ROADSTORIES
MADS engH JueL
Advisors: Alf Haukeland, thea Hartmann and Anders Hus folkedal
In 2010, a new parcel of E18 through Indre Østfold in the south east of Norway was opened.
The new road runs outside of towns and villages, while the old and obsolete road is left empty
and available for new usage.
Roadstories
creates new situations on and along the former E18
that runs through this region. The thesis explores the old E18 as a diverse social and spatial
structure through Indre Østfold. Challenging this leftover roadscape with a redesign of public
spaces and landscapes, the project proposes situations that change the current relationship
between road, landscape and local inhabitants.
The car contributes to build identity for many locals in this region. The regional land-
scape is not spectacular in a Norwegian context, but has local qualities that the project aims
to improve. The road is transformed and given a new role specific to local concerns and is
shown to represent an important backbone for future development of the region. Focusing on
the landscape of everyday life, the project playfully recycles items from the generic highway
landscape, advocating an environmental approach while recalling the former roadscape that
defined local and regional planning for decades. Placing defunct elements in a new context
with new needs, the thesis argues for the poetics of the unused and discarded.
