The AA Visiting School Lyngør takes place in a secluded village scattered atop a rocky island off the southern Norwegian coast. Students will explore the distinctive relationship between the island’s landscape and its impeccably preserved built environment. In collaboration with the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, students will become acquainted with Norwegian culture and the key points of Nordic architecture, and employ a variety of site-specific tools for architectural research.
Building on the foundations of the four previous workshops, AAVS Lyngør will continue to study the relationship between historic precedent and proposed architectural intervention. Students will explore Lyngør’s existing conditions as it weathers changing social, environmental, political, and cultural currents.
In the absence of cars, roads, and other modern infrastructures, Lyngør has remained a virtually untouched nineteenth-century village. Named ‘Europe’s Best Kept Village’ in 1991, Lyngør provides an unparalleled glimpse into a by-gone era, though it continues to sustain a living community. With this increased recognition as a heritage site, Lyngør has seen an upsurge in seasonal tourism as well as the closing of the local school and a decline in number of permanent residents.
Students will adopt the methodologies of archaeologists, anthropologists, editors, and architects in order cultivate their own readings of the physical, social, historical, and topographical aspects of island life. Using the survey as a key tool of the architect, students will develop and draw highly personal interpretations of the island. These eclectic architectural strands will be woven together in the ‘Island Reader’, a narrative tapestry that redefines what we understand Lyngør to be.
Students will engage with contemporary architects, historians, artisans, theorists, academics, and artists. Lectures, workshops, and excursions will provide a framework within the brief that supports the development of individual interests and research.
The AA Visiting School Lyngør is a collaboration between The Architectural Association School of Architecture in London UK and Oslo School of Architecture and Design in Oslo, Norway
Commercial sponsors:
