Diploma 2017: "The Hereditary City -Enhancing the legacy of Traditional Timber Craftsmanship in the modern city of Bergen, Norway" by Bjarte Baade Sandal

Tutors: Jerome Picard (APP), Trudi Jaeger (DAV), Harald Røstvik (sustainability), Sigurdur Gunnarson (TTA)

The main project in Dreggsalmenningen is a Cultural Heritage Initiative Centre that focuses on wooden craftsmanship and the legacy of wooden buildings in the city centre and its surroundings. The main idea is to convey, educate and strengthen knowledge concerning the varied use of wood/timber in our built environment.

This initiative is related to the Hanseatic World Heritage site, Bryggen, where the foundation Stiftelsen Bryggen has educated its staff and maintained the intangible cultural heritage of wood craftsmanship since 1999-2000. These tradition-bearers together with other craftsmen will be able to participate in educating and spreading knowledge to the public, anyone who is interested, through courses, seminars and similar events. This Wood Centre will not only deal with traditional craftsmanship, but also upgrade the know-how on contemporary methods such as how computers are able cut materials etc.

One of the aims would be to invite the owners of old wooden houses in the city and regions, and give them reasonable professional assistance. By inspecting different buildings and producing an overall scheme of what one can learn to repair one-self and what, for example, one might need professional help with.

There are unfortunate tendencies in contemporary alteration in the cultural wooden building mass that lead to unhealthy changes, both for the houses and their inhabitants. Changes are good, but with some care and knowledge, they can be carried out in alignment with the micro-climatic conditions of the old materials and the technical solutions the original building has.

To convey the awareness on wood craftsmanship to the public, the diploma project also consists of temporary wooden architecture that goes into dialogue with the context around the world heritage site. These are small to medium structures that tell another story than that which goes on inside Bryggen. The new structures and interventions invite pedestrians to experience an alternative and activating route that says something about the time we live in.

Image texts/descriptions

Exhibition, 1:25 scale wood models and 1:1 scale wood model.