Lullaby to bergen

Festplassen, Bergen. Thursdag night. Lullaby to Bergen.

Farewells

I delivered my master and passed. I am leaving Bergen by the end of this month. Slowly I've started the archiving of things that have accumulated during the last 6,5 years. Most things I hope to sell or give away. Some I keep. Nights on my veranda are the most beautiful.

Project description on 6 days left

Project discription - BAS DIPLOMA 2010 - Birgitte J. Haug

SUCHNESS

AN INVESTIGATION OF INTEGRATION AND FLOW

A Perception, freedom and space

I saw this last project as an opportunity, and a necessity, to investigate how I can work with architecture, to create a platform and background for myself to grow on, with what is most important to me. Hence I wanted to investigate the role of space in relation to perception of reality and the way we see the world. How much can space do?

I entered my project philosophically and theoretically through the social anthropology text. Here I discussed the individual in relation to culture, investigating concepts such as freedom, fear, perception and projection (and reflection). I was trying to understand what people are, and why there is so much insecurity and fear. There reigns a general understanding that perception is subjective, but people fail to realize that this is a fact 100% of the time. The social anthropologist Roger M. Keesing discribed the way we see the world as perceived through filters, or cultural glasses. Our background, cultural references etc filter the input of our senses and interpret it according to subjective experience. We can never take our glasses off, he says, but we can see them in the reflection of the glasses of someone else. Keesing is mainly talking about cross culture experience, however if you apply this to any individual in any situation it is coherent with both Western and Eastern philosophy. Becoming more aware of ones filters would bring about freedom.

B Integration in every situation

Today people from many cultures are represented in most nations, and there are problems with integration. This is a social problem of society, but the way I wanted to attack it was not in a general sense, but micro scale. I believe change grows from within an individual.

C Bergen

I started my investigation in Bergen registering the general situation. I walked for days making maps of culture / institutions / shops / eat&drink / housing. I made a separate map for the shops, eat&drink & culture run by immigrants. From the maps I could read a lot about zoning in the city, and according to my intention of improving integration, I decided on two places in the city where to perform acupuncture. Presenting such difference in the urban space and the program I propose I believe the two projects support each other in existence.

D Site one – Skostredet – Culture – many meets many

This area is the alternative backyard of Bergen. There are many small cultural movements in the area, BIKS (Bergen International Culture Center) being one of them. BIKS has around 60 member organizations (mostly immigrant or international cultural movements) and administrates rooms for these to organize events. The rooms are the cheapest the organizations can get, and the standard is not bad, however there lacks communication to street level and there is no place for people of the different organizations to promote their existence nor for them to meet each other. Interviewing a representative for one of the organizations also led me to the lack of office space. Today only the administration has an office, but the organizations don't. Instead of building an entire new cultural house, I decided that this place needed a platform for meeting; BIKS people with people from other activities in the area. It lacked the larger scale found elsewhere in the more established cultural scene. I propose a building that has on the ground level a café for international food&drinks + an area for hanging out. There is a sound installation in this area where you can listen to different languages. On the above floors you can bring you coffee and sit in different areas inside or outside on verandas. There are installed small scenes in the stairs. On these floors also lie offices shared by the organizations. The offices have windows out into the sitting area, allowing the the organizations to be visible and to demonstrate activity. I left this site with the programming and the concept, to be able to work thoroughly site two.

E Sisterhoods & brotherhoods

I met a woman that is a teaching immigrant girls and she told me that school is one of the few places many girls get to go that is outside of their family or cultural sphere. I asked myself what could be a program that would attract me that would also attract a girl of a different cultural, social or economic background. I realized that many activities are so segregating today. At sports there you have to be within a certain age, be fit, probably you have a local identity to that team too. Most encounters between people from different areas of society might be happening girl-boy-night-out. This is maybe not a very lucky situation, and not when one is most open to seeing through ones own filters. Exposure to opposition on an unsafe background might not lead to integration, rather segregation. I realized the potential and value of friendships between people of the same sex, and saw that in my life I have no contact with women much younger nor much older than me. I think this is unnatural. Three days later the project came to me.

