Building Design

Remote Education

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A university level course, distance education, part-time module opportunity for professional staff in local authorities and the building industry.

The housing bank’s national responsibility for quality in the built environment forms the basis for their engagement in this further education program. The Gjøvik University College will hold three courses per annum and it is possible that other technical colleges will hold similar courses, where relevant. The housing bank uses the same material in their internal courses and in seminars directed towards local authorities and the building industry. As a new venture, from 2004, it will be possible to apply for stipends to cover the cost of the course.

The fishing village of Råkvåg. Localisation as an answer to a given urban structure

Intention
The principal aim of the course is to disseminate a certain level of terminology and semantics which can be used to express professional attitudes, and give a better understanding of the essential considerations with regard to the theme of Quality in the built environment - modern place-making inspired by adapting local planning, architecture and building traditions, craftsmanship and aesthetics. For example, this means that the candidate will be able to evaluate local characteristics, describe these qualities and thereby develop their professional interpretation of these with regard to how a proposed building project will enhance or impinge on the existing environment.

The hamlet of Nordheimsund. The importance of defining a border between landscape and the built environment by building in tight groups.

Pedagogic concept
Apart from the initial one-day gathering at the beginning of the course, where the students, teachers and administrators meet at the College, all teaching and administration is carried out over the Internet by means of the electronic classroom. This means that the students receive their course tutoring, and participate in tutorials with other students irrespective of geographic location through the internet.

The students receive the possibility of being able to develop their professional understanding for Quality in the built environment - modern place-making inspired by adapting local planning, architecture and building traditions, craftsmanship and aesthetics, and place making by participating in discussions over the Internet. With their local community as a case study, they formulate input and work both individually and in groups. The comparison of their local community with others gives an additional geographic perspective.

There are two group submissions, one for each of the course’s two modules. In addition, each candidate submits a workbook where they have the possibility of deepening their studies in a specific area of interest, and get personal feedback from their tutor.

Lofoten aquarium in Kabelvåg. A utility building which activates the zone between sea and land in a meaningful way.

Professional structure
The course ties the themes of vernacular architecture, craftsmanship, aesthetics and place making together with sustainability. The aim is not to turn the candidates into designers, but to disseminate an understanding of the whole discipline across the whole spectrum of special interests. The debate between design and aesthetics would devolve into a subjective discussion between ugly and nice without the perspective of a specific place. A cross-platform analysis and understanding of the specific on a broad spectrum would, on the other hand, be an alternative to the regional interpretation of design, which our traditional architecture represents.

Mandal. The coastal town’s traditional streets, spaces and places still function as pedagogic examples of how different usages give good urban qualities.

Quality in the built environment
Theme: Quality in the built environment - modern place-making inspired by adapting local planning, architecture  and building traditions, craftsmanship and aesthetics.

There has been a marked increase in the improvement of the quality and standard of the built environment in Norwegian local communities as a result of the revisions to the planning and building regulations of 1997. It is, however, questionable if laws and statutory regulations are in themselves sufficient to create a continuity and cohesion of the enhancement of our local environments. In 2003 the NBI published a paper under the auspices of the Norwegian National Research Council. This established the fact that local and regional community authorities had improved their work in relationship to aesthetics in planning issues by means of an increased incidence of the use of analyses and design guideline handbooks.

The exercise of statutory tools is not only about timelines, control and quality assurance within the industry, but also about having sufficient competence to build bridges between the local authorities and other involved parties.

The purpose of the revisions to the building and planning regulations was to give the local authorities a better foundation by which each project’s aesthetic qualities could be improved in relationship to the exiting natural and built environment of a specific area. There is an increasing demand for the further education of regulatory case officers in local authorities with regard to planning and development aesthetics, in addition to making the local authority a requisitioned of quality.  Many of the smaller local authorities do not have the necessary professional staff with the required competence to cover this type of subjective evaluation. It is therefore necessary to define the level of professional insight which will be required in various projects and that the case-officers concerned become aware of the genius loci - Local Distinctiveness, the natural and historic character, of their local region.

The Town Hall Square in Hokksund. Local qualities can be regenerated by means of situation analyses, local participation, practical environmental approaches and the renovation of streets and places.

