Urban Challenges in the South: Slums,
Sprawl and Design Interventions
Anders Ese
This course examined underlying rea-
sons for the on-going rapid urbanization
in the South and the long list of related
challenges this process brings up. It
looked at different efforts to address
these challenges, and at the roles played
by architects, urban and landscape de-
signers as well as planners. Particular
emphasis was placed on East African case
examples for analysis and discussion.
Mapping Grünerløkka
Jonny Aspen
The course explored on-going processes
of gentrification in the neighbourhood of
Grünerløkka in Oslo by mapping chang-
ing demographics, housing, shopping,
nightlife, etc.
Introduction to Landscape Urbanism
Hettie Pisters
Landscape urbanism is an approach to
understand and design for contempo-
rary landscapes formed by natural and
man-made structures, movement and an
aesthetics that is not based on classical
notions of beauty. The course introduced
landscape architecture as interpretation
and as production of landscape. It also
discussed classical notions of nature and
architecture with particular emphasis on
the question of the ’natural’.
Mapping the land
Janike Kampevold Larsen
This course looked at the history and
theory of mapping since the 1960’s, fo-
cusing on the mapping of ecological sit-
uations and infrastructures, mega-map-
ping, and psychosomatic mapping. It
focused on cultural perspectives on
mapping, and explored the fruitful inter-
play of documentation of the landscape
— from the perspective of being on the
ground — and more objective mapping
strategies such as remote sensing.
Current Theories in Urbanism
Jonny Aspen
The course focused on current theories
in urbanism, with a special emphasis
on how to see and understand the con-
temporary city in terms of urban design,
urban living and new technologies. At-
tention was given to cross-disciplinary
approaches and to theoretical perspec-
tives that seek to interrelate design
issues and social issues. The Current
Theories in Urbanism course has general
relevance for students interested in the
relationship between architecture and
societal development.
Norwegian Cities
Dag Tvilde
The course looked at Norwegian cities
and how their function and role has
changed over the last 20-30 years, due
to technological development, de-indus-
trialization, infrastructure development
and demographic shifts. The course
consisted of a comparative study of sev-
211
210
AHO WORKS STUDIES 2012-2013
Courses
Elective
