Bergen Arkitekthogskole

Tutors: APP Arild Eriksen and DAV Vibeke Jensen

 

“We have been here in five years. It is very small rooms. We cannot go to school nor work- (….) we cannot meet friends. It is hard to make food. The kitchen is not clean. We have good relations to everyone here: But it is hard to live without family, friends, to not go to anyone. Just be here.”

(Hauge, Denizou, Støa, 2015;77)

 

Cohousing  (student families and asylum seeker FAMILIES) AND makers space at Møhlenpris

Møhlenpris, in Bergen city centre - is a rich and cultural diverse urban landscape. The project is adding a new layer in this environment, complementing and cooperating with the core meeting places such as the volunteer central. Together with these public arenas the project is inserting a new public ground at the edge of the transformation area, Møhlenpriskaien. Creating an open yet robust framework, where integration and exchange of knowledge is a part of the daily life.

 

Background and approach

Being in this extreme and liminal situation, between the known and the not yet clarified, together with traumas, there is still for many in the beginning a great relief, hope and initiative. However waiting in uncertainty for many years causes severe strains. 

The situation where one is not allowed to contribute and work, where one due to resources and mobility is isolated, where one does not have the possibility to regulate ones own private life - is a condition that can be critical, and the children are especially vulnerable.

With these challenges as a background, the project aims to explore the potential in weaving aspects and programs closer into a wider social and urban fabric, and explore the potential in the workshop and open nursery as a intercultural node in relation to this temporary habitat.

Inside a city a “village” is found that could combine dwellings, meeting places and workshops enabling people to use their skills, to engage in different activities and strengthen the connection to the new surrounding community, supporting the feeling of dignity, respect and meaning in an everyday life. In this situation of temporariness and transmission.

KEYWORD:  OPEN FRAMEWORK, PATHS OF EVERYDAYLIFE, TRANSITIONAL SPACES, HANDCRAFT, EXCHANGE KNOWLEDGE, ENABLING, EXPOSING, BELONGING, HERITAGE AND HOPES, CULTURE, COMMUNITY, SOCIAL FABRIC, LOW THRESHOLDS TO NEW NETWORKS.

 

 

Overview of the exhibition

The public ground plan

 

Facade towards Wolffs gate, elevation through the courtyard, with the play area in the park along with the fruit trees.

 

The wider contact and actors of the urban ecology. Diagrams of overlapping program and users synergies through time with the volunteer central.

 

View towards the atelier in the kindergarten

 

Common meeting ground on the balconies along the apartments

 

Entrance into the quart yard from the street