Ingerid Helsing Almaas 20th October 2009 This is a small booklet about me, with my CV and some other things.
My name is Ingerid Helsing Almaas. I am an architect and a writer. I live in Oslo, Norway.
This is me.
If you have time, I would like you to read my CV quite closely, because I have done a lot of different things by now and it is not possible for me to illustrate them all, except in words. This is my husband Simon. He is British.
This is our daughter Mia.
Everything is listed chronologically.
CURRICULUM VITAE
2001-2009
AHO, Oslo, external examiner for writing course
INGERID HELSING ALMAAS
Sept 2009
1965
born in Oslo
Ministry for the Environment, Oslo, jury member, National Award for Urban Environments, 2009
June 2009
NTNU, Trondheim, external examiner
EDUCATION
June 2009
2007
Practical rhetoric, intensive course
Architectural Association, London, chair, symposium on ”Cinematic Architecture”
1990-94 1993-94
AA Diploma, Architectural Association, London Diploma Unit 3, unit master Pascal Schöning Diploma Unit 6, unit master Peter Salter participant in Claire Robinson’s ”Laboratoire de ZAC des Amandiers”, alternative urban study, Paris 20eme
May 2009
Ministry of Culture, Oslo, chair, conference on architectural policy
April 2009
Arnstein Arneberg Prize 2009, jury member
1986-89
BA Honours Architecture, Oxford Polytechnic 1988 Leslie Jones Prize for Best Overall Performance 1989 Best Group project med Simon Ewings og Josh McCosh
1985-86
A-levels, Wolsey Hall, Oxford Computer Science, 20th Century History
1984-85
Joinery, Elvebakken College of further education, Oslo
October 2008 HAV Eiendom, Oslo, member of prequalification jury for the international design competition for the Munch-StenersenMuseum, Oslo
1983
Examen Philosophicum, University of Oslo
April 2008
WORK
2003-
ARKITEKTUR N (formerly Byggekunst), The Norwegian Review of Architecture, editor-in-chief
1999-2006
FORSVARSBYGG, UTBYGGINGSPROSJEKTET (FBU), member of architectural advisory group for the Norwegian Defence Building Services (with landscape architect Arne Moen and professor Karl Otto Ellefsen) consultant, architectural quality control of projects and processes
1999-
NORSK ARKITEKTURFORLAG, editor for planned “Norwegian Architecture in the 20th Century – a guidebook”
February 2009 DogA, Oslo, Time in architecture, chair, debate at book launch January 2009 Sundts Prize for Architecture in Oslo, jury member Nov. 2008
Norsk Form, Oslo, jury member, writing competition
Arnstein Arneberg Prize 2008, jury member
March 2008 AHO, Oslo, member of academic appointment committee for new professor of history and theory January 2008 Europan, Oslo, jury member for Norwegian sites, Europan 9 October 2007 Morgenbladet, Oslo, jury member for ”Norwegian Architectural Canon” June 2007
KTH, Stockholm, external examiner
June 2006
KTH, Stockholm, external examiner
October 2005 ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION, London, external examiner August 2005
AHO, Oslo, member of advisory board for academic promotion
June 2005
KTH, Stockholm, external examiner
April 1997
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, ARCHITECTURE, USA, guest critic
March 2005
AHO, Oslo, member of advisory board for academic promotion
1997-99
JONATHAN CAPLAN ARCHITECTURE, London, architect
January 2005 AHO, Oslo School of Architecture and Design, external diploma examiner February 2005 KTH, Stockholm, external examiner Autumn 2004 Chalmers, Göteborg, external examiner 2003-2004
Member of the jury for A.C. Houens fonds diplom, the main architecture prize awarded in Norway
Spring 2003
AHO, Oslo, tutor at Institute for History and Theory, studio for infill and architectural conservation
Spring 2002
AHO, Oslo, tutor at Institute for History and Theory, studio for infill and architectural conservation
1999-2002
BYGGEKUNST, assistant editor Deputy editor from Jan-June 2000
2002
AHO, Oslo, external examiner for “AHO på Blå”, theme studio
2001
