For the past few years, our Oslo studio has had a focus on water. This might sound strange for an architectural practice, but for us it’s clear that when designing cities, neighborhoods, buildings, and landscapes, the relationship with the surrounding waterscape must be considered.
What is it like to walk through flooded streets twice a day? What do you do when the permafrost beneath your house begins to melt? Designing with water in mind gives us the opportunity to explore technical solutions to today’s challenges posed by climate change and to introduce psychological and social benefits in projects when water is considered an asset rather than just a challenge.
To better understand both the challenges and opportunities that water brings, our studio collected a number of articles from colleagues and outside collaborators from around the world in a book anthology entitled ‘Out of the Blue’, featuring stories about projects where water is a primary concern.