Landscape

Western Norway is developed along the coastline of a very challenging terrain. Culture and society are based upon the proximity to marine resources and the opportunities they provided onshore. To a large degree this is still the situation today. However, this shift is a common tread throughout all the current transformation taking place in Norway. The very origin of the region’s traditional towns and villages is rooted in site-specific qualities. This could be the temperature zones in the fjords, the safe havens along the coast, the proximity to national infrastructure, or locations at the foot of tall mountains with water systems that facilitates the production of hydroelectric power.
Along the western coastline of Norway, conditions have been harsh. Steep mountains, deep fjords, long and winding communications, avalanches, floods, and marginal conditions for farming. As a response the inhabitants have had to rely on a wide array of different resources and approaches for sustaining their communities.
The landscape projects discuss the continuous change of the Norwegian landscape – always modified, altered and improved with ambitions to improve local conditions and livelihoods. The current change from a society based on agriculture, fisheries and industry, providing food, electricity and minerals, towards the service minded global hosts, providing scenic sites and adventure, constitutes the contemporary context for an increasing number of coastal communities in Norway. For a period of time, the two paradigms will most likely coexist in the many depopulated communities in rural areas. The ambitions of projects interacting with this transformation should be to design a way that connects the two conditions not as conflicting positions but as a continuous expression of “the cultivating Man’s” approach to his environment.