CHALMERS, Gøteborg, external examiner for writing course on ecology and architecture
1999
AHO, Oslo, external examiner for studio Bygg 3, complex buildings
1999
ARCHITECTURE FOUNDATION, London, project co-ordinator research og preparation including programme production for the ideas competition“Living in the City - an Urban Renaissance”
1995-99
ARCHITECTURAL ASSOCIATION, London, Unit Tutor teaching with Pascal Schöning in AA Diploma Unit 3
Projects: 1995-96 - Hiroshima, Japan 1996-97 - South Bank, London 1997-98 - Sarajevo, Bosnia 1998-99 - Social Housing
• selected projects: House, 5 Scarsdale Studios, London refurbishment of listed town house Apartment, 4 East 70th Street, New York City remodelling of private apartment Gallery, 523 West 24th Street, New York City refurishment of art gallery House, 95-97 East Road, London remodelling industrial unit into living space 1994-1997
CLEMENTS & PORTER ARCHITECTS, London, associate
• Refurbishment of18th century listed buildings: 4-5 Puma Court, London restoration of listed 18th century town house 817 Commercial Road, London restoration of listed 18th century town house 805 Commercial Road, London survey and restoration of listed 19th century town house 9 Fournier Street, London survey and restoration of listed 18th century town house • other selected projects: Bengali Diner, Whitechapel Road, London remodelling Victorian public lavatories into fast-food restaurant Doctor’s surgery, Connaught Square, London refurbishment and extensions to surgery in listed building from 1750 Housing, 94-98 Middlesex Street, London project for redeveloping warehouse into 23 flats Housing, 68-74 Nelson Street, London project for 14 new-build flats 1994-95
KUNSTHALLE (WIEN), researcher research for the exhibition ”The Construction of the Impossible”, an exhibition about technology and culture, Kunsthalle Wien Mai 1996
1985-93
ØKAW ARKITEKTER a/s, Oslo, stud. arch.
• selected projects: New headquarters for Kreditkassen bank , Oslo Olympic stadium, Lillehammer Children’s Ward, Rikshospitalet, Oslo Laboratory building for SIFF/SRI, Oslo 1983-85
KUNSTNERFORBUNDET, Oslo, sales of works of art and applied arts
GRANTS
2004 1996 1997 1997
The Norwegian Non-fiction Writers And Translators Association (NFF) travel grant, NOK 20 000.Norwegian Arts Council travel grant for ”Norway - a Guide”, NOK 10.000,The Norwegian Non-fiction Writers And Translators Association (NFF) project grant for ”Norway - a Guide”, 2 months salary National Association of Norwegian Architects (NAL) support grant for ”Norway – a Guide”, NOK 10.000,-
LECTURES by invitation as independent lecturer (not as part of teaching position)
2009
• Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, for the Swedish Alvar Aalto-foundation, at the Museum of Architecture, Stockholm • Architectural policy, for the Department of Planning, the Municipality of Oslo • Arkitektur in Norwegian, for AHO, Oslo • Arkitektural criticism, for AHO, Oslo • Concept and conservation, for AHO, Oslo • Writing about architecture, at Litteraturhuset, Oslo
2008
• Architectural photography, at the National Museum – Architecture, Oslo
• Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, for the ICAM- conference, Oslo • Talking architecture, for AHO, Oslo • Words and love, summing up at the International Røros Symposium • Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, in Santiago, Chile • Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, in Hyderabad, India
2007
• Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, at Chalmers, Gothenburg, Sweden • Skiing, at the first Pecha Kucha in Oslo • Why write? for AHO writing course, Oslo
2006
• Master builders, at the Norwegian Embassy in Washington • Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, at Chalmers, Gothenburg, Sweden • Building for the future, at client seminar by ROM ’ Arkitekturpsykologi, Oslo • Concepts and conservation, at the NAL Academy, Oslo • What is an architectonic concept?, at the NAL Academy, Oslo • Place and identity, summing up the International Røros Symposium
2005
• Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, at St. Petersburg, Russia • Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, at RIBA, London • A new generation of Norwegian Architecture, at Stavanger Art Gallery • Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, at University of Wisconsin, Madison • Architecture criticism, at Seminar on Aesthetics, University of Oslo
2004
• Indentity – modernity – quality, at conference on Bergen sea front • Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, for NORLA, Oslo • Norsk Form, summing up hearing seminar for design organisation, Oslo • Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, at Chalmers, Gothenburg, Sweden • Stories about Vienna, for Medplan arkitekter, Oslo • Writing about Architecture, for UMB, Landscape Architecture
• About Byggekunst, Oskar Hansen symposium, Bergen • Nordic Style, Architecture day, NTNU, Trondheim
2003
• Criteria for Architectural Criticism, for UMB dept. of Landscape Architecture, at seminar ”Evaluation of design subjects”, Skiphelle, Drøbak • From Jencks’ banana peel to Mies van der Rohe’s cigar, for writing course for journalists, Institutt for Journalistikk, Fredrikstad • Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, for Chalmers, Villa Stenersen, Oslo • Conservation in Paris, for Infill studio, AHO, Oslo
2002
2001
2000
• Writing about Architecture, for NLH dept. of Landscape Architecture • Writing about Architecture, for AHO writing course • Writing about Architecture, for Norsk Form/Norsk arkitektakademi seminar about Writing about architecture, Villa Stenersen, Oslo • Suspending disbelief, for theme studio AHO på Blå, Oslo • Norwegian Contemporary Architecture, Chalmers, Gothenburg, Sweden • Where can you find Mies? Writing about architecture, for writing course at AHO • Drawing the line of thought: a building is not a stationary thing. Video works from Diploma Unit 3, for AHO, Oslo • IBA Emscher Park, for SAF, Stavanger • The challenges of contemporary architecture: new architecture in historic contexts, for TeAF, Skien • New architecture and conservation: Where do we stand? at ICOMOS Seminar, Oslo • The Architects’ chance: ecology and contemporary architecture, SARs Ekodag, Gothenburg, Sweden • Stories – a narrative architecture, Architecture seminar, Lysebu
1999
• Knowledge: project work from the AA, for AHO Bygg 3 • Works from AA Diploma Unit 3, for AHO Bygg 3 • Illuminations, at Tendenser ’99, seminar Norsk Arkitektakademi
1998
• It is not me – a story about the necessary material: diploma project, at AA, London
EXHIBITIONS
1997
1993
”ILLUMINATIONS” large scale slide projections on the façade of the Architectural Association, Bedford Square, London ”DRAWING THE LINE OF THOUGHT” Landesmuseum, Linz, Austria, og i Barcelona projects from NETZ EUROPA ”MEMOIRE-ARCHITEKTUR-EUROPE” large scale slide projections at facades of the Hauptplatz, Linz, part of Netz Europa ”NEIGHBOURS, one exhibition of two projects” Architectural Association, London with Tim Jachna, Anders Johansson and Peter Hasdell ”MUSEUM FÜR ZUKUNFT” Kunsthaus Bethanien, Berlin a fax-dialogue with Stefan Bullerkotte
PUBLICATIONS
• books:
2002 1997 1995 1993
”NORWAY - A GUIDE TO RECENT ARCHITECTURE” for BT Batsford Publishers, London ”VIENNA - OBJECTS AND RITUALS” for Ellipsis Publishers, London reviewed in The Architects Journal 26 June 1997 ”VIENNA - A GUIDE TO RECENT ARCHITECTURE” for Ellipsis Publishers, London ”I AM MY HOUSE” catalogue for the NEIGHBOURS exhibition
• other publications:
from 1995
Independent freelance writer for several European architectural journals including AA Files, AA News, The Architects’ Journal, Architectural Review, Architectural Design, Arkitektnytt, Baumeister, Byggekunst, Feks, Rassegna, Utflukt, Wallpaper, Werk, Bauen + Wohnen, World Architecture. Building reviews, book reviews, reportage. Full publications list can be forwarded.
