Our partner Silje Klepsvik will be giving a speech about Open processes and tools in planning the conference "Deltakelse og tilhørighet på steder i endring" at DogA in Oslo on Wednesday 12th October. The full-day free seminar is a part of the Oslo Architecture Triennale extended program and is arranged by Akershus fylkeskommune with Urban Ide and Kulturseksjonen. The speakers include professor Ola Bettum from NMBU and professor Robert Donovan from University of Western Australia. We are delighted to share our recent experiences from working with a participatory process with Asker municipality, as well as presenting the work and methods of Uusi Kaupunki, for the forst time in Norway! See more details on the program and the conference from the Facebook-event. You can download the detailed program through this link.
Location based survey about the future of Dikemark
Take the survey at https://maptionnaire.com/nb/1578/
We have now launched a location based questionnaire about the future of Dikemark. The survey gathers ideas and suggestions for the future of Dikemark, and is available until 1.10.2016. The survey is the result of collaboration between us, Asker municipality and the Finnish Mapita Oy, which is the provider of the tool, Maptionnaire. Check out this article on GeoAwesomeness on how Maptionnaire revolutionizes public participatory practises in urban planning and development - we are proud to be in our part at the frontier of the change!
#NyeDikemark
Come to picnic with us! Illustration: Kaleidoscope
On Sunday 11th of September at 1pm, in just a couple of days, we are hosting an informal lunch event at the centre of Dikemark in Asker. Join us for this occasion to share your ideas and visions for the future of the old hospital area and be part of creating new activity at Dikemark! Bring your friends and family and own food and drinks - we will set the table and take care of the rest. The event is the starting point for the planning process of Dikemark to a sustainable local centre. The whole process is gathered on the website of Asker municipality. You can register by sending an email to rigmor.stenvik@asker.kommune.no or by clicking "attending" at the Facebook-event.
Pietilä award 2016 granted to Uusi Kaupunki
Every other year the Finnish Building Information foundation awards a prize for significant work for the renewal of architecture, named after architects Reima and Raili Pietilä. The award is given for a young architect or a group of architects.
This year we are honoured to announce that the prizewinner is Uusi Kaupunki collective (New Urban collective), of which Kaleidoscope is a member since 2015.
Uusi Kaupunki is a company started in 2013 by six young Finnish architecture offices. Today 13 offices, including over 30 international architects, urban designers and service designers, form the collective. The collective responds to the changing challenges of the contemporary urban design through methods that inspire and activate the citizens.
Professor Markku Hedman, chairman of the jury, states that ”Uusi Kaupunki collective, formed by the architects of the new generation, has demostrated that they pursue urban design with the unprejudice attitude required by our time. On the grounds for granting the award he adds: ”The collective and interactive working methods of Uusi Kaupunki respond excellently to the needs of current city planning: the demand of extensive dialogue and the enforcement of the role of the inhabitants.”
The previous laureates include among other ALA Architects and JKMM Architects, as well as several of the professors in Finnish architecture schools.
Kaleidoscope will continue to work with participatory processes and look forward to develop Uusi Kaupunki as well as to find new collaborators in Finland and abroad. The award money will be used for building up a network for Nordic architectural collaboration. We express our deep gratitude for this recognition from our peers and colleagues.
After Belonging / In Residence / Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016
We are thrilled to invite you to the Oslo Architecture Triennale After belonging main exhibition In Residence at the National Museum - Architecture. Kaleidoscope partner Silje Klepsvik is part of the project OPENtransformation together with architect Elisabeth Søiland and sociologist Åsne Hagen. You will meet us at the opening event cheering away!
Bergen on the front page
The Norwegian architectural news publication Arkitektnytt visited Bergen for their 03/2016 issue, and we from Kaleidoscope were happy to be interviewed for the magazine. Bergen - the most beautiful city in Norway (or the world, if you ask anyone coming from Bergen) - has for a long time had very few smaller architectural practices establishing there, and the general opinion labels Bergen as a conservative city when it comes to architecture. Is the historical past of Bergen too heavy a burden to make rebel with or even live and build alongside? Arkitektnytt searched answers to why this is so, and our answer is that Bergen is changing. There is more openness for collaboration of small offices, there are new discussion arenas for debating and networking and there is a rising culture for creative businesses. We trust that the city sees a positive growth in brave new and uncompromised architecture in the years to come, and of course, we will be one of those giving birth to it. You can download the article by clicking here - it will make most sense if you can read Norwegian!
A year with Uusi Kaupunki collective
It's time for a short retrospective of our year with Uusi Kaupunki collective and a sneak peak to future too! During 2015, our participatory urban design collective has grown with six new and skilled architecture offices, Kaleidoscope being one of them, and started a collaboration with Collaplan. Uusi Kaupunki has developed new models and tools for participatory design together with some of the clients, and held workshops in Vallisaari, Jyväskylä, Hyvinkää, Malmi, Jakomäki, Kangasala and last but not least, the first workshop abroad in Tallinn, Estonia. Currently, Uusi Kaupunki consists of 12 young award-winning Finnish offices, and several of the offices are continuing work with commissions from the workshops. In 2016 we in Kaleidoscope and Uusi Kaupunki look forward to taking our skills even further to serve new and old clients and partners with expertise on participatory urbanism. If you are fluent in Finnish, you can take a look at the Uusi Kaupunki newsletter for more detailed news!
OPENtransformation wins at Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016
From "others" to "neighbours". Illustration: OPENtransformation
We are thrilled to announce that Kaleidoscope partner Silje Klepsvik, together with architect Elisabet Søiland and sociologist Åsne Hagen, is one of the winners of Oslo Architecture Triennale 2016 Intervention Strategies with their project OPENtransformation - From "others" to "neighbours". From 127 entries, 5 teams have been chosen to develop their projects during the months prior to the Triennale opening in September. The selected interventions will be displayed at the After Belonging: In Residence exhibition in the National Museum of Architecture in Oslo, and debated in events during the Triennale.
The Jury states: "The jury was impressed by the ambition of this project and its potential to generate a frank and open discussion of hospitality for refugees. It addresses the Triennale’s core issues on the Torshov site and at a much larger scale. The team proposes to develop an online housing exchange modelled on home-sharing platforms, while at the same time provoking a debate about housing regulation and policy in Norway more generally."
The Jury report is available here. OPENtransformation has a facebook-page and you can follow them on Twitter too: @OPENtransform #AfterBelonging #OAT #OPENtransformation. We are following the process and looking forward to the development!
Working week was here!
During the past week, Kaleidoscope has had the company of two wonderful 9th graders from Rå Skole in Bergen, Anne and Jon Harald. In the last year of elementary school, the students spend one week in the working life, practising, working and observing at a chosen work place. We were very happy to receive the request from Anne and Jon Harald to work at Kaleidoscope, and didn't hesitate to say yes! During the week, our students were working on their first landscape model for our new project, as well as following the every day life of an architecture office, attending meetings and giving us advice on using social media. We hope to have inspired these two smart and energetic youngsters to consider architecture as a profession, and rest assured that the future is in good hands.
A little bit of Ai Weiwei
As the exhibition of Ai Weiwei continues in the newly opened HAM Helsinki, Kaleidoscope partner Miia-Liina Tommila had her first encounter with the artist's work at first hand. She talks about the experience and the dynamics of the exhibition in this lovely piece on the Grand Tour Magazine, interviewed by the founder Marianna Wahlsten.