F Site two – Nøstet – nature – one meet oneself and the other too

I chose this site because it is on a established cultural axis in the city, however representing a very traditional culture. I wanted to increase the flow of different kinds of people in the area. Exploding the perception of the city center as confined and one-dimensional.

G The bath

Suchness is a translation from Japanese meaning the theory that physical intimacy leads to emotional intimacy. This goes for the project on site one too, however had most impact on this main project. A bath. A place to experience the water, so important in Norway. However many people cannot in the most common way, because personal, cultural or religious views have them not bathing with people of the opposite sex. Also bathing is a very intimate and personal experience that should not be conflicted with sexuality. In the program I solve this by having e.g. Mondays for women, Tuesdays for men, Wednesdays for families etc.

This bath is a place to come to be grounded in oneself. Its proximity to the city center makes it a place to visit at the end of the day, it's not a full spa experience, however simple low tech water-to-body experiences. To meet someone else one must meet one self. You are at the bath, so are other people. You don't have to talk to them, but they are also there, also sharing an intimate situation. You can see each other.

H Approaching

The bath is composed of a series of situations/rooms that come one after the other. These filters are meant to one after the other take away stress and thoughts. You can say it is a section project. Coming from the city you meet a new surface that tilts and make waves, creating social situations. The further out to the port the smaller and less frequent are these situations. It is about valuing the calm loneliness one has in nature, and also present at the site today.

I Some concepts for the building

Thick walls. Clean space. Walls can have rooms inside them, stairs or shelves. Massive wood for the dry and damp part. Concrete for the wet part. Verticals and horizontals within the building.

J The inside – intimate section

From the port you cross a bridge to come onto the building. The first room is the reception and a tea room. This room is constructed in massive wood, and the relatively small floor space rest under a 6,5 meter high ceiling. There are small windows over the East and South facade letting light in, however it's not about the view. Through a hall you get to either one of the wardrobes. The wardrobes have three different situations: 1) change rooms, small, but tall spaces with skylight; 2) the open room; 3) a mezzanine reached by ladder/steep stairs, exploiting the space above the toilets which has a lower ceiling height. From the wardrobes, through the hall where the toilet is reached, are the washrooms. This is not a shower area. Wardrobes might be social, washing is not, it's very intimate and private. This space is contrasting light and darkness. Every wash box has a soft stone to sit on. Water is poured to a vase or cup and then onto the body. One wash box is bigger, for handicapped or parent with children. This wash box has a skylight shaft, thus higher ceiling height than the rest of the room. On top of the light shaft rests a small pool to catch rainwater, so that the light that comes down the shaft is reflected through the water and dances. From the wash rooms you enter a larger space, at first with identical ceiling height as the wash room, then it opens up, being the tallest room of the dry. This is a zone between the washrooms and the bath itself. Windows high on the wall lets in shadows and light coming through the leaves of trees from the secret garden (see next point). In the walls there is a small space to sit down (a resting place for during or after the bath). Stairs go down a dark hallway to the bath. There is also an elevator. On the below level you reach a platform that is covered with sea water only when the tide is at it's highest. At one end rain water is allowed to come in. At the other end you can walk from under this low space into the large bath space. Sea water fills the space and moves with the tide, leaving the interior as still sculptures. There is a sauna resting under the lower space, and a heated salt water bath out in the open space. Stairs and levels go down into the sea water. Light come in from cuts on the South facade and also a larger window on the West wall. The light is reflected on the waves and dances on the inside walls. The massive concrete walls create together with the water surface a special acoustic that encourages making sound, with your voice or with water.

K The outside – the body of the bath and meeting water

There are two ways of using the body of the bath if you are on the outside. One is down, one is up. From the bridge, choosing not to go into the tea room, there are stairs leading down under the wooden part of the building. On the pillars that go down in the sea rests platforms that can be walked on. High tide and low tide varies by 1,5 meters, and so the lower the tide the lower platforms are revealed further out on this level. This gives you access to the water no matter the level of the tide. The sound of tide in this space.

To go up you go from an existing floating stage onto new smaller floating platforms that allows you into a small space cut into the building around where the mid zone is located on the inside. From here are stairs that takes you up first one level, to a secret garden, not possible to see from the outside, or further up to the roof of the building. You can access the West side of the roof, however not the East side, which is where all the light shafts come up. This roof space is also allowing for vegetation to grow on it and is a place for birds.

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Project description, as sent to the assessors on Monday, only different in some spacing. When I was working on it, I saved it for finishing it in the morning, but as some of you might know, my computer never woke up again, and the project description was luckily the only thing I lost. Anyway, I had to write it all over, and did so in about 3 hours. Yesterday I discovered that I actually made a mistake in the project description, changing the name of the project from Skinship to Suchness. I'm wondering if it is my subconscious trying to tell me something here. I still have time to think about that, however if I do change the name it will not be as in the catalog...

Catalogue

These are my two pages for the common catalogue (click image to enlarge). I wanted these pages to reflect my process and hence discuss process/result. The pages are a teaser, not a representation of a finished thing nor do they contain dry facts, they are inviting to this open dialogue.

Four templates were created by the catalogue group, and this is the one that I liked better for how I wanted to work with my pages and illustrations. The information about tutors and floor localization (all info near the red dotted line) is not correct, will be corrected by one nice girl we got to assemble all the catalogue entries.

1:1

Today I went to the site and tested some sizes 1:1. I used a fence I found with height of 1.5 meters. The diagram above shows the heights and lengths that I tested for width and height for the bath.

Surface models

Even (1:100 people on it) Tilt (1:100 people on it) Wave (1:100 people on it) Alternative wave (1:50 person on it)
Block (1:100 people on it)
Pebbles (1:100 people on it)
Alernative even (1:50 person on it)
Recycled wasteland (1:50 person on it)
See comments/evaluation for each proposal in the diagram in the post below.

Surface as landscape

For the surface coming up to the bath, the connection between the bath and the city, I made this diagram to visualize different options. I will shortly post pictures of the small models I made to test out each possibility. Some of the surface options have elevations to sit on and ponds to gather rainwater. Grass, moss and other vegetation is allowed to grow some places and will also help define the different spaces.

The idea is that closer to the city the surface can offer larger spaces, and the further out towards the sea it offers smaller situation - the private space grows. This is reflecting on how the place is used today - people find themselves small situations to hang out, the find these secret places, and this is good quality.

Project through section

This is the concept section of the bath. A series of tall spaces with different qualities - materials, light, temperature, experiences in water and so on. Actually reception/tea room - wardrobes - wash room - middle zone (not on drawing) - hot relax space upstairs - cold/hot bath place down into the sea.

When inspired!

This is a quick sketch I made for the bath when I was on site some weeks ago.

Sirens and muses

This is a sketch a made of the large space that encourages you to make sound - sing, play waterdrums... this is the largest space in the bath, allowing more people to come together. The tide moves up and down in this space, and the sound of waves can be heard. As the tide moves on and off the levels in this space it produces a sound as shown in the below video "The sound of tide".

In Greek mythology, the Sirens (Greek singular: Σειρήν Seirēn; Greek plural: Σειρῆνες Seirēnes) were three dangerous bird-women, portrayed as seductresses who lured nearby sailors with their enchanting music and voices to shipwreck on the rocky coast of their island. Roman poets placed them on an island called Sirenum scopuli. In some later, rationalized traditions the literal geography of the "flowery" island of Anthemoessa, or Anthemusa,^[1] is fixed: sometimes on Cape Pelorum and at others in the islands known as the Sirenuse, near Paestum, or in Capreae.^[2] All such locations were surrounded by cliffs and rocks.

The Muses (Ancient Greek αἱ μοῦσαι, hai moũsai ^[1]: perhaps from the o-grade of the Proto-Indo-European root *men- "think"^[2]) in Greek mythology, poetry, and literature are the goddesses or spirits who inspire the creation of literature and the arts. They were considered the source of the knowledge, related orally for centuries in the ancient culture, that was contained in poetic lyrics and myths.