Create empathy for Local Distinctiveness
Gjøvik University College has recently started a new course to provide this education which is directed towards not only local and regional authority case officers, but also diverse participants in the building industry; developers, property owners, craftsmen and the like. This Building Control School came about as a result of a co-operative venture between the Forum for Building Control and Gjøvik University College. The College administrates the programme, and ensures the certification of this course as part of a larger programme structure in the further education program for the diverse areas of professional interest in the building trades.

One of the school’s most recent additions to the course is Quality in the built environment - modern place-making inspired by adapting local planning and building traditions, craftsmanship and aesthetics where the state housing bank’s architects have supplied the professional content.
The course is a joint venture between The Housing Bank, Gjøvik University College and Nettskolen AS (sic. web school). The course is intended for officials in the local authorities, planners, developers and other persons working in the building industry. The aim is to create a cross-platform appreciation for the built environment. To date 100 persons are participating or have completed the course.

Holtebakken Housing Association.  A good living neighbourhood presupposes an understanding for design and an appreciation of the spaces between buildings.

Fact box
The course material comprises one file of eight printed modules and a CD-rom is included for installation on the home computer. Lectures are pre-recorded and illustrated, and the CD functions as an audio-visual book with diverse interactive elements. Study is flexible and the tempo of the course can be determined by the individual. However, due to practical considerations the course has hereto been carried out on an intensively, with one module being carried out per week. The course authors are civil architect Professor Ingolf Westbø and civil architect Dr.Ing. Marit Vagstein.
Course stipend applications can be made to the housing bank’s regional offices.

The course’s first module and first lesson starts with how the built environment relates to the region, its landscape and climate. Thereafter a situation analysis is carried out as a method by which one can come to grips with this type of totality. The third lesson focuses more specifically on the local (urban) structure and is followed up with an analysis of those elements which are essential to the life of the place, such as streets, spaces and places.

The second module starts with the individual building’s form and articulation prior to an examination of its influence on the local environment, terrain and vegetation in lesson six. In the following lesson emphasis is laid on how improved energy and resource management gives a necessary environmental ecological balance and self-sustainability. The last lesson dwells on the local authority’s responsibility with regard to building control and statutory requirements, planning and local bye-laws together with design guides and analyses.Module 1

1 Region, landscape climate
2 Situation analysis
3 Local structure
4 Streets, spaces and places
5 The building
6 The building in its environment

7 Ecology and self-sustainability
8 The Local Authority’s responsibilitypaces and places.

Notes
Critical Regionalism is an approach to architecture that strives to counter the inappropriateness inherent in a great deal of modern architecture by using contextual forces to give a sense of place and meaning. Although he was not the first to use the term, Kenneth Frampton is most closely associated with this architectural philosophy. Frampton put forth his views in "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six points of an architecture of resistance”. In this he asks the questions, "how to become modern and to return to sources; how to revive an old, dormant civilization and take part in universal civilization". According to Frampton, Critical Regionalism should adopt modern architecture critically for its universal progressive qualities but at the same time should value responses particular to the context. Emphasis should be on topography, climate, light, tectonic form and the tactile sense. Since the 1970’s architects in the western world have been struggling to come to terms with this philosophy, attempting to develop a coherent locally based architectural language for use in housing schemes. An example would be a scheme where the houses are designed using traditional forms and materials which are adapted and used in a contemporary manner, responding for example, to a windswept, coastal environment in a fresh and innovative way.

Local Distinctiveness
For more than ten years now the notion of local distinctiveness has been seeping into the consciousness and, in recent times, into official policy documents of planners, urban designers and architects. The co-founders of Common Ground, have emphasised human action and interpretation as being crucial to distinctiveness, and Kevin Lynch wrote: 'The deepest meaning of any place is its sense of connection to human life and indeed the whole web of living things...' In these definitions, place is invested with value by its relationships with social and biological factors.
Local knowledge can enrich and add sophistication to design responses and, if imaginatively encouraged, can be more forward- looking than planners and architects may expect.

Justification for this claim can be found in the Village Design Statement with its forward-looking attitudes: 'It is important to ensure positive opportunities for high quality contemporary architecture. Imaginative and original design can extend and renew the distinctive character and traditions of an existing built environment.' 

Tønsberg library. An example of a courageous adaptation and an interesting interpretation of a demanding urban situation.