40 679 Re-Store: Power (Spring 2027)

This semester’s Re-Store studio takes power as a point of departure, investigating how architecture negotiates political, social, and economic power, with a special focus on how democracy plays out in the Norwegian context in the form of governmental, regional, and municipal building, as well as with informal spaces of exchange.

The studio is one in a series of experimental preservation studios that investigates how architecture can respond to the ongoing climatic and political crises through the reuse, transformation, and preservation of what already exists.

Power in architecture unfolds in obvious and subtle ways; through urban morphology, spaces of circulation and assembly, built form, internal spatial arrangements, building elements and symbols, discrete arrangements of spaces, door and window openings, furniture and objects, as well as through legislation, standards, and regulations. So-called democratic spaces are formed to be inclusive and safe, yet come with control measures such as surveillance, barriers, and limitations on use. A gradual commercialization of public spaces challenges the idea of neutrality and inclusivity and makes them harder to navigate both physically and politically.

The students are expected to give concrete architectural responses through experimental works that transform and supplement existing structures. Through utilizing surveying, archival work, texts, drawings, model-making, and material experiments students will attempt to get to the core of what a democratic space truly is.

At the beginning of the semester, as a collective, the students will conduct a study of how power has manifested historically and establish a common knowledge base that will be further investigated through individual projects.

The course if part of the research project Provenance Projected. Architecture Past and Future in the Era of Circularity.

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

• Demonstrate how to translate historical and conceptual studies into an advanced architectural project through drawings, models, and text
• Demonstrate analytical skills in assessing existing buildings, archival material, and literature
• Demonstrate basic knowledge and skills in the field of architectural reuse, preservation, and transformation, both in regards to methodology, theory, references, and tools
• Disseminate an architectural project in a comprehensive and understandable way through text, drawings, models, and oral presentations
• Demonstrate an ability to collaborate in a group setting as well as to develop an architectural project individually

Design-studio with desk-crits, reviews, lectures and study trip to Belgium. The initial part of the semester will be group-based. Central texts within the field of preservation and politics will be handed out and discussed

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

Assesment method: Project

Grouping: Combination of individual and group

Grading scale: Pass/fail

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

In order to be assessed, the student must have completed and delivered the group assignment and the individual assignments handed out throughout the semester, as well as the delivery for the final review.