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AHO WORKS RESEARCH 2012
Urbanism and Landscape
In 2011 the AHO board approved the formali-
zation of the Urban Challenges Program, which
has been successful in combining research and
teaching, obtaining funding and producing
international publications. The program has
created a network of East African Universi-
ties (funded by NORAD) and has housed ten
PhDs from these institutions funded by SIU.
The focus on non-western urbanism with a
particular focus on poverty alleviation, urban
informality, governance and challenges created
by climate change, will be a key element of the
institute’s research and education in the future.
Starting in 2010, landscape architecture has
become a research field at the institute, particu-
larly with the employment of Professor Kelly
Shannon in 2012. Issues of water and urbaniza-
tion is a current focus of research and publication
(see the Water Urbanism project description).
This relates both to European and Norwegian
cities, but also to rapidly urbanizing cities in the
South – particularly in South East Asia.
In 2012 the Landscape Journeys project,
under the leadership of Janike K. Larsen,
received RCN funding for a series of northern
journeys with a group of invited internation-
al researchers and institute staff to Norway,
Iceland, and Russia. This became the start of
the Future North project in 2013, which looks
into the changing perceptions of northern
landscapes. This project involves four senior
researchers and three PhDs in a three and a half
year project financed by the Norwegian Coun-
cil for Research (the SAMKUL program on the
Cultural conditions underlying social change).
The project is carried out in collaboration with
the Centre for Design Research and the Barents
Institute in Kirkenes (a subsidiary of the Univer-
sity of Tromsø). This research project relates to
the newMaster in Landscape Architecture, that
AHO is currently establishing in collaboration
with the University of Tromsø.
The master’s level teaching at the institute
has for several years been research-based,
ensuring relevance and quality for the students,
but also providing researchers with platforms
for a variety of research-related investigations.
A number of diploma projects at the institute
have been research-related, and design-based
research has also been introduced at PhD
and senior researcher level and is expected to
expand in the future.
The institute is currently host to nineteen
PhD students in different stages of project
completion. A number of researchers, as well
as the subject areas covered are international,
and the amount of international collaboration,
research exchange and international publish-
ing is steadily increasing.
Peter Hemmersam
Institute of Urbanism and Landscape