(wikipedia)

Atmospheres, tactility and DAV investigation

One of the four pillars of the BAS (Bergen School of Architecture) discipline is DAV (Den Andre Verda/The Other World). This is the approach to architecture through art. Through intuitive investigation with materials, we use DAV to find something that we could not see from where we were standing. Einstein said: "A problem cannot be solved by the same mind that created it", and I think DAV is like that. Trying to see something new by letting go of some control in your mindset.

DAV is not directly fine art, it is a way of investigating something, a method from art. I don't care so much about the label, what is important is what I find in the process of doing DAV. To different extent the traces of my understanding can be read by someone else when they see the DAV. After, I transfer my understanding of the DAV into spacial compositions. My understanding is in the investigation, in the proposal for a space, and not least - between the lines.

A German artist, whose name I cannot remember right now said that "Art is about revealing secrets", and in this sense DAV is art to the investigator. Further you could say that DAV is not about the object, it's an action.

The three DAVs demonstrated here is an investigation of different spaces and their atmospheres at the bath that I am working on for my master. The top one is for a large space filled with cool sea water. It has also a warm pool and a sauna. This space will have a special acoustic that encourages you to make sound, sing. You can move on levels down into the sea water according to your level of courage, or challenge that level.

The middle one is for the place where you wash yourself. It has no showers, but individual lockers for washing. You wash yourself by filling vases with water to pour over yourself. There is a soft stone to sit on. Damp air. Wet. This space is inspired by the most beautiful and intimate washing experience I have had. It was in Leh in the Himalayas. At the guest house where I was staying there was no hot shower, but the lady that ran the place, an old Ladakhi woman, boiled water for me to mix with cold water, and I'd use a cup to pour it over me. You see how much water you use. You are being very intimate and get very much in touch with your own body and yourself. You take care of yourself. You are with yourself. When were you last with yourself? Yesterday I was staring in the mirror and discovered it's been a long time since I've been with myself and really enjoyed my own company, not running off to any distraction, being a book, TV or anything else.

The last DAV is a meditative space. Very cool and relaxing. Nothing to look at. No special experience, except being there with oneself. This was a space I didn't know that I would have until I made this DAV and found it.

The sound of tide

This is from the other stairs on the site. When the water is rising or going down, it creates calming sound as it washes down the worm stairs. Unfortunately the film suffered from YouTube compression, but the sound is more or less intact :)

Calm water

Calm water. From one of the old stairs by the water at Nøstet. View on YouTube for correct proportions.

Rain on water

Shot at the site at Nøstet. See at YouTube for right proportions :) I like the way raindrops draw circles on the calm surface of water, and I image this could be like inside the bath at spots where rainwater is allowed directly in.

Pictures from site tour

Images from Nøstet, Bergen

View more presentations from Birgitte JH.

My workspace

This is the 1:100 model of the site that I am working on. I am keeping the old floating stage that is now on the site, just moving it a little to the side, allowing the bath to come up next to it. I'm also adding smaller floating platforms - floating stepping stones - that allows someone on the floating stage to hop on to the body of the bath. The stepping stones move according to tide, whilst the bath itself is drowned and revealed as tide moves up and down. I imagine levels on the body of the bath that can be entered from the stepping stones only when the tide is at a specific level.

Concept model 7 - entering situation

This model is further investigating the entering situation with the bridge, as found in the previous model. The bridge has a generous size, two meters wide in this 1:100 scale model. As it touches land it splits somewhat and allows for a less dominant role on the port side. In the cracks wild grass from the site is allowed to grow. Pictures from site will come. Also this model shows how the same vegetation is found on the body of the structure, and on the land leading up to the bath. The surrounding area leading from the road to the bath I propose not to be planned for buildings, but to have a sea side park with the kind of flora natural to the place. This park area will have different situations, some benches, larger or smaller areas for hanging out and enjoying the atmosphere. This also creates a whole new entry/exit to the city for those using the coastal steamer. The natural landscape of Norway is not the renaissance parks found in the central area of Bergen. I am inspired by the renovation of the elevated rail road, now park, in NY.

