Thank You Valle

I made it back all right. And I finally got a reliable Internet connection and some time to write these last entries. The last week in Oslo was hectic. Closing down the apartment, cleaning. Packing. To top it off I wasn’t sure about the flight home and if that was a go. It turned out that there was some confusion last year when I booked the return flight. It all worked out. I flew home on Sunday the 5^th instead of Saturday the 4^th. The extra day cost me a hundred dollars at the hotel. But it was all right. I stayed in the Anker Hotel for those four days. I took some last walks around the city. I went back to Bøler to see if I could get into the community center, but it was closed. I visited the Architecture Museum for the last time. And walked around downtown. Then I woke up at 4am on Sunday morning and took a train to the airport. And an airplane to London. Where I waited four five hours in the international terminal at Heathrow airport before boarding the nine hour flight home. All in all the travel was pretty painless.

My buddy Matt picked me up at the airport and him and his wife and child were kind enough to put me up in their spare bedroom until I found my own place. Which I’ve done. I am now living in Ballard. A Scandinavian ghetto of Seattle. I will be starting another blog about my life here. So watch for that. I’ll post the title and link here in the future if anyone is interested.

Here are a few of the best things about Oslo:

Best cheap food: I ate a lot of Polse med Bacon. Hot dogs with bacon wrapped around them. They were cheap and tasty.

Best adventure: All the driving in the summer was awesome. The Fjords are beautiful and fun to race around.

Best Fehn building: I liked them all. I learned loads from visiting them, studying how they go together and such. But the best one had to be The Nordic Pavilion in Venice. This had a lot to do with the fact that it was the first building of Fehn’s that I was introduced to as well as the beautiful simplicity of the building. I think if I’d have been able to go into the new Architecture Museum it would have had the same feel, the same presence.

Best vernacular building: I would say the Viking settlement in Avendals. It was the pinnacle of the long house and the beginning of the long tradition of the stue and tun and I really liked the Viking temple.

Best Folk Museum: The Oslo museum was the most extensive. It was rich in variety and I visited it often.

Best Norwegian City: Stavanger. I really enjoyed my time in Stavanger. It was a quaint little town with a lot of charm.

Best self prepared food: I ate a lot of chicken fried with vegetables. But the meal I enjoyed the most was always breakfast. Scrambled cheese eggs, wasa bread, cheese, some cold salami and an apple or orange.

Best neighborhood: I really liked living in Grunlokka. It was lively and diverse. There were some other nice neighborhoods. Majorstun around the Veigland Sculpture garden was nice.

Best encounter: I enjoyed meeting the people at Hausmania, the anarchist squatters.

Over all the trip was a complete success. I finished a draft of the thesis. I saw a lot of great architecture and had a really good time. I am thankful to the Valle Scholarship program for making the trip a possibility. I am grateful to my committee, Peter Cohan and Kathryn Merlino for their support and ideas leading up to the trip. I would encourage anyone with the opportunity travel in this part of the world to do so. The design mentality in this part of the world is amazing. And despite the economics, which I’ve talked a bit about in these pages, it was all worth it.

Cheers.

sketch

Time is about up. Here are some pages from the sketchbooks I’ve done over the last nine months. I ran three sketchbooks. One for the vernacular buildings one for Fehn’s work and one for miscellaneous doodling and screwing around. Some of the pages turned out decent. Others not so good. I am pretty fickle when it comes to my ability to sketch. I have to concentrate really hard and take my time and look closely at what I’m drawing. And if I’m tired or distracted the drawings turn out crappy and I get frustrated and mean. These pages are all right.









Here is some exciting news. It turns out my travel agent canceled my return trip booking last year after I made the reservation. In addition, I have not, at this time, been able to reach them. I’m suppose to fly on Saturday and I have no place to live after if I have to stay. It’s got my gut in knots right now. I’m pretty sure it’ll work out, but it’s the waiting to find out how it’s going to play that gets me. I have to mental calming exercises.

Other then that, packing has gone all right. It took more boxes then I thought to send my books back. 6 total. But they are on their way. I’ve decided I dislike traveling with books. If it hadn’t been for the thesis work I wouldn’t have brought any. But it’s done and lesson learned.

So next week I should be back in the states. I’ll wrap this up then, let everyone know how the return journey panned out. Wish me luck, pray to your gods.

I’ll see some of you soon.

house, school, museum, post

Things are wrapping up here. Winding down. Easing into transition. It’s been awesome with the snow this last month. Constantly here, constantly cold. Just what I’d been expecting since October. The boots held up well. I made the right choice in holding off getting new ones.

If you read Tun, you know I got to go checked out the Bødtker place, a house by Fehn. The Bødtker’s weren’t home, so I couldn’t get in. It was built in two stages. The garage and the main house were built in the 60’s. The addition, a square multilevel tower, was built in the 80’s. They were, however, all conceived at the same time.

I am hoping to get up to Aukrust museum one day before I leave. I don’t know if that will work out. Also I’m hoping to hear from the people in the Schreiner house. I got an email form him in response to a letter I sent, and returned an email to him about a meeting, but haven’t heard anything back. This is the most frustrating thing in all my dealings with the Norwegians. They never answer emails. Hopefully I’ll hear something before I leave and get to see that place as well. The domestic architecture was the most difficult to see of Fehn’s. But overall I think I got pretty good coverage of the work.

I was hoping to do another draft of the thesis before I left but I don’t think I have the energy for it. I’ve been doing some reading for the introduction and I have some ideas, but I think I’ll wait to talk to my advisors before pushing ahead. I think I’m in pretty good position for finishing up.

I visited this school. I had found it a while ago, back in the summer. But didn’t check it out then and kept putting off going back. Finally I did and it was completely worth it. Just good architecture.

I may have mentioned the Oslo Architecture Museum before. It’s a Fehn building here in Oslo that they are building right now. I have been visiting it every couple of weeks or so since I got here, watching it come together. It won’t be finished before I leave, unfortunately, but it has been fun to watch it come together. I was there on Sunday taking pictures. The project is a remodel of the existing turn of the century building with the addition of an exhibit space. The exhibit space made up of glass wall with glass louvers that are intriguing from a daylight standpoint. These glass walls are surrounded by freestanding concrete walls maybe 6-8 feet tall. The top of the main space pokes up above these walls and the walls slide past each other to create entrances into what I imagine will by sort of an inner courtyard. It’ll be done in may, so the kids coming over on the Scandinavia program this summer will get to see it.

I’ve shipping my books back to the states. I have a lot of books. I brought a lot and acquired more since I’ve been here. They have these boxes you can buy at the post office that are prepaid for 10 kilograms (about 25 pounds). This all seems pretty straight forward, except I don’t know what 10 kilograms of books looks like. Which makes it a little bit of a hassle. So the other day I’m in the post office, talking to a post guy about my options and cost and how to handle the fact that I don’t know what 10 kilograms of books looks like, when this guys comes stumbling into the post.

He shambles up behind me and starts yelling in Norwegian. I ignore him cause, well, I got no idea what he’s saying. But everyone else is ignoring him also. No one looks at him. None of the post people tell him to settle down or get a hold of him self. And he’s going on and on I’m talking to the post guy and the post guy is talking to me and I turn around to show the post guy something and all of a sudden there are Norwegian cops there, pulling this guy out of the place. And he looks at me and starts apologizing, in English. “Sorry guy. Hey. Sorry!” I hadn’t even known I was involved. And no one in the place ever acknowledged him. And then he was gone. It looks like I’ll have to use 4 boxes to send my books back at a total cost of 1320 Norwegian kroner.

snow and boots

So, God caved to the snowmen’s demands. The city is blanketed in white and it’s awesome. Cold, in the teens, the sun was out today. Beautiful low angle glow off the snow. Far from the depressing black winter that one imagines, it is actually the most pleasant experience to be in this part of the world as the planet pulls away form the sun. And despite my earlier grumbling about the lack of snow, it has been a great season. Wet in parts. When the sun is out it’s amazing. Like sun set all day. Now that the snow has come it makes it all that much better. We got maybe 4”, which isn’t the feet I was hoping for, but it’s substantial and sticking around.

But there is this, and I’m not complaining mind you, it’s just a thing I have to deal with. Here are my boots.

I got this funny foot dragging gate. Always have. It’s not monstrous or anything, but it does wear out a shoe in no time. The outside half of the heal specifically. Like this.

6 months tops. I’ve recently taken to resoling these boots when they wear down. I like these boots. They are plain, honest footwear. I never had my shoes resoled. Ussually opting to just get new ones. But before I left for Norway 8 months ago I had these resoled for the first time and it was great. Like buying the boots again, only cheaper. And they threw in a shine on top of it.

