THE PILGRIMAGE - REPRISE I

Home!

 

In the spirit of Chapter II of Sam Beckett's 'Murphy - some data:

Distance travelled by air/car/RV:            4,564 km (excluding local travel)

Distance Walked:                                        45 km

Flights Taken:                                                3

Airlines:                                                         1

Trains taken:                                                  1

Buses taken:                                                 3

               

Typologies visited:

Museums and Galleries:                                5

Theatres:                                                        3

Cultural Centers:                                            1

Studios:                                                          1                                                        

Schools:                                                         1

Workers Clubs:                                               1

Town Halls:                                                     1

University Buildings:                                       3

Archives:                                                         1

Chapels:                                                          1

Individual Houses:                                          5

Academic Bookstores:                                   1
Publishing Houses:                                         1

-------------------------------------------------------------

Total:                                                             25

Days taken:                                                   16

Currencies used:                                             2 

Debit/credit cards used:                                 3

Disappointments encountered:                      0

Joys:                                                            Incalculable

Turning now to lessons learnt:

1. Never be afraid to ask - they may just say yes. 
2. Politeness opens many doors.
3. Be open to serendipity.
4. Plan.
5. Don't over-plan.
6. Savour each moment.
7. Then remember it.
8. Travel by various means.
9. Celebrate a wildcat strike and travel by other means - you get to see things differently.
10. Do not expect anything to be open in Finland on Easter Sunday/Monday. Fair dinkum.
11. Change plans as opportunities arise (see 3 above)  
12. Learn lessons! 
13. Left open for further reflection.
    

 

A few things that I now know that I didn't know before traveling:

1. Aalto designed his first building at age 14 (unbuilt). 
2. Aalto began writing cultural articles for newspapers aged 15 and was published
3. Quite how expensive Norway is for the UK pilgrim.
4. How generous of spirit, time and hospitality people can be; and were.
5. How a sense of the Civic remains in Finland and Norway as it does in Denmark (but I knew that bit).
6. How 16 days of 'otherness' can shift perceptions.....fundamentally. 

And perhaps in closing: 

If you are asked aboard, get aboard - who knows where you might go.

Or as my old Dad used to say.....'You got to cut a shovel stick when you see one son'......

FEHN'S SCHOOL FOR DEAF CHILDREN (1971 - 1977)

The final element of the pilgrimage has arrived - a visit to the School for Deaf Children located in the Northern suburbs of Oslo. 

Throughout my time in Oslo I had heard variously that this project proved to be Fehn's 'Sydney Opera House'; in terms of reputational damage within certain quarters, but more of that later.

PUPIL PARENT ACCOMMODATION

 Met by the fabulously enthusiastic former principal Anna - Beate Christophersen, clearly a Fehn enthusiast, I was again given free rein to explore the School, interspersed with  deep and enriching conversation regarding the history of the School, present circumstances, and the future of the School.

Fehn was commissioned to design this special place and clearly threw himself wholeheartedly into the project and the particular needs of the occupants to be. Fehn clearly understood the needs of deaf children and those hard of hearing, particularly in the importance of visual connectivity between spaces.

STAFF ROOM KITCHEN DESIGNED BY FEHN

MUGS CHOSEN BY FEHN HANGING ON HOOKS DESIGNED BY FEHN

 

FEHN CUPBOARDS

FEHN DESKS....

AALTO CHAIR PAINTED BLACK IN THE ART STUDIO

In addition, the pedagogy was defined by his spatial responses, focused upon developing a sense of real community - a community of learning.

Children attended from across Southern Norway and in that regard the accommodation  designed for children and parents is a masterpiece in the development of places of retreat, gathering and providing 'visual thresholds' between.

In terms of morphology, the project resonates of the hill villages of lands further south, so loved by Fehn. The development tumbles down the hill to be met with an external space that speaks of the village square (complete with amphitheatre). The place for gathering and jolly japes. 

Anna - Beate generously showed me original (dyeline) layout drawings (scale 1:50) that are an object lesson for any student of architecture in what to draw and what to leave out. She also gifted me with Fehn treasures...a copy of the original School brochure, copies of press cuttings and other such gems.......

It was those press cuttings that punched me hard in the stomach!

The Oslo press feasted upon Fehn with such headlines as;  

Concrete Hell for deaf children

Construction scandal to 28 million (Norwegian Krone)

(Dagbaladet 20.12.1975)

CAFETERIA KITCHENS

These headlines developed apparently as real vendetta against Fehn, vilifying the conjunction between humane modernism and the care of deaf children.

Such  reactions ensured that Fehn would spend a number of years in the 'wilderness' unable to gain public commissions which explains his fertile period that focused upon the design of houses for individual clients.

 

ANNA BEATE DEMONSTRATING THE SIGNING PUPPETS

And what of today? The School is in the process of closing. European and National edicts insist that deaf and hard of hearing children are located in 'mainstream' Schools and thus  the original purpose of the project have evaporated. 

Whatever one may think of this strategy, the fact of the matter is that the School will shut in July. 

The buildings are listed and thus should not be demolished, but there is a strong chance that all of the original Aalto and Fehn furniture  will be dumped as it appears to be unappreciated by the authorities. 