Concept model 6 - tactility and atmosphere

This concept model shows a structure set out from land. There is land vegetation on the upper body and sea vegetation and fauna on the lower level of the body. You can see through the structure to the other side. What I really like about this model is the composition of materials and colours, scale and the sense of calm lonesomeness in the different situations. Also I like the sense of mystery about the space.

Mystery in wiktinary:

Etymology

From Middle English mysterie < Latin mysterium < Ancient Greek μυστήριον (musterion), “‘a mystery, a secret, a secret rite’”) < μύστης (mustēs), “‘initiated one’”) < μυέω (mueō), “‘I initiate’”) < μύω (muō), “‘I shut’”).

[edit] Noun

Singular mystery

Plural mysteries

mystery (plural mysteries)

1. Something secret or unexplainable; unknown.

   The truth behind the events remains a mystery.

2. Someone or thing with an obscure or puzzling nature.

   That man is a mystery.

3. (Catholicism) A particular event or series of events in the life of Christ.

   The second decade of the Rosary concerns the Sorrowful mysteries, such as the crucifixion and the crowning with thorns.

Materialarium - sea stuff

Some examples from my collection of materials from the sea. Sea flora and shells that grow on shells. Rounded enclosed shapes is the most energy efficient way of construction. Layering. Wood shaped over time in climate.

Membrane, shell structure investigation

Continuing the shell structure investigation I made these small experiments with clay and reinforcement. I like the repetitive cracks that the reinforcement makes in the structure. These cracks could be used for letting light in or vegetation to grow, for climbing on...

Shell structure investigation

Inspired by the creatures of the sea I investigated different shell structures. These could be constructed by ready made concrete cylindrical building elements used in construction.

Concept model 5 - vertical and horizontal layers

This model shows some smaller situations. An outside situation where the body of the build offers vegetation to grow on it, a long hall with round windows, a smaller intimate crypt with a small bath, that lets in light from above. Below is anther source of water, maybe seawater coming in through a hole in the floor.

Also in this model I experimented composition of materials; the main build is in a harder material with slick surfaces. In the hall there is soft wood to walk on. The roof of the hall that extends over the main build is a rougher, darker material.

Concept model 4 - the generous facade

I imagine that the body of the skinship can be available to people that are not using the inside. At the site, an industrial area slowly in transformation, many people already finding small intimate spaces to hang out. I believe they experience it as finding special secret places, and this is a notion I would like to work with and preserve.

Concept model 3 - private and public

One of my early findings, a wasps nest, finally found its place. With its delicate walls it represents the apparent transparency or availability that I look for at the bath, or the skinship. The web that embraces the nest represents the contact with the city, how it is a closed entity, but it is also linked to the city.

In Japan and South Korea, the term "skinship" (Japanese: sukinshippu (スキンシップ^?); Korean: 스킨십) is used to describe the intimacy, or closeness, between a mother and a child. Today, the word is generally used for bonding through physical contact, such as holding hands, hugging, or parents washing their child at a bath. (wikipedia)

Skinship n. Feelings of relatedness and affection between two people, particularly a mother and a child, caused by hugging, touching, and other forms of physical contact. (wordspy)

Further, the theory that physical intimacy leads to emotional intimacy.

Concept model 2 of bath - difference in temperature

This is a concept model made just after my last talk with my tutors. The fluffy mass that enters the bulb represents warm space, the rugged bulb is an embracing skin. Between the insides of the bulb and the walls of the warm space is a cool space. Here enters water from the sea. There is an opening in the top letting in sunlight from above. Also rainwater enters here and runs down the outside walls of the warm internal space.

On the bottom picture can be seen the cuts made in the façade to let in additional light into the cold space. Reference to the video posted earlier. After more investigation turns out that this kind of light happens when reflected light from the sea breaks on a reflective surface (could be glass or some kind of metal). In the break the light is thrown at a specific angle on inside walls, always changing with the angle the sunlight hits the water surface.

Existence self-explains

I am different from you. It's not a critique, it's just like that. I sit on a slightly different background, observing from a slightly different angle. Still we share this place and this existence.

