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Praxis and Design Techniques

Praxis and Design Techniques addresses the development, experimentation, dissemination and scholarship on design techniques as forms of knowledge particular to architecture, landscape architecture and urban design. The group focuses on particular innovations arising in practices outside of the school and in the practices led by AHO faculty.  

Black-and-white photograph of a large drawing studio with people working at drafting tables.

Design techniques emerge disproportionately within practice itself in the form of projects. The group’s vision is therefore not limited to undertaking scholarly work on design techniques; it also includes contextualising state-of-the-art techniques as they are currently used across fields within the school, frequently through master’s-level design studios, and conducting enquiries (via curation, testing and dissemination) into the advanced techniques developed and deployed in selected practices outside the school, as well as in the active practices led by our faculty.

Design techniques encompass not only the tools employed in the development of projects but also the intellectual enquiries associated with the development of such tools, as well as their consequences for the fields in which they are used. Central to this enquiry is the question of authorship: to what extent do techniques act as co-authors of architectural and landscape works, shaping outcomes in equal measure to intentions, collaborators and contexts?

Within the university, techniques and practice are traditionally addressed separately, as techniques tend to be associated with technical curricula and supplementary courses, while practice is often associated with studio courses and life after school. The group understands techniques not as abstract methods detached from intellectual production or simply as tools relegated to the school’s technical courses, but as situated, evolving instruments embedded in both academic and professional work. It does so by focusing on projects as carriers of this knowledge.

 

News

Upcoming collective exhibition “What We Make” at Villa Bødtker, June 2027.

IMLA 20th anniversary conference at AHO.

Sabine Müller awarded the 2026 Patrick Geddes Fellowship at the University of Edinburgh.

Luis Callejas named visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design.

Mattias Josefsson appointed visiting professor at the Versailles Landscape Architecture School for autumn 2025.

Beate Hølmebakk serves on the jury for the new Architecture and Design Museum in Helsinki.

Beate Hølmebakk speaks at the 2026 UIA World Congress of Architects in Barcelona.

The studio “The Road” collaborates with Porsche Norway, studying the spaces of road and car culture in Norway.

Luis Callejas joins the New European Bauhaus as a NEB mentor.

Gro Bonesmo appointed by the Oslo Association of Architects (OAF) to the jury for Sundts premie, a biennial award for outstanding private buildings in Oslo. The current award covers projects completed in 2024–2025, with nominations and jury work in autumn 2026.

Sabine Müller serves on the jury for the Deutscher Städtebaupreis 2027.

Sabine Müller’s practice, SMAQ, with Grieger Harzer Dvorak Landscape Architects, wins third prize in the competition for the new indoor swimming pool in Stadtlohn, Germany.

Hanna Birkeland Bergh lectures as part of “How Much Ex.Change?” at the Tallinn Architecture Biennale on 4 September 2026.

Gro Bonesmo takes part in a presentation and panel discussion on the new Government Quarter, organised by Byggekunstpodcasten at Telegrafen, with participants from OsloMet, DOGA, Nordic and LPO. Originally scheduled for 2 September; postponed until November.

Beate Hølmebakk gives the lecture “The Summer House” at the National Museum, Oslo, on 13 September.

Beate Hølmebakk gives the lecture “A Feeling of Sense” at KU Leuven on 17 November.

Beate Hølmebakk, with Manthey Kula, designs the exhibition Wenche Selmer. What Can You Live Without? at the National Museum, Oslo.

Sabine Müller’s studio takes part in the Oslo Architecture Triennale.

LCLA Office is selected as one of Europe’s best young architecture practices and presents its work in the “Europa Europa” lecture series at the COAC in Barcelona.

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Publications and Outcomes

Luis Callejas, “Sixty Metres, Sixty Degrees”, on Sverre Fehn’s ramp at the Hedmark Museum, in Drawing Matter.

Luis Callejas and Jørgen Johan Tandberg co-edit Pedagogical Experiments in Architecture for a Changing Climate with Tülay Atak and Jonathan A. Scelsa. Routledge, 2024.

Gro Bonesmo, “Et spørsmål om skala – A Question of Scale”, a chapter in Hvorfor ble det sånn? En bok om norsk arkitektur og byutvikling, edited by Johanne Borthne, Kenneth Dahlgren and Even Smith Wergeland. Fagbokforlaget, pp. 281–301.

Gro Bonesmo, South of Desire, a forthcoming publication and photographic documentary on the “Bungalows Noruegos” in Famara, Lanzarote (1969–1973), designed by Per Ørnulf Bien and Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre.

Sabine Müller’s new book, Oslo Hydropolis: A Watershed Approach to Urban Landscapes, edited by Sabine Müller and Andreas Quednau. JOVIS Verlag, Berlin, forthcoming March 2027.

Sabine Müller co-edits Stadtunterbau – Wo Wohnungsbau Stadt wird with Andreas Quednau, Antje Buchholz and Jürgen Patzak-Poor. Planned for 2027; Birkhäuser is under consideration as publisher.

Hanna Birkeland Bergh’s new article on Swiss cooperative housing plans in Ny boligplan, no. 4. Pax Forlag, 2026.

Hanna Birkeland Bergh (AHO) and Johanna Roth (ETH Zurich) edit Pulse Manual. Publication launch: September 2026.

Beate Hølmebakk, “Before Memory”, a text on Sverre Fehn’s Swedish experiments, in a forthcoming book from Park Books, 2026/2027.

Beate Hølmebakk, “Ildsted/Fireplace”, on Wenche Selmer’s fireplaces, in the anthology What Can You Live Without? Wenche Selmer’s Cabins.

Mattias Josefsson writes on pedagogy and ecology in OASE’s “Ecological Pedagogies” issue.

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Members’ research outputs in NVA

Teaching

Studio Systems

Studio Form

Studio CAP

Studio TAP Content

Studio TAP Context

Elective Taste in Print

Elective Landscapes in Print

 

No upcoming events

 

Participants

Tags: Design techniques, Architectural practice, Landscape architecture practice, Urban design, Design Research, Design Methods, State-of-the-art design methods, Project-as-knowledge
Published Sep. 28, 2026 11:19 AM - Last modified Oct. 7, 2026 9:46 AM