1994 1994 1993
The critics’ opinion:
…about Vienna – a guide to recent architecture: “If there is a star performer it is probably Ingerid Helsing Almaas, whose revelations about both the modern architecture of Vienna and the forces that conspire to control it deliver a brilliant read full of clues, half-leads and tense miniinterviews with architects, which combine to come off the page like a disjointed Wim Wenders narrative.” Jay Merrick om Vienna, a guide to recent architecture Guide, The Independent 5 Mai 1998
…about The biggest glass palace in the world (by Ian Ritchie, with essay by IHA): “(Ingerid Helsing Almaas’ text) is devoid of pretension and to the point. There is a wealth of technical information, and insight into Ritchie’s approach to working with glass, readably presented in interview form.” Isabel Allen om “The biggest glass palace in the world”, AJ 4 Desember 1997 …about Vienna: objects and rituals: “Vienna: objects and rituals by Ingerid Helsing Almaas is not merely a document on contemporary Viennese architecture, but rather a description of the way architects have negotiated the demands of planners and politicians to create modern architecture in a conservative city which values, and exploits, its own history. This will come as a breath of fresh air for those who spend much of their time and energy on the bureaucratic intricacies of getting things built, while being taunted by publishers’ tendencies to present other people’s schemes as if they evolved smoothly from that first inspitational scribble on the back of a cigarette box.” Isabel Allen on “Vienna: Objects and rituals”, AJ 26 Juni 1997 From “Illuminations”. large scale light projections onto the facade of the AA, London 1997
I have been the editor-in-chief of Arkitektur N, the Norwegian Review of Architecture, since the end of 2003. Together with three other talented people, I try to surprise Norwegian architects with things they never even knew they were interested in. Like environmental sustainability.
And other things.
This is my contribution to a book called “Cinematic Architecture” which was recently launched at the AA in London. The book sums up the work of AA Diploma Unit 3, where I taught with Pascal Schöning for 4 years.
I miss the AA. We had a lot of good students. We tried to teach them to design using minimum materials. Preferably only light. The students worked with narrative, light projection and film.
“HOW DO I KNOW WHERE MY PAIN IS?” Ludwig Wittgenstein, from Philosophical Investigations
A stor y about Vienna and Paris By Ingerid Helsing Almaas Diploma project 1993
Projection on a London rooftop, 1993.
This was my diploma project, when I was in the unit. It seems a long time ago.
Story
Vienna at the turn of the century is a capital in tension. The AustroHungarian Empire is all but lost; a sense of loss and disorientation is reflected in the biographies and production of many exponents of Viennese culture. Vienna is a closed eye. The fantasies of the city are contained within that closed eye. A fantasy has no outside.
Method
This project follows a strict method. The aim is not to arrive at definitive answers by a process of excluding possible alternatives – rather, the analysis works by seeing how many different aspects of the chosen subject, in this case the city of Vienna, that can be made useful or operative at the same time. The main stages are as follows:
From the collection. A thread of associative connections
1. Collection Initial search and collection of information. The given field of study is Vienna at the turn of the 19th Century. We read. We look. Any piece of information about Vienna and its inhabitants, texts, words, images, parts of images, anything that holds the attention for a fraction of a second, anything, which is a trigger for a personal memory or intuition, is recorded (photocopied) and collected.