Pictures from tiny beach in Sandviken, Bergen, last week.

The bath

Yesterday I made this first concept model of the bath at Nøstet. Main elements are a more closed entrance space, represented by white cube, where changing of clothes happens. Could also have more elements such as after bath relaxation space. A main platform stretches from this space through to the bath, which is a translucent space, and out on the other side of the bath. The dressing space is halfway hanging off the pier. The bath has drowned in the ocean, its walls going down into the water. The walls of the bath allows daylight to enter during the day and like a light tower it lights up during the night. It is not transparent enough to allow silhouettes to shine through to the outside.

I suggest a modern kind of bath which is a lot to do with the sense of water in Bergen. A place where you can experience waves and the salt water, because it is that which is entering the enclosed bath space. The openings are big enough to let the motion of the ocean come through, however I must look at this if I need filters to take away oil from the sea. In the same big bath space are smaller tubs with hot water.

At one place there is a sauna aswell.

To be with people, and to see people, in this situation, is a very humble meeting. It is very tactile and bodily. The space is large. Sound of water hitting surfaces. Play of light.

This is also why bath

Upper right side of sketch: The way I perceive it informal meetings between different cultures/social class/etc. happen in Bergen mostly between boy/girl, typically in a bar/something similar, in the weekends, and many times involves alcohol. It is something about the meeting that happen under influence of alcohol that doesn't justify either. Meetings otherwise within ones sex happens often with people from similar background. This only strengthens ones locked idea of reality, since these people tend to have similar opinions, perceptions etc. as yourself. It's hard to r e a l l y understand that no one a c t u a l l y perceives what you do, although mistakenly it can seam like it on the surface.

Lower right side: A bath is an activity that can attract young, old, sick etc. and they can all use it at the same time! I suggest that the bath is sex segregated. For example Mondays for women, Tuesdays for men, Wednesdays for families.... or something like that.

Lower left side: diagram of division of space in Turkish hamam and Roman thermae. I am also going to check out Japanese bath and the traditional baths in Bergen to create a modern bath.

Center vs place

This sketch shows a important development in my process. A center is introvert, it concentrates some action and people interested in this action, but at the same time excludes other activities/flexibility/people. Place is a more open place, and I see it as extrovert. Instead of making one thing I will suggest several. I will work on different locations in town where every place will work on integration of spaces/places/people/actions. This post should probably have come before that of the bath at Nøstet, because it is because of this decision that I got the idea of the bath. I will start working on the bath idea now that I have many ideas about it. Then adding with other programs on the other locations that I have looked at. I will work on the different locations at different depth, some will be more finished projects for my diploma.

Body/mind oneness with atmospheric temporality

I grabbed the chance on Saturday to wander on the site in Vågsbunnen (Skostredet) since it was a rainy day, normally what you would expect in Bergen, but what we have had little of the last year. It wasn't raining so much, so I walked without an umbrella. I realized that when the sun is up almost every place is good for staying. However when it's raining it's not so much the water that is falling from the sky that is the problem - it is the low pressure in the atmosphere. Other places with a different typography (not forcing the clouds to crowd down the valley) a rainy day is not so heavy on the body.

Top sketch: Lydgalleriet (The Sound Gallery), exhibition space:

Left side: From the outside it is not possible to see that there is an extensive exhibition on the inside. It has beautiful wooden floors and many large and smaller rooms, including fascinatingly mazed plan with sudden verandas and other unexpected spaces.

Right side: People open up, expand, and fill their bodies with the healing rays of the sun when the sun is up. When it's raining people contract due to air pressure and the dense humid air.

Bottom sketch: Pressure chamber:

Left and lower side: I got an idea about a pressure chamber that would invert the outside pressure. This means that on a rainy day you get a sunny-day air lightness and on a sunny day you get a rainy-day air denseness. It's about realizing the body/mind reaction to atmospheric pressure, and not just in a atmospheric change, but in all other situations too. Getting a clear sense of how your body/mind contract/expand space in different situations. Maybe the space itself could also react physically by actually expanding and contacting according to it's situation .... remembering eternity in temporality.

