Bergen Arkitekthogskole

Student:Marte Bruvik & Fredrik Owesen
Tutors: APP Andre Fontes, DAV Thomas Wiesner

All cities are ripe with unfulfilled desires, constrained by the walls of
the home. By acknowledging that the same dreams are shared by a
considerable, yet small, number of people - some of the constraints
can be circumvented; resulting in new public spaces.

One such place is a forge.

As an architectural program, the forge appeals to what is undeniably
a marginal group. Enabling their existence within the urban fabric is
valuable. The objective is neither to save the city, nor the forge. They
do not need saving. Instead, they may benefit from being entwined
and challenged.

As a fragment of history the forge seems ill suited to the pace and
immaterial substance of our time. Where the post-industrial city
strives for creative, intellectual achievements, the forge is almost
offensively tactile.

It is a functional space, that through its requirements, and placement
in time and space, manages to become more than the sum of its
components. As well, the forge is a social place. It has all the right
attributes; warmth, light, shelter, motion, people. Despite this, it’s
focus is introvert, a meditative repetition of solitary acts, nonverbal;
somewhere to bash red-hot metal.

All photos by Marte Bruvik and Fredrik Owesen