2. Connection and overlay Gradually connections are discovered between the accumulating pieces of information: associative connections, graphic, visual, contradictory. The technique used for exploring the connections within the collected material is overlaying, of images, text and maps. One piece of information is physically overlaid on another, by photocopying on the same paper, by dyeline printing of many layers of transparencies, or digitally. These overlays allows different kinds of knowledge to coexist in the mind: facts, personal associations, impressions; the juxtapositions are contradictive rather than explanatory. This allows cross-connections to be made in the mental space that the facts describe. Once formed, the overlays are assumed to be real. When a fish appears overlaid onto a plan of Vienna, then the fish is in the city; it is as real as
any other piece of information on that plan. All that needs to be made clear is in which dimension that reality occurs. The connections described by the overlays point to the main theme or concern of the project. 3. Zooming in The main concern of the project is summarised in a central overlay: a new, personal urban plan. Then, important locations in the memory-structure are explained further by enlarging sections of this new plan. New information appears, as in a smaller scale drawing, new text or images are added, backed up by the collection. The specific physical locations in the city given by this map are only part of the relevant information. 4. Testing The structures and preoccupations developed in the Vienna project are then tested against a real situation, in this case a problem of urban politics in an area of Paris in 1993. Can the personal conclusions from the Vienna study add new dimensions to the understanding of a real problem, and in which way does real situation, social and physical, affect the carefully constructed structure of memories and associations? Ingerid Helsing Almaas
From the main overlay. A new map of Vienna.
How can experience, memory, be structured in a useful way, without reducing its richness and potency?
Story
Vienna seems to reply to Wittgenstein’s question: your pain is the pain of wanting, your pain is in the difference between your obsessions and what you construct as your instruments of satisfaction. What is this relationship between desire and its embodiments, between want and location? How do I know where my pain is?
Zooming in on the main map. The eye of a fish appears.
Further enlargements reveal new added information, until you cal see what is written on the final pixel.
Story
In the 20th arrondissement of Parid, in the traditionally working-class district of Menilmontant, the city authorities in the early 1990s were in the process of demolishing a group of old apartment buildings. No. 35 rue des Partants was demolished on the 25th and 26th of August 1993, as the final step in a long process of “urban sanitation� involving political preparations, social stigmatisation of the inhabitants, systematic deterioration of the building fabric, forced evictions and finally physical destruction.
But even if this work was a long time ago, I am still interested in stories as much as in buildings. And I still think what surrounds buildings, life in all its dimensions, is as vital a part of architectureas its physical structure.
That’s precisely why structure is so important.
Conclusion
Destroying the building fabric means denying its accumulated life that it embodies. Not only the people who were living in the old houses are affected, the idea of a previous life, of a different time, a whole space of alternatives to the current perception of truth is also demolished. Retaining this political space of memory is a reason to challenge the demolition of the old apartment buildings in Menilmontant. It is not simply a matter of keeping a material record of the passing of time, the old stone structures protect a political as well as a physical space.
The main function of building is to reinforce a space of memory, by the associations and reactions provoked by their materiality. This means that architecture is not primarily physical. Final demolition of No. 20, rue des Partants, 26th August 1993.
I have worked with building structure and fabric, as a practising architect in Oslo and in London. In Oslo, I worked on large buildings. In London, I worked on old buildings.
That, too, seems a long time ago. I have not been behind a drawing board for almost ten years, though I hold that as an editor I make more architectural decisions than many of my colleagues. And I have replaced the rotten ground beam in my great-grandparents’ cottage from 1916.
I also lecture quite a lot. I worked with grant-aided refurbishment of 18th century houses in East London. This house belonged to Mr. Cleovoulou. He was a Greek barber. Jehova’s Witness. He used to try to hand out leaflets outside the Brick Lane mosque on Fridays.
The following is one of my lectures, from one of my favourite assignments: summing up the “International Celebration of Architecture” at Røros in2008. These lectures are written in one night, at the end of the symposium, while everyone else is partying.