When I came to Norway I brought these boots, a pair of running shoes for running and a pair of sandals. The sandals got lost somewhere in Italy. Not that big a deal, they were not good footwear. I lost them in Rome I think. Under the bed in the hostel. And by lost I mean I left them there. The running shoes I wear, well, running and at the gym. I don’t like wearing running shoes as casual footwear because I feel like an a-hole. Boots fit my internal picture of myself. So when I’m not in summer climes and not running to of from the gym, I’m wearing my boots. I like them. They’re amazingly comfortable. But after 6 months here I was face with prospect of getting them resoled. However, since it became necessary, I have been unable to find a place that will do that. I’m sure they resole boots here, I just can’t figure out where. I thought about getting a new pair of boots as winter was coming and I would surely need them for the snow. But I continued to put it off because snow wasn’t coming. Then it came, and this is the point. Now that it’s here the worn heal of my boot is helpless against the inherent frictionless nature of the snow and ice. I slip. A lot. I slip and slide and have fallen on my ass because of the smooth frictionless contact my heal has on the snow. Now I am stuck with a little more then a month left in country and the prospect of falling every time I go to the store for cheese and lettuce, or hobbling to the post office with my arms out for balance. I could get a new pair of boots for $200 dollars (See earlier explanations of economics as to why a pair of boots would cost $200) a sum I have never paid for a shoe nor ever intended to pay for a shoe. It look at them longingly in the windows of shoe shops. There are some nice boots here. But at that price, knowing that they will only last me 6 months before I had to lay out another 40 bucks when I already have a pair of boot I like. I just have a difficult time shelling out that kind of scratch for really. I’ve been mulling this over. In the last three weeks or so it’s snowed a couple times at night, then left the next day. But what is here now is here for a while. A week? All month? Can’t say. At any rate, yesterday I was explaining this to Liz Maly, who called we from the future using Skype and a web camera, and she suggested I just buy the boots seeing as I had a long walk ahead of me latter in the afternoon (See below) and a good pair of boots would last a good long time and I might as well have them as soon as possible rather then waiting. I agreed. And when I went for my walk I was determined to get some new boots. But it was Sunday, (I sometimes forget the days of the week) and pretty much everything is closed on Sundays. So there were no shoes to buy. I had to decide whether to continue with the walk, up and down several snow covered hills, or go home. I toughed it out. Took the walk. It was totally worth it. I didn’t fall once. So, I think I’ve decided to skip the new shoes and tough it out the rest of my time here. Just be careful is all. Easy does it and all that. And falling ain’t so bad once you get the hang of it.

The walk I took was to a Fehn building. The Okern Aldershjelm. A senior housing project. It was really difficult to get to and not just because of the snowy hills. This wasn’t the first time I’d tried to find it. It is beyond a particular crazy snarl of freeway that my map just doesn’t provide for. Anyway, I made it to the place yesterday. Unfortunately they’ve built a large new facility next to the Fehn building and the Fehn building appears to be being prepared for demolition. I got a few shots, but I couldn’t get in and it was depressing to see.

I did get some good news though. I had sent a couple letters to the residents of the houses in Oslo that were built by Fehn and I heard back form one of them. The Carl Bodtker, who agree to let me photograph the exterior of his house. I’m trying to figure out when I can do it right now. I’m stoked.

In not so encouraging news, I’ve not heard from Fehn himself yet. If you remember I wrote him a letter at the beginning of December. I figured it might be the holidays that kept him from responding. But now that it’s the end of January I figure it’s most likely not going to happen. Unfortunate, but I half expected it. I’ve been told that he is pretty old and he’s had some tough couple of years. I’m not interested in bugging the man so I’ll let it go.

I did, however, finish a draft of the thesis. Which is a tremendous relief to have a draft to work through. And I worked out a preliminary outline for the presentation. So I’m pretty much set to nail this thing up on the wall. Anyone interested in reading 220 pages of Norwegian Architectural history I have pdf’s available all you gotta do is ask.

Over all things are winding up nicely. I’m going up north, next week maybe, to visit a Fehn building. And I might do some day trips around Oslo in the next couple of weeks. And then after that I’ll be on a plane back to the states.

