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10.000 ROOMS

Navn
Vilde Husaas Aakhus
Uddannelsesgrad
Kandidat
Fagfelt
Arkitektur
Institut
Bygningskunst, By og Landskab
Program
Urbanism and Societal Change
År
2024

As the city continues to grow, so does the need for civic space.

In May 2023 the Municipality of Oslo published a report addressing all of their 197 vacant buildings. Data from the report revealed that a majority of their buildings is recommended to be sold or demolished; - waking the concern of privatization and loss of existing civic spatial resources.

The urgency of the climate crisis and the increasing social challenges of an expanding city require a more radical approach to how these environmental and societal challenges is met, and therefore also how the municipality could take on more responsibility in meeting these needs.

10,000 Rooms proposes a strategy for how the Municipality of Oslo can reuse its own 197 vacant buildings. Through the focus on how social and material reuse informs each other, the project explores and values the spatial processes of civic design through use over time. The project follows the strategic processes of three cases, exploring the repurpose of an empty nursing home as student housing, a decayed kindergarten as a third living room for local youths, and an obsolete villa as a school garden.

Location and previous use of the vacant buildings. 82% of the empty sqm previously belonged to buildings that housed welfare functions.
Location and previous use of the vacant buildings. 82% of the empty sqm previously belonged to buildings that housed welfare functions.
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01: Seeing the vacant buildings as an intersection between environmental and social opportunities
02: Develop a trade-off-system between the stakeholders involved within a vacant public building
03: Factors for reuse
04: Checklist as a strategic tool to navigate between all the 197 buildings in relation to their technical state and spatial potential
01: Seeing the vacant buildings as an intersection between environmental and social opportunities
02: Develop a trade-off-system between the stakeholders involved within a vacant public building
03: Factors for reuse
04: Checklist as a strategic tool to navigate between all the 197 buildings in relation to their technical state and spatial potential
Giving agency to vacancy in Oslo to ensure material and social reuse
Giving agency to vacancy in Oslo to ensure material and social reuse

CASE 01:  RE-INHABIT

FROM AN EMPTY NURSING HOME TO STUDENT HOUSING

Q: Can the existing materiality and spatial components be seen as the primary resource in the reactivation of the structure through civic interaction with the building? 

Furuset nursing home
Furuset nursing home
Repurposed as student housing
Repurposed as student housing

Spatial development principle: 

Internal re-organization of existing material = working with what is already there

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current state: vacant
stage 1
stage 2
stage 3
Zooming in on what this internal reorganization of existing material informs the spatial development
current state: vacant
stage 1
stage 2
stage 3
Zooming in on what this internal reorganization of existing material informs the spatial development
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00: Merging of three units
00: Currently empty and unused
[STAGE 1] the first students move in to the vacant nursing home and re-inhabit the structure as it is
[STAGE 2] the residents alter the existing room by opening up and connecting individual units into shared, social units
[STAGE 2] the residents alter the existing room by opening up and connecting individual units into shared, social units
[STAGE 2] the residents alter the existing room by opening up and connecting individual units into shared, social units
[STAGE 3] the student house is transformed by expanding the windows to give the residents more light
00: Merging of three units
00: Currently empty and unused
[STAGE 1] the first students move in to the vacant nursing home and re-inhabit the structure as it is
[STAGE 2] the residents alter the existing room by opening up and connecting individual units into shared, social units
[STAGE 2] the residents alter the existing room by opening up and connecting individual units into shared, social units
[STAGE 2] the residents alter the existing room by opening up and connecting individual units into shared, social units
[STAGE 3] the student house is transformed by expanding the windows to give the residents more light
Reclaimed through reinhabitation
Reclaimed through reinhabitation

CASE 02:      RECOVER 

FROM A DECAYED KINDERGARTEN TO A THIRD LIVING ROOM FOR LOCAL YOUTHS

Q: Could the reparation of a decayed structure act as a collaborative action for social groups?

Rosenhoffgata 8 - 10
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00: Existing structure
00: Existing structure
[STAGE 1] the decayed kindergarten is reactivated by the new user group through added furnitures, and the structure is used as it is by the youths
[STAGE 2] the structure is altered and repaired by the youths through a vocational educational program, allowing the youths to provide themselves with a space to hang out by repairing and altering the structure
[STAGE 3] The structure is transformed by connecting the two floors through an added amphi-staircase to make the structure more social and open
00: Existing structure
00: Existing structure
[STAGE 1] the decayed kindergarten is reactivated by the new user group through added furnitures, and the structure is used as it is by the youths
[STAGE 2] the structure is altered and repaired by the youths through a vocational educational program, allowing the youths to provide themselves with a space to hang out by repairing and altering the structure
[STAGE 3] The structure is transformed by connecting the two floors through an added amphi-staircase to make the structure more social and open
Recovered to be a social place
Recovered to be a social place

CASE 03:       DISMANTLE 

How to handle buildings that have decayed beyond repair?

FROM AN OBSOLETE VILLA TO A SCHOOL-GARDEN FOR REGENERATIVE HABITATS

Q: Could obsolete buildings become urban, ecological hot-spots?

Abildsøveien 47
Abildsøveien 47
Vacant since 2010
Vacant since 2010
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Toolbox of civic design: 

A small collection of interactive objects made from dismantled building components as the primary resource for the creation. 

10 billeder
Repurpose waste-material
Repurpose waste-material
Repurpose waste-material
Repurpose waste-material
Repurpose waste-material
Repurpose waste-material
Repurpose waste-material
Repurpose waste-material
Repurpose waste-material
Repurpose waste-material
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00: Existing situation
01: Villa is dismantled, and the disassembled material is sorted into reusable and non-reusable components
03: The remaining casted foundation is kept
STAGE 1: The foundation is filled with soil in order to be repurposed as a bed for the children from the local primary school to grow vegetables/plants
STAGE 2: When the building materials from the dismantled villa is fully sorted, the school garden is developed through the making of interactive habitat-objects with waste//non-reusable components as the primary resource
STAGE 3: The school garden transform through growth of nature and habitats due to educational usage from the children
00: Existing situation
01: Villa is dismantled, and the disassembled material is sorted into reusable and non-reusable components
03: The remaining casted foundation is kept
STAGE 1: The foundation is filled with soil in order to be repurposed as a bed for the children from the local primary school to grow vegetables/plants
STAGE 2: When the building materials from the dismantled villa is fully sorted, the school garden is developed through the making of interactive habitat-objects with waste//non-reusable components as the primary resource
STAGE 3: The school garden transform through growth of nature and habitats due to educational usage from the children
Repurposed to be regenerative
Repurposed to be regenerative

04: ON A CITY SCALE, 

Could we imagine that reinhabitation, repair and decay in vacant buildings is seen as social catalysts in a sustainable urban development? 

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Det Kongelige Akademi understøtter FN’s verdensmål

Siden 2017 har Det Kongelige Akademi arbejdet med FN’s verdensmål. Det afspejler sig i forskning, undervisning og afgangsprojekter. Dette projekt har forholdt sig til følgende FN-mål