TAF International Celebration of Architecture, Røros 2008
But better words, new words, difficult words, like:
Words
Good Comfortable Ideology
y name is Ingerid Helsing Almaas, I am the editor of Arkitektur N, the Norwegian Review of Architecture. Coming from Oslo, I have found that this symposium is the best kept secret north of Hamar. Thank you to the Røros committee for the invitation to do the summin up for the second year running, and thank you to all the speakers for your time and insight these last two days. So, I agreed to do this death slot talk again. The last speaker. I have had another lonely night at the Vertshuset Hotel, and I have decided to talk to you about Words.
…and we need to give these words a new meaning. Then, perhaps, we can start to have a public discussion about what architecture could do, and what a useful architectural policy might aim for. So in the magazine, we are planning to invite people from all parts of society to try to give their definitions of some of these words. So with this editorial project in mind, I had some words with me when I came here, that I thought I might look for in your presentations, and try to find new meanings for. Perhaps words like:
M
Because what was this? What do we have when we come together like we have these last two days? What did you all bring with you? Words. Yes, pictures as well, and some people say a picture says a thousand words – actually, I don’t think so. And especially not about architecture. Pictures of architecture are so faint i relation to reality; there is always more to say. I work with words. I am an architect, but words have become, if you like, my trade. As an editor, I and my colleagues try to give form both to our own words and the words of others. We are currently initiating a new project in our magazine, Arkitektur N, which we hope will be our contribution to a national policy for architecture, which the National Association of Architects, NAL, is currently trying to establish. We think an architectural policy should focus on the consequences of architecture, on what happens to people after something is built. This is where you can establish an interesting public discussion about architectural issues. And in this discussion, everyone must take part. The whole of society. Architects’ words have no more weight than any others. In fact, I think we need a whole new set of words for this discussion – not professional words, like: Urbanity Architectural quality Materiality Coherence Tactility
Global Innovative Sustainable But these have turned out not to be so important any more. I have found new ones. That must be a good thing. So I have taken a new kind of notes, I have been collecting words these last couple of days. Ordinary words and extraordinary words. Some of these words are really great. Like: Burning Pleasure Rock-hewn Coffee ceremony Cosmic clock Architectural hearing aid Dante or nothing I have found the definition of a building: A structure with enough space for a human being to move around. Wonderful. And a definition of architecture: Articulated nature. It is supposed to apply even in the city. I have been harvesting these words, the fruits of all your labour and experience. And like Francis Kere, I am deeply humbled. I have stayed up most of the night, looking through the presentations, all your achievements, a fantastic treasure, even Brian McKay Lyons’ pictures from Mali that you all didn’t get to see, look here, wonderful. And there was music too, I copied it all onto my computer and felt like I was a kid stealing in the sweetie shop.
These are some of my slides from the lecture.
Connection was a word that kept coming up. I would like to attach two words to this: History and Expectation. Perhaps History is too heavy. Story. Better. Through these three words run the threads of all our lives, that Hans Skotte called the lines of connection enmeshing the globe; the stories that have brought each one of us here today, and that will send us out on our different ways again tomorrow, changed. Because that is what we do to eachother. When I was teaching in London with Pascal Schøning during the 1990’s, we used to follow a very simple method with our students. We asked them to study, to look, to read, and when they suddenly found, as you do, that they no longer knew what they were reading, that they had lost their train of thought, we asked them to go back to the exact point in a text or whatever they had been working on, and see what that was, and what it made them think. They then made a record of all those points, and that became the basis for their stories and their projects. Because these points, where your thoughts are derailed, come off the tracks, are more important than the intended meaning of a text – these points are where your own preoccupations, your own interests, suddenly surface. That is where things start to matter to you. That is the power of a word. It can shift your whole train of thought, and then you find you can’t go back. In fact, you will never be quite the same again. The next time you open your mouth to another person, new words will come out.
“What do we have when we come together like we have these last two days? What did you all bring with you? Words.”
