| Tuesday 19th June 2012 7pmIn connection with Ane Hjort Guttu’s exhibition The Rich Should Be Richer, Kunsthall Oslo is pleased to present a talk by the architect Jon Guttu. (Please note that this presentation will be held in Norwegian.)
Inalienable pleasures? – Sun, light and air in Norwegian residential planning Throughout most of the twentieth century, the ideal of a universal entitlement to sun, light and air was put into practice in Oslo’s new housing developments. Plans were also made for the modernisation of large areas of the city’s tightly-spaced 19th century housing. Why were these plans not implemented? And why were projects that would have improved the ventilation of the city’s tenement buildings cancelled? Over the last 20 years, Oslo has mostly developed through infill. At the same time, the exploitation of open space has increased dramatically. What impact has this deregulated development had on urban living conditions? Have we abandoned our traditional ideals? Is everyday access to sun, light and air an inalienable right, or a commodity to be dispensed according to the rules of the market? Jon Guttu trained as an architect and has worked as a housing researcher at the Norwegian Institute for Urban and Regional Research. His doctoral thesis was on the subject of “The good house: peer perception of housing quality over 50 years”, and in recent years he has particularly studied the conditions for, and consequences of, increasing densification in the urban environment. |