Second Year Project- Intermediate 14

Tutor: Christopher Pierce, Aram Mooradian

I travelled alongside coastal outports of Norway to survey the vernacular housing tradition. The tradition was cherished for its flexible wood joining system. However, after the heritage conservation law was enacted in 1992, renovation and repair of wooden buildings were prohibited under the name of preservation. The essence of Norweigian vernacular housing was the simplicity of its notching technique, which made it easy to disassemble, transport, and transform. Through my project, I propose that instead of preserving the current state of buildings, utillising and developing traditional techniques can succeed in conserving knowledge.

“Montage is an idea that arises from the collision of independent shots” wherein “each sequential element is perceived not next to the other, but on top of the other.”-Sergei Mikhailovich Eisenstein

Montage combines pictorial elements from various sources in a single composition to allow each component to retain its separate identity to add interest or meaning to the composition.
Likewise, to retain the meaning of functioning buildings, preservation methods keep the importance of individual pieces as separate building elements while allowing the flexible vernacular transformability as their heritage.

By zooming into individual joints, Norwegian Vernacular Wood-Notching Technique’s loose joinery methods of building elements were strongly characterised by the flexibility of adaptable parts engaging in prolonging building lifespan, developable amendments for the versatility of space and programs reforming residents’ lives.