40 338 Re-store: Re-Moved (Autumn 2026)

Course responsible: Tora Lie Brunborg

Re-Store

Re-Store is an experimental studio-unit that explores how architecture can be redefined through reuse, transformation and the continued use of existing buildings. This semester focuses on movement, with particular emphasis on building relocation.

Re-Moved

Re-Store: Re-Moved focuses on the relocation of buildings as a historical architectural practice. The course approaches architecture as a temporal and mobile practice rather than a fixed and stable object. Departing from the premise that buildings are never static—neither materially, socially nor spatially — it investigates how architecture moves through time, through style, through systems of representation, and, in this specific case, across geographical space.

The course is anchored in the large-scale redistribution of buildings triggered by the Norwegian land consolidation processes (utskiftingsprosessen) of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Through these reforms, entire farmsteads were dismantled, relocated and reassembled, establishing building relocation as a normalized and regulated architectural practice rather than an exceptional intervention. This historical context provides a lens for examining how legal frameworks, documentation, materials, labor and spatial norms collectively produce architectural mobility.

Students will be assigned a list of buildings and farmsteads affected by the historical land consolidation, and each will select one case in which a building was relocated as the basis for their work. Over ten weekly sessions, they will investigate different aspects of the consolidation process through their chosen case, with particular emphasis on processes of relocation.

By studying relocation as both a historical practice and a representational challenge, the course proposes new ways of understanding architectural continuity, transformation and reuse. It culminates in an intensive workshop week and a final exhibition, where students develop and present approaches to communicating architectural movement.

The course builds on the research project Provenance Projected and is part of the newly established research group Circular Architecture (CA).

At the conclusion of the course the student should be able to:

• - Explain and critically discuss architecture as a temporal and processual practice rather than a static object
• - Use archival sources and methods to conduct archival-based research
• - Analyse historical building relocation as an architectural, material and regulatory phenomenon
• - Reflect critically on how legal, administrative and representational tools shape architectural mobility
• - Communicate complex architectural narratives through an exhibition using multiple media
• - Employ experimental representational strategies to depict movement, change and architectural processes over time

The course is organized as a research-based seminar and project studio combining archival research, lectures, discussions, case-based analysis and studio-based exploration.

Weekly sessions introduce theoretical perspectives on architectural mobility, archival theory and representation. Short lectures are combined with collective discussions of assigned readings and archival exercises. The course emphasizes slow, cumulative work on a single case, allowing students to gradually unfold the multiple legal, material, spatial and social layers shaping each building trajectory.

Students work individually or in pairs. The final phase consists of an intensive workshop week dedicated to the production and installation of a collective exhibition. Continuous formative feedback is provided through critiques and the mid-term review, supporting a coherent relationship between research, representation and learning outcomes.

Physical attendance at lectures, reviews, supervision sessions, discussions, and other educational activities is expected and necessary in order to achieve the learning outcomes

Assessment method: Portfolio

Grading scale: Pass/fail

In order to be assessed in this course, the student must have completed the following activities and assignments:

The submitted portfolio consists of a curated selection of work developed throughout the semester, including process material, archival investigations, analytical work and final representations of the chosen case. The format is open and may include drawings, models, films, texts, collages or other media.

The portfolio is presented and assessed through a final exhibition and oral presentation, where students communicate their work in a spatial and public format. All submitted material should contribute to the investigation and communication of building relocation and architectural movement.