Building fragments and the timber-box
The Island of Smøla is the starting point, a small community geographically located at the northwest-coast of Norway, with only a ferry connection. A place with a history of little to no local production of building-materials. The reason for this being the fact that there historically were no trees and that the landscape is flat and covered with marshes. Also, the inhabitants were fishermen who spent most of their time at sea. I travelled there to dig in the ground and create locally sourced materials. With some help from locals, I got directions to find clay and materials to reuse. While working with the materials and researching the history of Smøla, I discovered that most of the built environment was moved to the Island from the fjords and mainland. Mostly timber-buildings which would be marked, deconstructed then moved and assembled. In addition to this, buildings with frame constructions were moved by floats. I traveled the Island photographing the houses and found that today a significant number of these houses are derelict and in decay. Researching the potential of these movable houses and proposing a strategy of how they can be used as both a material resource, and as a mode of thinking about scarcity and reuse, became the main topic of the project. To dismantle, move and rearrange the construction, to show how alterations in size and program could be a way to give these buildings a future and to preserve knowledge of historical yet relevant skills in building reusable constructions.
