The 8th Oslo Triennale “Mission Neighbourhood” challenges “the future of streets, community-building, urban diversity and systems (re)thinking”. As a direct response to the renewed attention that this collective, shared urban scale has obtained throughout the pandemic, the ambition of the triennale is that of challenging how we can “build more diverse, inclusive and sustainable neighbourhoods”. This will be possible by addressing ways of “forming neighbourhoods – in terms of design, architecture and planning – and reforming the principles of neighbourhood development”. Curated by Christian Pagh, the event develops as a multidisciplinary endeavour which seeks to engage individuals beyond architecture and planning to include the voices of politicians, activists, artists, and neighbours. These premises immediately sparked KoozArch’s interest along with our willingness to explore and share with our readers the critical thoughts developed on the neighbourhood and its underlining potential to shape more inclusive communities, at both the local scale of Oslo, and that of other cities internationally. We look forward to the month-long events and the concrete political and environmental actions and policies proposed within the context of the Oslo Triennale, which we are eager to see implemented in the years to come.
Sited within the Old Munch Museum, the main exhibition “Mission Neighbourhood (Re-forming communities)” is conceived as a laboratory and defined as both “exhibition space and culture house” which will “host conversations, workshops, conferences, art projects, concerts and local activities,” amongst other initiatives. The programme unfolds around the principal exhibition which, articulated according to six key perspectives, will showcase a breadth of neighbourhood-focused projects and practices from the Nordic region and beyond. The exhibition pledges to lay the framework for the development of more viable and community led city spaces. It does so by exploring different ways of understanding places through their social and cultural dimensions, by designing everyday sites for meaningful social interactions, and highlighting the neighbourhood potential of the street and the systemic premises for neighbourhood quality.
The ambition of the triennale is that of challenging how we can “build more diverse, inclusive and sustainable neighbourhoods”.
Beyond the main exhibition two other shows “City Landscapes” and “Oslo in the making” research, explore and re-imagine notions of community and neighbourhood across the Norwegian capital. Whilst the former challenges the architectural imaginary by proposing a rich selection of visionary drawings that indulge in more playful and surprising frameworks for our everyday life, the latter explores research for action with a report on contemporary urban development in Oslo, with a focus on ongoing projects and practices to question “the state of neighbourhood thinking and doing in the Norwegian capital 2022”.
Beyond the walls of the Old Munch Museum, the Triennale programme unfolds throughout the city, partnering with institutions like The National Museum – Architecture, and galleries as ROM for Art and Architecture. The National Museum’s contribution will focus on community and exclusion showcasing examples “from the past 70 years of how ideas about community have shaped architecture and urbandevelopment” and raising much needed questions around “Who has been included and who has been excluded? How is urban development perceived by queer people, feminists, and other marginalised groups?”
The exhibition is accompanied by a queer and playful installation designed by the Swedish art and architecture collective MYCKET whom trust in architecture “as something to be used to support diversity, shape communities, and create a world where there is room for everyone.” Lastly, ROM will present 15 projects and artistic investigations of neighbourhoods around Oslo to better understand and explore the places we share within the Norwegian capital and site of this important Triennale.
Check out the Official Programme at Oslo Architecture Triennale.
