OSLO NATIONAL ACADEMY MOVES IN NEW BUILDINGS
In Memoriam photo display of the great building that the school has been in for over 100 years.
Here is a link to a photo album from the Academy, old, new and opening party
My school is moving. The National Academy of Art is finally being assembled in one location. My understanding is that this has taken decades to realize and I have been involved in the building process since I arrived here early in the year 2005. I can not reflect on the history before my arrival, but only say that it has been a long and tiresome process to develop the campus that we are now moving into.
The Academy is located in Seilduksfabrikken, an old industrial textile complex on the Akerselva River and the name means: ‘The Factory that Makes Sails’. A stronghold in Norwegian tradition that has existed all from the Viking era actually being fundamental for the Vikings sailing and finding my homeland Iceland in the 9th century and little later America. The urban plan in Oslo has located various institutions of the creative industries along the Akerselva River. This river that runs through the city is the reason for the town developing actually as an industrial mill town 300 years ago.
I have assembled a few photos from the process of moving out of the really great old building on Ullevalsvei, a place of large history and with a soul. Here are also some images from the new premises, a place that has a historical soul from making sails and housing various Oslo creative companies, but now it is our time to create a new soul in the place. We look forward to the day when the students arrive in end of August and at least I intend to concentrate on the positive issues rather than noticing the small problems that are part of moving in.
Happy staff outside the entrance to the new complex in Seilduken
August 22, 2010
Posted in: DESIGN, PONDERINGS