Neroism Poetic act Drumlin Earth has a new meaning to me now. So does Mud. And Horizon.
I never knew things could hang from the horizon. But they do, I have seen it, and the horizon will never be the same to me again. Many of the speakers have ended their talks with two very simple words: ”That’s it”. A lot of lectures end with those two words. I always thought this was a bit of a sad ending, like they had run out of something. Perhaps it is not. It depends how you say it of course, but it could also be just a simple statement of fact. That’s it. That is how it is. This is my truth, my world. This is what I have seen, what I have done. We have seen many different worlds over this seminar. I cannot help adding them to some of the worlds from 2006: Channa Daswatte’s Sri Lanka, Kate Otten’s South Africa, Lapena Torres’ sophisticated Barcelona, Rafael Iglesia’s Argentina, Lie Øyen’s surprising corners of Norway. But as I said, this year, I was looking for words. Dick van Gameren spoke about connections, about movement, as the main theme of their work. For him, it is movement that connects the building with its surroundings, and what the architect gives people is the possibility of movement, from the heart of the building to the surrounding landscape or city. To achieve movement he would take away, or not build, keeping views and circulation open, only carefully adding connecting surfaces. The building in Addis Abbeba, he said, had no idea behind it. Only the landscape. The topography and the users’ demand for privacy were the reference points. But also the connection with Ethiopian culture, you can see it here in the section. Go up look out, look back. Always a movement from place to place, staged in and around what at first glance appears to be a very rigid structure. But rigid is, in this context, no longer an appropriate word. Sami Rintala had a lot of words. The work of Rintala & Eggertson rests, it seems, on a structure of carefully chosen words as well as a cloud of visual references to the work of other artists – people who have worked within the same poetical space. The words Sami placed in front of us: hunter potato field body were like points on a map, giving access to his understanding of the world. Their buildings have the same kind of precision, in scale and materiality – precise statements describing their view of the human condition and the place of the body in a certain landscape.
No less. That’s it. I was very excited to hear about the Open City in Chile. I knew it existed, but not really what is was. Here is a place founded on words. Through many years, the architects, artists and poets of the Open City have sung a new way of life into being, a new way of constituting and pursuing an identity, both individual and collective. Their belief in the power of the word is total. The necessity for movement, continuous movement, is absolute. The poetic act, far from being an accident or a result of individual whim, is based on the trust of the whole school community. Manuel used the word Liberty. In the open city, it seems to me that this word has meaning. Brian MacKay-Lyons started with Anger. Also a refreshing word in a profession where confrontation often has consequences for your livelihood. Although it seems to me it takes more than anger to produce works of this kind of fragile beauty. Brian had many good words: as he talked, the world became a place you could influence, a project where will, place and collaboration made the unthinkable a reality. His buildings are instruments of silence and action that open the landscape in new and very precise ways, the lines on his many sketches and diagrams always extending out into a larger world. In the same way, he makes even familiar words like Fog or Beer mean something else that they used to.
“Brian had many good words: as he talked, the world became a place you could influence.”
Of all the projects I have seen these past two days, I think it is the school buildings of Diebedo Francis Kere that will most influence my contribution to formulating a Norwegian architectural policy. In everything he showed us, the main value to the people was in the doing. He did not speak about architecture as we have had a tendency to do in western society, as a kind of pastime for the affluent, but as a necessity for developing collective intelligence. Time, he said. Give people time and opportunity, and they will learn, they will find.