BEDRE LEVEVILKÅR

photo lifted from this site(http://www.morgenutgaven.com/269) for dramatic purposes

In an effort to draw attention to and increase awareness of the injustice of global warming, the plight of the winter dwellers, the evilness of things like oil and air pollution, and God turning his back on those who have a basic right to winter, the snowman marched on parliament yesterday. (see story here and here and pictures here). The snowman stage their protest calling for “Better Living Conditions” in the face of Norway’s warmest winter in 60 years. The snowmen and women were quickly rounded up and, most likely, shipped off to some rent a tan salon where they are currently undergoing the most humiliating of tortures under the closed lids of scorching tanning beds at the hands of the Global Cartel of Evilness and Stuff.
In response God sent an insulting threadbare dusting of snow as if to say, “There, it snowed.” He could not be reach for comment at the time this story was published.


In other news the Holiday season has come and gone and it was all very relaxing. I spent Christmas watching movies and reading. A friend of mine said it sounded like a “mildly depressing” Christmas, but really it was not. True I like the conversation and the togetherness the holidays bring, but I am just as content being on my own. It’s been difficult to meet people with the traveling all summer and not being in classes or having a group of people in the same program hanging around. If I’d have gotten into a class or two it would have been different, and I’ll try to get into on for a while this quarter. There is a great one about construction in Norway I’d like to take. I have found it listed as being taught in Norwegian in one place and English in another. Classes start on the 15th and I’ll check it out then. The truth is, though, that it worked out perfect. I am zeroing in on a draft of my thesis complete. Hopefully next week, at the latest by the 15th. This is due to the time I had to travel and research and not have to worry about classes. And also, as will I will talk about in a moment, friends would have been a source of cash vacuum. In that friends would want to do things like, get drinks or have coffee or dinner. And I am not opposed to these things in principle, but here, in Norway, I am opposed to them in practice.
This is another description of the economics here (which I’ve talked about a lot the last 7 months and it continues to boggle me.) For instance, today I went to a café. I have not gone to a café or bar or restaurant really because to cost is ridiculous. But I miss sitting in a café, sipping tea, looking out a window, writing, reading. And so I thought these last two months could be a time for that sort of relaxation. A cup of tea. Ease in life. But the cup of tea was $5. And not an American super immense tall, but an actual single cup of tea in a teacup on a saucer. $5. And I was sitting there, drinking it and it occurred to me that I would like to do that everyday. I mean I could, I have the time. And a quick decent into the math found that if I went and had one cup of tea every day until I left it would cost me $280. For tea. This makes my stomach hurt. So I am undecided, because other them that the place was great. Cozy, a sitting bar that faced the street and a park the other side. People in and out. Pretty waitress types serving. Everything you could ask for. Except a reasonably priced cup of tea. Which is key, really.
And so that is to say, if I had made a bunch of friends and they all wanted to go have tea and beers and diner and stuff, I’d be busted flatter then I am already. But if I meet some people now it’ll cost me a little bit as opposed to a lot to hang out with them. Having just written this I wonder about the morality of choosing your friends based on economics. Regardless, the holiday was not “mildly depressing” it was perfect. I got some packages from friends. 3 actually. A package from Matt, full of a bunch of treats. A packages from Christina Haslip, with home baked cookies and an umbrella and some books from Justin and a robot drawing from Coffield. And a package from Tim Mace and his family. Also with treats and a wooden puzzle (which I already beat a bunch of times) and a package from Liz Maly, a small wooden Christmas scene including a fireplace, a tree and Santa. Liz’s gift arrived before Christmas and so I saved it and opened it Christmas morning. The others arrived after the holiday and so it was like four separate Christmases.




For New Year I was going to go check out some festivities. But I started feeling bad and got really tired and fell asleep at 10pm. At midnight I was awakened by the battle like roar of fireworks and the beginning of the New Year. These are not the week ass fireworks we see in America, but heavy artillery type things from china with fire in their guts and screaming exploding glory. And loud. And everyone had them. Crates with names like “Hell” and “Missile Base” and “Hell’s Missile Base.” The first day of Ought Seven I took a walk. All the parks were littered with spent revelry, discarded bottles and charred remains of firework.

My friend in Sweden Carl Baker, mentioned this housing to me as a place he wanted to see. I had stumbled through it one day and new what he was talking about. I finally got back to take some photos:








This is a student housing, the brick on this building was pretty cool:



Here are some photos of Oslo from a couple of walks:
























And finally the “snow” and how desperate people are here for it to come: