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This collection of discoveries by STUDIO続 led to the formulation of urban strategies that reenergize the market in the heart of Stavanger, Norway. The current conditions of the marketplace allow for many opportunities to create a greater sense of place through the definition of the edges and the linking of lost or untapped connections within the surrounding urban context. From the first three weeks of research, we were able to determine these opportunities and formulate strategies. The following four weeks were spent implementing these strategies and articulating the three elements that would help fulfill the opportunities. These elements do not stand for results we found, but rather the questions we asked. We discovered that we were never seeking the right answers, but rather, the right questions.
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Utepils Ingredients Strategies
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Urban Acupuncture
16
Setting
20
Seeking Patterns
28
Response
34
urban floor cultural armature campanile Conclusion
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reflections credits
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Multiplicity is a harmonious entity defined as 1+1 = 3. Found in the summation of systems and their lateral sub systems, when two seemingly different elements combine to produce a synergy between them that activates a waiting environment. It is this “in-between� that holds all of the opportunities. The whole then becomes greater than the sum of its parts. 6
Strategies
Light is both a particle and a wave, but how do the parts and the whole become visible together? The variables of design should be present in every scale from urban formation to architectural details. When exploring an environment the one gives insight to the others. The culmination of its smallest elements should reinforce the whole. 7
PHIDA Through an exploration of coexisting systems and their inherent relationships, permeability, harmony, imagination, diversity, and adaptability are the concepts that PHIDA emerges from. By implementing new design into the complex series of existing systems that define Stavanger, PHIDA principles are used as a means to appropriate value and rational to the decisions made.
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Strategies
Experiential permeability is important in creating an environment of openness both visually and mentally. Humans react positively to environments where there is clarity in ideas because it creates comfort. By allowing the free movement of ideas, knowledge, and creativity, the environment is enriched by the increased flow of ideas.
A harmonious environment creates a common idea that becomes the backdrop for the environment that holds it together. It promotes a symbiotic relationship between the community, nature, and culture and the environment. When they work well together, it creates a multiplicity that can allow for more possibilities within the realm of the environment.
Imagination allows for the people in an environment to connect with in a way that fosters creative thoughts. It allows for a tolerance and implementation of possibilities It also creates an interaction between the human and the environment
Diversity within an environment allows for a multitude of interactions between the people and the systems. It creates a variety of choices that enriches the experience by forming a framework that allows for change and adaptability.
An adaptable environment acknowledges the economic stratum along with a flexible spatial framework of program and use. By creating an adaptable environment, it can stay current so that it can transcend its natural life cycle and continue to thrive. The environment’s resilience allows it to continue to enrich the people within it.
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The theatre of everyday life is the scaffold or backdrop to which everyday activity is involved with by observation (passively) or participation (actively). The realm of the observer and the realm of the participant aren’t necessarily defined, rather implied or vague. Within the context of the studio’s solution, the ‘theatre of everyday life’ is manifested as a stage. In this resolution the role of observer and participant are explicit.
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Strategies
The edge is the border or surface of continuity in the urban fabric. It terminates space, providing containment and definition; it’s surface directs views and energy flows and provides enclosure. The role of the edge is to complete an existing urban fabric. The edge condition actively creates place; which we perceive of as streets, plazas, or courtyards. It separates the public and private domains. In this definition of space and activity is the understanding of role and identity. 11
Flow is the movement that occurs throughout the various urban systems. Flows can refer to physical movements in systems, or the perception of movement through the relationships between various systems. Flows can be optimized or inhibited when manipulated at the urban scale. 12
Strategies
Node is knot of energy. A place or group of places that acts as a point of exchange in flows of the urban floor. The size of the node can be a concentrated point of systems, or a larger district of flow interchanges. Usually, nodes are systematically diverse, creating a social and/or dynamic place. 13
The urban floor is an occupiable, undulating plane that allow for the navigation through various strata. This includes and connects spaces within or between buildings, streets, sidewalks, floors, stairs, ramps, or anything else that interacts with flows of the public realm. 14
Strategies
In reinforcing the metaphor of the urban fabric, the stitch serves to fasten or join multiple strata. Manifested architecturally stitches are circulation points, primarily vertically, and are commonly stairs or ramps. Their role is not to intrude, rather, to seamlessly mend multiple strata and to direct the passage of energy flows. 15
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Urban Acupuncture
Urban Acupuncture Traditional acupuncture is used as Chinese medication in order to correct imbalances in the flow of qi. Placing a needle in one point of the body will help balance out the flow of energy in another part of the body. Urban acupuncture uses this methodology for balancing and regulating flows of urban spaces. In relation to PHIDA, this response provides a sustainable infrastructure for Stavanger. It choreographs space and the human response to create unimaginable new developments and interactions that encourage a healthy economic and creative growth for the region. The idea is that individual architectural projects become needles in a large connected web we call the “urban floor�. When these interventions are placed together correctly, they create meaningful relationships in the city of Stavanger.
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Stavanger
Hinna
Sola Sandnes
Transportation
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Cultural Nodes
Major Harbor
Setting
Regional Net Income
Regional Immigrant Map
Regional Out-Migrations
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Fishing Fishing
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Canning Canning
Drilling Drilling
Setting
International Chamber Music FestivalChamber (ICMF) Music Festival International Stavanger Symfoniorkester Church Music Ensemble Stavanger Symfoniorkester Norweigian Organ Festival
Church music ensemble Norwegian Organ Festival MaiJazz - International Jazz Festival
MaiJazz - International Jazz Festival
Stavanger Live - Indie rock festival Stavanger Live - Indie Rock Festival Black Metal Scene
Black metal scene NuMusic - International NuMusic - International Experimental experimental and electronand Electronic Music Festival ic music festival -Music in Stavanger reflects local musical heritage and innovation, as well as a global connectivity. Music in Stavanger reflects local music
heritage and innovation, as well as it represents connectivity at a global scale
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Understated “Understated� 24
Always seek the most simple and elegant solution Always seek the easiest and most elegant solution.
Setting
nt solution.
Allow the existing beauty and taste to permeate the senses Allow the existing beauty and taste to permeate the senses. 25
Existing Edges 28
Seeking Patterns
Green Spaces
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Existing Flows and Nodes 30
Seeking Patterns
Circulation
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Response
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The Bridge
Viewing Platform
Waste
Subway Travel
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Response
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WATER current culture
a necessity
bathroom
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market stands
cafe and bar
restaurant
shop and storefront
LIGHT current culture
miscellaneous
advancing culture
swimming
information
buy culture
educational
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Response
Commercial Culture and Education Transportation Live and Work
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Response - Urban Floor
The urban floor serves as the fabric that connects the public realm of Stavanger. As a result, the city’s urban flow is reconfigured to connect the primary nodes of activity around the market. The focus was to engage an underground strata so as to not interrupt the existing environment of Stavanger. This solution produced a diversity of opportunities between various vertical dimensions. As it serves as the framework for the campanile and the cultural armature, the urban floor establishes a unity between the three elements. The flow of energy is directed through the underground by creating a connection between the lake and the harbor which channels water through the subterranean realm. Water is used as a primary ‘sensory magnet’ that guides people into the space while light is used to pull people back to a higher strata. Represented by light, balance is established by connecting vertical stitches through the various strata.
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Response - Urban Floor
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Response - Urban Floor
Commercial Culture and Education Transportation Live and Work
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Two Meter Level 50
Response - Urban Floor
Five Meter Level
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Eight Meter Plan 52
Response - Urban Floor
Courtyard
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Response - Cultural Armature
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Overhead View
Section Perspective A 56
Response - Cultural Armature
The dilemma of the Stavanger square is its lack of definition and containment. The square, Latin school, park and parade street seep in to one boundless and undefined space. These spaces are deficient in containment and identity. The solution was to insert a piece in to the existing context that would reinforce edge, permeability, and activity and provide stitches from the urban floor to street level. The notion of the cultural armature was manifested after investigating the issues of the urban context. We began with an awareness of history, culture, politics, and economic ambition. We knew that we wanted to be sensitive to tradition while facilitating and anticipating the future. In doing word investigation we defined culture as : qualities and concerns of a specific region or locale- and- style, art, vernacular, customs and traditions as they relate to a civilization. We then defined armature as; a scaffold or canvas by which a work of art can be created. In adding the two the result is; a scaffold or canvas by which culture can be facilitated.
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Circulation
Primary Structure
Enclosure
Secondary Structure
Response - Cultural Armature
Superfloor
Interior Configuration One
Interior Configuration Two
Interior Configuration Three
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Haakon VII West
Section 60
Response - Cultural Armature
Bay View
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Latin School’s Courtyard
Section Perspective B 62
Response - Cultural Armature
View from Market
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Response - Cultural Armature
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Base of Campanile
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Response - Campanile
The Campanile, or as we have come to call it, The Urban Compass, serves many functions at various scales and engages the various strata of the city. It serves as a navigation device and a needle that releases the energy of the urban flow in service of the idea of urban acupuncture. Its thirty-six meter above ground height establishes its presence as a navigation device within the city, and creates a triangulation with other tall structures in the city; the observation tower that was created guard against city fires and the spire of the cathedral that is an icon of the city. The structure of the campanile brings to mind the structure of an oil rig. This is a common sight of the coast of Norway, and a structure strongly identified with the culture and economy of Norway, especially Stavanger, ‘The Oil Capital of Europe’. The primary connection with the strata of the city happens at the point where the tower engages the Urban Floor. The soaring height of the tower guides the populous to its point through an innovative combination of structure, sustainability, and experience. During good weather the cladding of the upper levels of the campanile fold out to allow a different type of experience; an engaging though somewhat dangerous architecture. The Structural Connections
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Haakon VII West
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Response - Campanile
Plan Section
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The Underground
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View from the Bay
Response - Campanile
Haakon VII East - Open Top
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Conclusion - Reflections
Stavanger was more than an urban revitalization project. We were just students coming from the small world of architecture that were suddenly transported thousands of miles of away into the fjords of Norway, completely mystified and unaware of the real, complex issues that were slowly being uncovered in understanding the urban domain of a relatively small part of the grand living environment. It wasn’t about the architecture as it was about the people performing within the various systems and subsystems of the city. Yet, in recognition of this, the resolution that was created by the studio was a physical manifestation of the possible opportunities that would create better economies, livelihoods, and public interaction at the scale of the city and beyond. This collaborative effort amongst the various backgrounds, opinions, and general dispositions of the students was an indication of something more. As we started to experience our own “in-between” scenario of how to translate our opinions on improving the urban character of Stavanger to each other, there became the question of how to deal with the” in-between” scenarios of the studio’s proposal to the world; because even though we believe in the viable promise of this proposed urban architecture, the same level of understanding must be exuded from those that we are promising it to. So, we ask ourselves as students moving on from third year in the school of architecture, how can we seek and manipulate the multiplicities that seem to be evident in all scenarios of life and apply that to future projects in school and even beyond as we try to uncover the patterns that so subtly escapes our consciousness and bring it forth to our fellow peers, professionals, and ultimately the public?
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I could do this in sketchup in like 20 minutes.
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Haiku of the Discontented I hate these people, long nights, little accomplished. Group work....never more
You would think we were studying architecture this semester, but I’m pretty sure it’s been everything else.
“We demand rigidly defined areas of doubt and uncertainty” - Douglas Adams HitchHikers Guide to the Galaxy
You can find me studying Utepils.
Sorry, I was at work.
Stay confused, get angry, and fight for your right to party.
“You look at where you where you’re going and where you are and it never makes sense, but then you look back at where you’ve been and a pattern seems to emerge” - Robert M. Pirsig
“A house is a machine for living in” - Le Corbusier
I want to live healthy and have fun.
The best thing since tubed meat.
Two main things: What is the bigger story to be told? How can that story be understood?
“’It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’ - A Tale of Two Cities” - Halima
It was like learning a new language, a completely new vocabulary. There are still so many more words to learn.
Conclusion - Reflections
This semester was overflowing with fresh ideas and ways of thinking. I will continue seeking the opportunities for years to come.
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Conclusion - Reflections
STUDIO続 Torgeir Norheim Tereza Brezovka Joshua Jerome Broadway Devin Brown Jonathan Eden Tyler Friesen Frederik Heuser Daniel Johnson James Kendall John LaFontain Vy Nguyen Trenton Richardson Halima Shehu Benjamin Slater Haoyang Song Hanna Sul Holly Wolf
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