Perhaps more importantly, devoid of its original use the project becomes problematic for the authorities that have responsibility for the future.

 

ACCOMMODATION INTERIORS

The fabric of the building is also delicate and appears to be consistently under-resourced in terms of planned rather reactive maintenance.

 This is redolent of wider issues; as historic artefacts some of Fehn's masterpieces are under-threat.

All these conditions have set me thinking.......of opportunities as yet undefined.

THE VILLA SCHREINER

Ah! The complexity of communication.

The density of making the itinerary for this pilgrimage has just exploded in my face. I had I thought made an arrangement with the current owner, an architect, to visit the house at 18.00. on Thursday. It transpired that I made an arrangement to visit on TUESDAY at 18.00 (when I was in Bamble). 

 

 

Not knowing my mistake, I waited outside and the lady of the house arrived and we discussed the dilemma.  The Architect was in the air bound North but she kindly invited me in for a quick peek which I humbly accepted. I stayed only minutes, long enough to gain a sense of the intensity of this small house in suburbia, and the manner by which it defends the acts of dwelling to the street, and opens to the landscape on the private side.

It reminded me (in terms of spatial organisation) of PAD Studio's 'Thrifty Beeches' project. I hope PAD will accept the comparison!

I left apologising profusely for my lack of organisation, and the unexpected albeit brief invasion. I hope to visit again upon a future return to Oslo.

CARL BODKER HOUSES I + II

And so to the Bodker Houses (1965 + 1982) .....

The Bodker family commissioned not one but two houses from Fehn, the second being a simpler smaller house designed for the Bodkers as they entered their 'third age'. 

The two houses are linked by the pool area and a subterranean link that contains a series of -service' thresholds that mediate.

Carl and Mette Bodker were generous is giving free rein to their wonderful homes, and Mette gave the stories of the houses and Fehn's response to this stunning sloping site with distant views down over Oslo and the Fjord beyond.

We discussed at length the challenges faced by the guardians of such houses in facilitating visits yet achieving privacy. We also discussed the futures of these great houses as each in turn become historic artefacts that represent an era and a particular attitude to place.

 

VILLA SPARRE

From Busk to Villa Sparre to meet Erik Sparre and his inspiring daughter Catherine. Erik commissioned Fehn to design this wonderful project that floats across ancient landscape of rock and pine.

Hearing wonderful stories of childhood adventures that brought the artefact to life, unfolding the acts of architecture that this place facilitated and encouraged. 

Sincere thanks for your stories and kindness.....

THEN TO BAMBLE......SEAWATER WITH GARLIC

Driving 2 1/2 hours southwest of Oslo to Bamble, an incredibly picturesque corner of this wonderful country; and the location of Villa Busk.

Arriving mid-morning to meet our hosts Terje and Astrid Welle-Busk who kindly agreed to our invasion. They commissioned Fehn in this great adventure to make place and regaled us with tales of that process. Then, giving free reign to explore, I examined every knook and cranny, inside and outside.

Villa Busk is a Masterpiece. An exemplar in what can be achieved when the spirits of Client and Architect conjoin. An essay of potential. It is a ship that ploughs through the landscape, yet paradoxically is 'held' by the landscape - frozen music.

After a sumptuous lunch we were invited to stay overnight, then off to the 'seahouse' on the quay and then later, aboard 'Roxy Music', their beautiful (other) boat to explore the inlets and islands and see Busk from the sea.

Back to Busk for dinner and then bed. A night filled with dreams and memories.....

In the morning after breakfast, a deer visited, perhaps to supervise the red squirrels the enter the house each day to feast upon nuts left for them.

With a heavy heart we then left, two dear new friends made, promises of rematches made.

I drove back to Oslo humbled by the giving spirit of the once strangers that guard the gates of Villa Busk...........

And the seawater with garlic? That is between the four of us!!!!!!!!

SIPPING FROM THE DEEP WELL OF HUMAN KINDNESS

If ever you doubt the implicit kindness of (most of) the human race - become an Architect!

Then you can send 'cold call letters' to the guardians of building you want or need to visit and will be welcomed with open arms. That is generosity measured in waves.

Today I met Frode, the owner of Skagestad House (Fehn 1963) who has lived in the house with his family for 18 years - a whole generation. He is a man generous of spirit and clearly a 'dweller in Fehn'.

This house is an essay in the origin, in the primal acts of dwelling; the hearth, the caves and the savanah. Here man sits high above the ground surveying the territory (or as today, enveloped in the Nordic mists of Mythology). 

However, do nor mistake primal for inarticulate. This is not a grunting home, rather it sings lyrically and poetically, every detail supporting the narrative executed with huge subtlety.

And today I heard stories. Stories of the acts of architecture.The secrets of place that will, in this blog, remain so.

I heard of little children crawling on the floor. I saw the elegant glazed slots that linked bedrooms but privacy remains. And I saw simple ideas executed with tectonic perfection - the thick wall that holds the storage is just one example. I saw the stair designed as furniture, a singular independent sculptural element that takes us from the cave to the savanah and in that transition, the world is open to us.