FOOD RULES FROM MICHAEL POLLAN. ANIMATED.

Michael Pollan’s Food Rules from Marija Jacimovic on Vimeo.

CASE STUDIES : NATURE AND TRANSFORMATION.

I made some small casestudies about these projects for a presentation in the Transformation project. Enjoy!

The highline in NYC is an old railway one level up from the streets where nature has grown wildly the last 30 years. It has been the medium for a lot of discussion, and has been close to being teared down by the government several times. But it have gotten a lot of support and more and more people have engaged with that its faith should not be to destroy what they see as a free space in the city environments. After being closed off for so many years and only visited by people breaking in to the area, it is now redesigned by architect Diller Scofido+Renfro and landscape architect company Field Operations to give this area of the city back to the people.

The changes this has had on the city is very clear, and it has become very popular. The shaping of the park is very sensitively and attentively designed, and the architect has focused on the balance between soft and hard materials, as well as planting new plants and designing the garden areas. People feel calm both inside and outside when they enter the park area that strechtes over many blocks in the city.

The transformation part is obvious, they have transformed the way New Yorkers experience their own city. In an urban environment, they have actually created a new way of experiencing nature. How it enhances and facilitate movement through nature I think is a very good grip to be able to create this experience of nature in a totally new way, made visible for us because nature itself did the first transformation steps. Then the situation and function is made stronger by humans transforming it into a concrete way of use.

http://thehighline.org/design/high-line-design

Truck Farm is part of a larger constellation of projects by Ian Cheney and Curt Ellis that aims to rethink our food sourcing and inject new, creative methodologies into America’s agricultural practice. Quote: “I think that, as a world that is predominately urban, we all have a stake on it. It makes sense to shine a light on the city and hidden infrastructure that we take for granted or don’t think creatively about”. So, viewed in this light, today’s urban infrastructure is merely a bed for tomorrow’s growth. I think that the effect a project like this might have can be quite large because they use methods that are so easy for people to understand and imply to their own lives. We can all do this, we can all have an impact and find solutions for the future.

The transformation part is here again that it has the possibility to change our mindset of how we look at the environment, and what kind of impact such small and easy steps can have. This is therefore a transformation of the garden concept it self. The idea of the garden is very flexible; it consists of earth and plants. It is dependent on light and water, but other than that it has a very floating matter that can be transformed into many situations, and take many forms.

http://truck-farm.com/#/Film

From their website.

“Founded in 2009 by Robert Shaw and Marco Clausen, the project was inspired by a trip Shaw took to Cuba, where he saw urban farmers not only growing their own food, but also creating communities around urban agriculture. Mr. Shaw and Mr. Clausen, who are not gardeners themselves, are learning alongside the community they are creating.

Moritzplatz, the site where the garden began, once served as a motorway junction, hidden and obscured by the Berlin wall for over half a century. With the help of the Berlin community, the site was cleared away of garbage, and now, a year later, the mobile urban farm continues to grow, migrate, change, and form new relationships.

The Prinzessinengarten is open to the public, providing a space for people to work in the garden, visit the cafe, learn about biodiversity and planting techniques or just relax and enjoy the oasis of green in the middle of the city. The produce is all grown without pesticides or artificial fertilizers, and is available for purchase. And with mobile planting beds, the garden is designed to be moved around.”

This is of course something that reminds us of alotmentgardens we can find here in Oslo. But in this case the design structure is more open and inviting and enables people actually to join and contribute as well as experiencing it as a visitor whilst the gardens in Oslo are more closed off. Since they are mobile, they have now moved them inside for winter, inside a big market hall in Kreutzburg.

The transformation is here visible by insertions made into an open city space. The modular forms is together creating a whole, a landscape. Easy to grasp, but still flexible and floating. The mobility and assembly is essential for its functional and formal characters.

http://prinzessinnengarten.net/

Lufa Farms is a company that grow food (vegetables) on rooftops inside greenhouses in Montreal, Canada. They wanted to start growing food “for real” in urban environments. But also they wanted to change the delivery chain from farm to customer, so they therefore started delivering directly to the customers from the farm. They began their delivery last april, and already has almost a thousand subscribers. This could be extremely profitable in the future as well as making a lot of change to the city, the society and our planet.

As I see it this project has many levels of transformation: first of all they transform how we access food. It is actually delivered on our doorstep, and it is purely fresh. Second, they change how cities are thought. Growing food on rooftops is suggesting a new way of planning cities. Third, they make an impact on the environment. To grow food locally is good, and to remove a lot of transportation is even better. As a fourth they directly transform the building they use for the farm.

https://lufa.com/

This is a project that this woman Britta Reilly started to give people the tools to grow food themselves inside their own homes. By making an open-source system based on materials that everyone can find/buy and use where they are, everyone can build the gardening system for free right where they are. When they released it as an open source-system, they pointed out everything that was wrong with it to make a common platform for everyone to contribute, experiment and improve it. They now have over 20000 people using their system all over the world, constantly improving it and adapting it to their own environments.

The transformation part is very clear to me; they enable people to quite easily grow food inside their own homes, as well as transforming the way to accessing the information about it. They make change locally, where people are, and the people that go together, the larger the impact. But in which degree does the user interact with the plants? Do they actually persuade the value of actually taking care of a plant, another kind of life?

http://www.rndiy.com/

The Pothole Gardener is planting small mini gardens all around London. He is, by very little material and simple facilitation, posing a lot of change in the urban environments. This activistic approach to integrating nature into urban environments is called Guerrilla Gardening. But this is maybe one of the better examples. Not all of them have such an impact as these do.

http://thepotholegardener.com/

 

SUMMMARY

These examples has a lot to do with urban farming or urban agriculture as it is called. But it is important for me to point out that this is actually not ideas that the western world has created, they are inspired by how cultures all around the world for many years has grown their food wherever it is possible, as well as a way of building a community. It is maybe just about time that we start doing it as well.

It is also important to me at this point to try to define activities with nature not only as growing food, all though it is very obvious. But that is what I want to test out in this small project.

BUSINESS MODEL GENERATION

We are having a business-course now, and I found this site called Business Model Generation. It is based on a book with the same name, and their website is very informative and has a lot of tools and information.

HERE you can see a sheet that is very useful for mapping out your business

And HERE you can read a 75 pages long outtake from their book.

 

FLOWER BIKES AMSTERDAM

In Amsterdam a lot of the bicycles are like living gardens with flowers both real and fake pointing out in every direction! This is something I also am going to do very soon.. But I think I will try to establish a growing flower bed instead of just bare flowers.

CRIS – CENTER FOR INTERACTIVE RESEARCH ON SUSTAINABILITY AT UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.

Thank you, Rosa!

NATURE INDUSTRY HUMAN

(here I was going to have an image of an infection, but I just couldn’t manage to scroll down more at google search! EWW!!!! But if you want to do a try: do!)

The human race has very parasitic features when it comes to the relationship between us and planet Earth. Parasitism is defined as a non mutual relationship between two species, where one of the parts benefits on expense of the other, the host. “Traditionally parasite referred to organisms with lifestages that needed more than one host.” (Wikipedia) We use 1,3 earths as it is today, could it classify us as parasites? But when one think of the pure biological relationship between us, is it then so? I think not; it is not before industrialism that the relationship came out of balance. Industry is fed with natural resources that is transformed into materials that is very hard to biodegrade. At the same time it is  destroying the ecological balance where it is located by creating a lot of toxic waste during its process, destroying the soil etc. It has almost become organic in it’s complex form. So therefore, is it instead maybe appropriate to define industry as parasitic? It has been born, and is not able to live by itself, but without it humans wouldn’t be able to live in the same way we do today. We created industry, but can it be classified as a form of species?

WHAT ON EARTH!

This funny animated short-movie was nominated for an Oscar in 1966, and describes how fictional extraterrestrials mistakenly describes cars as the inhabitants of earth and humans as their parasites.

GARTNERFUGLEN ARKITEKTER

I found these guys, and they are so strange that I have to love them!!

They work very conceptual with an architectural language, and moves between architecture, furniture and installation. Very inspiring!

TEMPURB STRUCTURES, OSLO.

More images, from Oslo.

Scaffold structure used for stage design at one of the stages at school.

Scaffold structure used for stage design at one of the stages at school.

Good smelling herb going-to-be installation(?) found at KHiO.

Bad sign design in Karl Johan

Scaffold structure near school.

TEMPORARY URBAN STRUCTURES IN LONDON

I was in London a little while ago, and found some interesting architectural structures there.

Scaffold construction near King's Cross

Me taking a photo of it.

Childrens architecture workshop at Central Saint Martins

Cute models made of cardboard and straws!

Boxpark, a large pop-up shopping mall made out of shipping containers in Shoreditch!

Exposure design shelving system at Folk, Brick Lane.

 

NATURE AND TRANSFORMATION

This is a small report from my 3-weeks project here at school with making an inside garden for one of the cantina rooms here at KHiO.

FORORD:

Mitt masterprosjekt handler om mennesket og natur og hvordan design kan fungere som et mellomledd for å minske avstanden mellom oss. Gjennom masterstudiet så langt har jeg utforsket flere sider ved dette emnet, blant annet gjennom temaene nærhet, og mat. Min filosofi og motivasjon springer ut på bakgrunn av den forholdsvis allmenne oppfatningen av at vi i løpet av industrialisert tid har blitt mer og mer avskjært fra naturen, og jeg mener at vår belastning på Jorda er en følge av dette. Ved å ikke være i kontakt med de økosystemer som finnes i naturen, kan vi heller ikke se vår plass i naturen, ei heller evne fullt ut å se hva slags påvirkning vi har på den. Vi føler rett og slett ikke noe for den nettopp fordi vi ikke lenger “kjenner” den.

Jeg ser mer og mer tydelig i prosjektet mitt nødvendigheten og påvirkningen av å dyrke og produsere egen mat. En kolossal stor skade skjer ved transport og før, under og etter dyrkingen av de matvarene vi får i butikken. Det ender opp med stor skade på naturen, men også oss mennesker! Jeg ønsket derfor å utforske hvordan dette kan gjøres i offentlig rom; det er så vanvittig mye plass der ute som kunne bli brukt til hagebruk, og som i tillegg kan transformere steder og folk på veldig.

I tillegg ser jeg hvordan jeg som designer må kunne lage ting som folk faktisk bruker, og spesielt på et offentlig sted som forrommet til kantina på KHiO (stedet jeg valgte) ville jeg finne ut hvilke faktorer som gjør at folk skulle begynne å bruke et hagerom som dette, og hvordan jeg kunne forandre bruken av et tomt og lite funksjonelt rom som det er.

LÆRT:

1: Verdi mapping

Jeg snakket med Maziar litt om dette, og det er viktig å definere hva brukeren får igjen for prosjektet. Dette kan gjøres ved å sette opp seks punkter hvorav tre første er kjerne-kriteriene, mens de tre siste er synergi-kriterier. Mine definerte jeg slik:

#1 Transformasjon av omgivelsene- forandre bruken og utseendet i forrommet til kantinen

#2 Do It Yourself – bruke enkle verktøy som gjør at folk enkelt kan plante og lage hagen selv, og som igjen får folk til å innse at dette er noe de kan gjøre selv hjemme også.

#3 Bevissthet rundt miljø og menneskers påvirkning på jorda

///

#4 Mat – aktiviteten vil faktisk generere mat for brukerne

#5 Sosialt fokus/sosiale aktiviteter

#6 Gjenbruk/resirkulering

Slik jeg ser det driver jeg med verdiskapning, så for meg var det viktig å lære meg å finne metoder for å finne og definere verdi-resultatet av prosjektene mine. Det handler ikke om “jeg vil gjøre dette, fordi…”, men om “jeg vil at brukerene skal oppnå dette, derfor…”

2: Prosess

Jeg er veldig opptatt av designprosessen, og jeg ønsket å utfordre meg selv på dette området. I dette prosjektet ønsket jeg å komme meg ut blant brukerene med en gang. Det spilte ingen rolle om det var estetisk eller ei, bare at det var logisk og enkelt å forstå. Det hadde heller ingenting å si hvordan aktiviteten ble gjort, om de gjorde det riktig, om plantene faktisk kom til å gro eller hva. Jeg ville bare få de i aktivitet. Dette er en inngangsmåte som jeg tar med meg som en nyttig erfaring, mye fordi det faktisk fungerte, og også fordi jeg lærte en hel del om hva som faktisk fikk i gang interaksjonen/aktiviteten, noe jeg vil snakke om litt senere.

Men det dumme var at utover dette hadde jeg ingen plan. Jeg så for meg at designet ville utvikle seg på stedet, og ut fra aktivitetene og behovene. Men en designprosess behøver faktisk mer struktur enn dette. Jeg har akkurat fått en illustrasjon av Dori:

Jeg ser nå i ettertid at dette passer veldig med hvordan jeg tenker, og at jeg egentlig prøvde å gjøre alle stegene 1-7 ved å kreere rett inn i brukerisituasjonen, noe som jeg ser på som en smart taktikk. Man lærer vanvittig mye av å det, av å se hvordan det faktisk fungerer. Det er også utrolig kommunikativt; jeg fikk så utrolig mye tilbakemelding på det jeg drev med; mange var veldig interesserte i det jeg drev med, og ved å ha designet mitt der ute klarte jeg å fiske opp en hel del viktige relasjoner. Aktivitet fostrer aktivitet. Men for å virkelig drive en prosess framover fungerere dett bare delvis; jeg må samtidig tenke ennå mer på de andre stegene ved siden av: visjon/scenarioer, samle data, re-definere, mediere, samkreere osv. En designer vil alltid måtte jobbe på papiret med denne delen av prosessen, noe som også igjen kan kommunisere til brukere og andre involverte, og skaffe feedback på helt andre plan.

3: Planter

Will it grow??? =/

Jeg er egentlig ganske “grønn” når det kommer til plantedyrking. Jeg har vel egentlig ikke bedrevet denne typen aktivitet siden jeg var barn så jeg hadde mye basiskunnskap å lære meg, men det kom sakte men sikkert tilbake. I tillegg ville jeg dyrke innendørs, og det er selvfølgelig en del utfordringer knyttet til dette. Hvilke planter passer best til inneklimaet? Hvor fort gror det? Hva slags forhold må egentlig legges til rette for å gro planter inne? Dette er ting jeg ikke tok så mye stilling til men som jeg selvfølgelig er nødt til å se på dersom jeg skal gjøre et lignende prosjekt senere igjen i masterstudiet; det er et eget fagområde.

4: Folk og interaksjon

Interaction!!!

Tracks of activity.

Noe av den viktigste kunnskapen jeg har lært ved å gjøre dette prosjektet handler om mennesker. Det er ikke lett å jobbe med relasjonell design på denne måten, og det krever kanskje mest av alt praktisk erfaring. Men jeg fant ut en del faktorer for å få folk til å interagere med det jeg gjør:

#1 Plassering: man må plassere installasjonen på en måte som er litt “in your face” for at folk først og fremst skal legge merke til det, men også for at folk skal kunne se tydelig hva det er de faktisk har med å gjøre.

#2 Estetikk: Jeg har jobbet med en “Quick and Dirty”-estetikk, og jeg tror på et workshop-aktig formspråk. Jeg tror det handler om å skape et slags lite mini-univers som har et sterkt konsept.

#3 Verktøy: jeg tror det er viktig for folk å se at det er lagt fram verktøy som de kan bruke. Jeg prøvde på dette hele veien, men jeg følte at det skjedde noe da jeg la fram en saks og “blomstervannere”. Det gjør det lettere å forstå at man kan “være med” når man ser dagligdagse objekter/et objekt som forteller tydelig om sin funksjon. Jeg ønsket også å bruke helt enkle D-I-Y-verktøy som brukt emballasje.

#4 Informasjon/illustrasjon: Jeg ønsket å prøve å la objektene/systemet kommunisere for seg selv, så jeg organiserte “plantingen” på en måte jeg fant lettforståelig. Men jeg så etter hvert nødvendigheten av litt mer skrevet informasjon, så jeg skrev “Vann planten din” på flaskene jeg satte ut. Som sagt tror jeg at man må tenke et helhetlig konsept for at interaksjonen skal skje, hvor også tekst og illustrasjon i en eller annen form spiller inn. Dette må jeg eksperimentere litt med.

#5 Tid: Jo lenger tid det gikk, jo flere ble med. Noe nytt og fremmed blir gjerne til noe kjent og kjært, hvertfall når det kommer til natur tror jeg.

#6 Aktivitet: Aktivitet er en av de viktigste faktorene ved interaksjon. Det gjelder både visualisert aktivitet, at man ser at andre har deltatt. Dette visualiserte jeg gjennom å lage et hengesystem for å vise sterkere hvor mange som hadde laget en blomsterpotte, og er også viktig at det fremgår at det er noe som må “fylles ut”, at det er ledige plasser. Men det er også viktig at man ser fysisk aktivitet i installasjonen, og her kan designeren være med og spille en rolle, jeg tror rett og slett designeren ofte kan være mer synlig i slike situasjoner, spesielt i starten for å dra ting i gang.

5. Transformasjon

Suggested solution; a wooden flexible tied-together structure.

Status quo; many people have planted and they actually also seems to be taken care of. It is about time to repot them to give them some more space.

Transformering er det vi designere driver med, og i arkitektur er det et definert begrep. Jeg har jobbet med det som man kan kalle “innsetting”(insertion) hvor jeg ikke rører den eksisterende bygningsmassen, men setter ting inn. Det er jo på en måte dette møbler er. Jeg endte opp med et fleksibelt system inspirert av og basert på enkle bambuskonstruksjons-teknikker. Jeg ville lage noe som er og som man føler er en levende struktur inne i rommet, som kan transformeres ved å vokse og krympe etter behov. Den er åpen(transparent i konstruksjon),  som ikke stenger for lyset som kommer inn, men heller kommer til å danne et skyggespill. Jeg har designet det slik at hylleplater er tenkt satt inn i strukturen, men det har vært snakk om at strukturen i seg selv består av elementer hvor plantene kan settes, noe jeg synes er en interessant tanke.

Jeg mener jeg vil kunne klare å transformere rommet ved hjelp av mitt system, og jeg tror folk vil ønske å være med. Det kan være en sosial aktivet på skolen å bygge systemet. Det er plassert i en l-form som underbygger dagens gangsoner, men som samtidig beskytter rommet innenfor disse. Systemet kan bygges ganske høyt (tre meter) noe som er nødvendig i et såpass stort rom. Jeg ser i tillegg at systemet kan adopteres til andre steder, det er ikke stedsbundet.

Jeg har også jobbet med transformasjon av mennesker, noe som jeg føler er det viktigste vi designere kan gjøre i dag. Det er egentlig ikke bare sosial transformasjon heller, men en slags sosialpsykologisk transformasjon. Hvordan endre holdningene til folk? Jeg jobber fortsatt med dette, og det er det er vanskelig å forstå hva man skal gjøre, og vanskelig å måle. Men jeg tror jeg er litt på vei.

KONKLUSJON:

A gardener?

Jeg føler jeg har vært igjennom et veldig lærerikt prosjekt, og det ble på mange måter mer et pilotprosjekt enn det jeg gjorde i høst. Flere og flere starter å bruke hagen, og det er snart tid for å potte om alt som vokser og vokser. I tillegg ser det ut til at folk tar vare på ting uten meg, hvilket jo er fantastisk! Jeg har lært mye om folk, og hva slags rolle design kan spille. Så jeg tar med meg det jeg innså siste dagen før prosjektet var over; jeg har hele tiden trodd at jeg har prøvd å designe og legge til rette for en innendørs hage, men det jeg egentlig har prøvd å gjøre er å designe en gjeng med gartnere.

sO WHaT iS A gaRDeNeR?

priest – a person that gathers people. Always open and welcoming.

doctor – can see illness and heal, taking care of everyone.

mum – always putting food on the table

editor – able to take away what is bad and lift up what may become good.

weathergod – providing the right weatherconditions at the right times