Eike Roswags presentation was a surprise. I still don’t really understand why he went to Bangladesh, but he was there, and the story he told us about materials and construction clearly serves to prove Brian’s statement that “Construction always wins”. And again, like in Burkina Faso, it is the direct application of and engagement with local knowledge which leads to innovation. Mud, water , straw, bamboo. The word Problem, he told us, never came up. So, that was my collection of your words. I have just one word of my own that I would like to add to the vocabulary of this year’s seminar: Love Difficult word, overused, underused, very simple, very complicated… But there is something very basic here which is very important to the development of architecture, and it brings many things into play. It came to me in Dick van Gameren’s talk, right in the beginning, when he showed this image. He talked about movement, about connection, like you have all done in one way or another. Now, this house, Hardwick Hall, has no architect. At least Dick did not mention him. This staircase remained nameless. It was just a stair, a space, with certain qualities that he liked and wanted to share with us. Just this one picture. Nothing else. As soon as this next picture came up, however, something else happened. He mentioned Josef Frank, and then later Le Corbusier, and Kevin Roche… These names to me obscured the architecture. Unfortunately, I know too much about Le Corbusier. So when you say his name, all these things come into my head and obscures what you are trying to tell me. And here, the effect of pictures is also very distracting: we have seen so many of them before. So when we see a picture we already know, we are no longer listening to the other person, we are listening to ourselves. We in the architectural press take great care with names. 99% of the complaints we get are from people, architects, whose names we have spelt wrong. Or, even worse, whose names we have forgotten. The attachment of a name to a building is tremendously important to us. What if the names were not there? The editors would have to work much harder, because rather than just showing a building by Herzog & De Meuron, we would have to actually think about what is interesting about this building, and how to show that. We have all come to need these names, they are a kind of profesional shorthand for us. They define our fields of preference, they are the milestones of our historical knowledge; each of the big
names of architectural history is a kind of bag, that contains a certain set of buildings, qualities and associations. Perhaps we need a new kind of name in architecture, names for qualities rather than identities? Brian showed us these things. Wonderful. Who made them? Someone. No name. So they could belong to us. This, on the other hand, is Brian’s house. At least to me. Perhaps not to the people who own it, I hope not. Perhaps not even to Brian. But to me it is Brian’s house. I will go home to my husband, who is an architect, and to my colleagues, and tell them of Brian’s wonderful houses. What if there was no name? Just the building? If this staircase had been presented in the same ways as this one? Would it be mine
“But through our admiration, what we see can enter us.” in the same way? Perhaps I am just envious. Perhaps I just want Brian to disappear, nice as he is, so that these buildings can be mine. In my summary talk two years ago, I spoke about admiration. Admiration is this reaction we all get when we see something that is obviously excellent: “God, I wish I’d done that”. I think no architect, regardless of how successful, is above that. Our sense of inadequacy is easily mobilised. But through our admiration, what we see can enter us. Buildings. People. Even if we didn’t actually produce it ourselves, we will remember and carry with us parts of what we have seen, and in a way, when we have the opportunity to meet like this, one might say that we see in each other the possibilities for excellence, dream versions of ourselves, what we could have been, or what we can become. And here comes love. Our love is the things we are not. Love extends us. It connects us, to people, to things, to the world. And as it extends us, love dissolves the ego. Allows sharing.
This picture came from Diebedo Francis Kere, from one of his school projects in Burkina Faso.
Love. That’s it. Have a safe journey home. Thankyou. Ingerid Helsing Almaas
This was my conclusion. I got a bit carried away.
You wanted to see some freehand drawings. These are quite old, as I mostly write these days.
These are from an exhibition of Rodin at the Hayward Gallery in 1989.
And this is from one of Aalto’s churches, from a study trip in 1988 I think.
These days, I have found a new way of engaging with the world. I ride horses. Mostly dressage.
This picture is not me, but you get the point. I am totally hooked, which is nice. I have no horse, so I read a lot of books about classical dressage,and go to unfamiliar places and ride other people’s horses. Horses teach you precision and kindness. They are herd animals, with very absolute instincts. A bit like people.
This is an etching from 1990 or thereabouts. I liked etching.
This gives you a bit of information about me. I have piles or articles, reams of old drawings and artwork, and stacks of the magazine which is my current production. However, I hope this was enough to give you an impression. If you want more, just drop me a line. With best regards,
Oslo, 20th October 2009