The course is connected to the following study programs
- Master of Architecture
- Master of Landscape Architecture
Course description
Course responsible: Luis Callejas
This studio understands the road and its associated material, ecological, and social phenomena as constructed landscapes in their own right, not merely as transportation infrastructure, nor surfaces that enable access to delicate and beautiful landscapes. We will investigate and design alternative uses for road fragments, elevating mundane roadside conditions through highly detailed, technically sophisticated projects that intersect with civil engineering.
The projects will not be conventional landscape rest stops or buildings intended solely for contemplation for the view. Instead, we will focus on overlooked roadside elements: water management infrastructure, service roads, tunnel entrances, gas stations, safety systems, signage, EV charging stations, the afterlife of a racetrack and other paved spaces with civic potential.
As context the studio will also address larger-scale landscapes that intersect with the road, such as mining sites and other infrastructural sites embedded in striking environments, proposing projects that engage both ecological degradation and natural beauty.
Ultimately, the studio engages with the evolving nature of road and car culture in Northern Europe, addressing design challenges that extend beyond Norway.
We will examine how technology mediates our understanding of complex and beautiful landscapes. In Norway, high-resolution landscape data, such as LiDAR scans and multispectral imagery, are publicly available but underutilized by designers. This studio explores how to interpret and translate such material into spatial decisions. Concrete workflows will be taught to enable students to use this data effectively.
Learning Outcome
- Formulate spatial infrastructural ideas through rapid modelling and drawing.
- Understand how some environmental and climatic concerns shape spatial decisions in both outdoor and indoor spaces.
- Understand the aesthetic, spatial and environmental potentials of road infrastructure.
- Learn to collaborate with engineers, focusing on structural optimization and aesthetics simultaneously.
- Learn to work with high-resolution landscape surveys (lidar, multispectral imagery and other sophisticated surveys)
- Propose site-specific projects based on remote sensing data
- Detailed design.
Teaching
Ten sites along Norwegian roads will be provided to students with hi-resolution data already processed in advanced. Students will then learn to model the sites using this data.
Each pair of students will design one project on a given site assigned by lottery on the first week of studio, simulating the workflow of a real roadside commission. The projects can be infrastructural, architectural or landscape architecture. A combination of fields is desired but not mandatory. Each project will be defined by a brief addressing the potentials of different infrastructural elements in the road. Each project will be informed by different road phenomena identified in the site surveys over the first weeks.
The studio will use rapid design exercises over physical models to foster strong conceptual development in form, geometry, structure, and scale. Site research and design will proceed in parallel from the beginning of the studio.
Weekly progress on digital and physical models. Drawings will be derived from the models on a constant basis.
There will be some lectures during studio time
One excursion (TBA)
Examination
Form of assessment: Project
Grading scale: Pass/fail
Midterm: Large model, selected images from the surveys.
Final review: Large model, selected images from the surveys and details in drawings and additional models. PDF presentation with process, model photos and supplementary material.