Right side: In places like Tokyo and LA you can go to special places to drink fresh oxygen, a response to the air pollution.

This is not a common place - a common place!

Concept model of BIKS today. Located in narrow streets that are not much visited, especially in the evenings. The big scene, Fensalen, is reached through several halls and staircases. You cannot know what is going on there from the outside, a problem since the program always varies.

Lately I have been thinking about how to create a program that can make a background for meeting, a place where people of different cultures can meet, understand... but not forced socializing. I have been aware of the many young women/girls that have an immigrant background and that have many restrictions as to which activities they can participate on. Many have school as one of the few places to meet new people. Others, anyone, are blinded by their own cultural or familiar traditions, and do not know of alternatives.

Development plans Vågsbunnen

At the pages of the municipality I found these questions answered about Vågsbunnen, where the void between Domkirkegaten and Skostredet is located. Sorry, only Norwegian. I will try to get a meeting with the owners of the land - Pallas Eiendom.

45. Fra Ruth Grung (A):

”Status vedrørende Vågsbunnen som byutviklingsområde

Vågen er en sentral del av både det gamle og nye Bergen. Området er sammensatt. Vågen representerer mye av vår historie men samtidig etableres det nye aktiviteter som har stor betydning for et levende sentrum. Skostredet er et eksempel på slik ny aktivitet som er med å gi ny identitet. Bymisjonen sin aktivitet har også skapt nytt liv og fellesrom er blitt pusset opp. Samtidig registrer vi at tomter ligger brakk og at private har kjøpt opp flere eiendommer. Fana Sparebank sin karakteristiske bygning fikk hard medfart i en av de mange brannene som har rammet byen. Gårdeier har gjennom media sagt at fasaden skal bestå. Tanks videregående skole blir lagt ned når den nye skolen på Nygårdstangen er bygget. Trafikk og parkering er også en utfordring.

Spørsmål:

Hvilke byutviklings planer har byrådet for Vågen? Er det samarbeid med private eller andre aktører for utvikling av større deler av Vågen? Hvilke mulighet har kommunen for at slike unike gatemiljø som Skostredet er blitt kan få videreutvikle seg?”

Magically unintended

On a wall at the school a slender hole in wall lets in the reflecting light from the evening waves. It dances up on the indoor walls. When shooting the film I was constantly changing the focus making the wall fuse wobblingly into the light and the shadows.

Small problem getting the dimensions of the movie right, better watch it directly on youtube. Double-click on the movie to open at youtube.

Identity ~~~~~~

~ I like sitting at a coffee place. Being intimate with my friends, I can be around strangers. I get a chance of rebirth in every new encounter.

~~ This model is about process, mood and relations. The self can observe relational patterns - there are spaces that are more inclusive, or more closed. The nature of the place is communicated to the exterior as well as interior. The self stands in a big place.

Identity ~~~~~

~I can see you, quietly I write my journal in the sun. You are sitting on these same steps.

~~ This model is for example 1:1000. A high ceiling and wall structure. Opening inside-outside visually. Indoor spaces in humble contrast. Different people and activities in different spaces. The roof/wall grows, shrinks according to season - response to impermanence.

Identity ~~~~

~ All peoples... fears, joys and suffering. Many I know have spent time locked-up. Understanding comes to whom listens with pure intentions. See the smile in her eyes.

~~ Complexity is simplicity. This model in 1:1000 are some simple elements resting on a complex background. The complex background is two-dimensional, because of its incomprehensible nature. Simple ritual spaces rest in composition on the background.

Identity ~~~

~ Paradoxes are, dissolve and mirror. My perception I can choose and shift only in the past.

~~ This is a model in 1:200. A narrow space for quiet contemplation. Warp zone. Time travelling.

Identity ~~

~ My closest bring weight to my shoulders. My closest put me on a pedestal. I find my place next to people. Forever diving into his eyes.

~~ This vertical element is in 1:200. At the base is a firm self. At the top is a self on exploration. The whole humanity sent the self on this mission. It's a liquid space.