Emerging Arctic Landscapes

Emerging Arctic Landscapes is a master studio at Bergen Architecture School that I'm attending during the autumn 2011 by Gisle Løkken, Magdalena Haggärde and Tone Berge.

The objective of the studio is to create a platform for critical discussions on the changes currently taking place in the Arctic region. These are changes in climate, ecologies, landscapes, economy, societies and cultures - changes that by all accounts can be expected to accelerate in the close future.

The studio will arise along a road trip from Hammerfest to Murmansk - a slow journey in a cross section of remote arctic landscape and intrusive development: From the oil-driven growth of Hammerfest (from fish to oil – and the resurrection of the city after WWII), via the new urbanization of Alta, the barely surviving sami culture in Kautokeino and Karasjok, the decaying and mythical city of Vardø, and the abandoned fishing village of Hamningberg. The trip takes us to the pending economy in Kirkenes, the destructed landscapes of Bjørnevatn – crossing the Russian border into the remote and desolated landscapes, cities and settlements on the Kola-peninsula - via the extremely heavy polluted nature in Nikkel, the trip will end in Murmansk – a city in transformation, from a soviet military stronghold – to a modern and emerging economy, waiting for the oil to arrive.

There are numbers of possible points of departure, and issues wished focused on. In this studio we want to investigate a broad span of examples of landscape occupations and arctic urbanizations - and study the forces of growth and decline that are working in the Arctic.

~my expectations~