Eric Almberg

Eric Almberg is an artist currently living and working on land traditionally cared for by the Haudenosaunee, Anishnaabe and Attawandaron Peoples, in an area colonially known as Waterloo, Ontario, Canada. He/they have graduated with a B.F.A. from the University of Lethbridge, and a Diploma in Visual Art from Grant MacEwan University.

Eric’s work revolves around the themes of connection between beings, internal awareness, re-skilling and learning, and environmental sustainability. Eric works with these themes through workshops, participatory and collaborative performances, storytelling, installations, and sculptures which bring new life to discarded objects as materials. He has exhibited artwork in the Silver Skate Festival, The Works Art and Design Festival, and at Island Mountain Arts. Eric is currently preparing to build a timber frame traveling workshop cart with support from the Pat the Dog Theatre Creation microgrant program.

Image 1: Eric Almberg, ‘You are having an art experience: Trading’, 2019. String, sewing needle, paper, and pen, participatory performance, time variable. Photo by Stephanie Florence

Image 2: Eric Almberg with Guadalupe Martinez, ‘Building a House to Heal In: Carving’, 2020. Participatory performance, installation, and sound piece. Photo by Alicia Proudfoot

Image 3: Eric Almberg, ‘Timber Framing with Jason Gibson and Todd Sullivan’, 2021. 20’x12’6” footprint, full timber, joint cutting, planing, and fitting. Photo by Eric Almberg

Image 4: Eric Almberg, ‘A cart for words (model)’, 2022. 6”x4”x10”, scrap wood, canvas cut-offs, wire, rubber

Hans Petter Bjørnådal

Hans Petter Bjørnådal holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from Bergen Arkitekt Skole (2003) and studies in social anthropology, applied landscape ecology and history of philosophy. Bjørnådal explores architecture through an artistic and social anthropological approach and creates complex projects that have relevance for people and people's experience of the world in our modern society. As an architect and artist, he works project-based and often in collaboration with students or other artists through various forms of collaboration and workshops.

Bjørnådal is concerned with sustainability and how to promote culture, landscape and narratives in a new way that is in harmony with nature. Bjørnådal has run his own architectural studio since 2007, has received a number of awards for his work. He was represented in the Nordic Pavilion during LA BIENNALE DI VENEZIA in 2016. He is currently involved with the sculpture project Art in Hattfjelldalen which is a collaboration with Tomas Colbengtson, an art project in public space outside Grønnåsen School for Tromsø municipality, and the project Spheres which was exhibited during the VENICE BIENNALE 2021 and which will be presented in Kristiansund Kunsthall in February 2022.

Zhe Rui Chen

Zhe Rui is an architectural designer based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. His focus lies on nature sites and community driven projects. Zhe Rui has been actively involved in volunteerism and relief works, helping underserved communities by contributing his building knowledge and passion. His skill sets have been made useful in community libraries, community canteens, cafes, tree houses, toilets, schools, and multipurpose halls in rural villages. He strongly believes that in his practice, it is important to get his own hands dirty so that he can fully grasp what it is like to get every nail and nut working in place for a functional building, be it physically or in a wider significance of public realm. Getting out of his comfort zone and engaging with the real world give him chances to implement locally relevant, real-world, collaborative projects in diverse disciplinary contexts.

Zhe Rui is currently pursuing Master of Architecture in University of Malaya. In addition, he is an artist who paints, makes art installations and sustainable related fabrications. His artworks have been exhibited in local and international exhibitions including in Italy, France, Macedonia, Korea, Japan, Hong Kong, China, and Thailand. He aims to find dynamic relationships between architecture and art, in which the former is attentive to the needs of present and the latter challenges its imaginative alternate future.

Video: Discussion with local villager on façade design of school that fits the surrounding context.

Image 1: The build and repair of a bamboo homestay for indigenous people.

Image 2: A completed community library cum canteen transformed from an old timber warehouse.

Image 3: The build of toilet and sanitary piping system for rural indigenous village.

Johanne Dalemark

Johanne Dalemark (master’s in architecture – RIBA), is an architect living in Trondheim, Norway. In collaboration with Sondre Utgaard she established the studio, Majoren Tegnestue which predominately designs residential and recreational architecture. Majoren Tegnestue is curious to explore and challenge social and alternative accommodations.

Johanne also works as an architect at Norconsult Trondheim. At Norconsult she is currently working on a transformation project at the harbor in Narvik. The transformation consists of conserving an old warehouse building by adding a new building skin that reflex the original architecture. The building will serve as an open pavilion for tourist arriving by boat.

Johanne studied at Aarhus School of Architecture in Denmark. She studied transformation architecture for her bachelor’s degree, and Habitation - building culture and tectonics for her master’s degree. Her thesis project, Penology, critiqued institutional historicism in prison architecture. She designed a detention center cohering to the principles of the Norwegian Correctional Service’s prison ideology. Penology has later been credited in the book, The Palgrave Handbook of Prison Design, published by the University of Birmingham.

In addition to her architectural background, she is interest in environmental psychology, sociology, and urban life. An interest, which is the foundation for her approach to architectural design.

Image 1: Flyteteltet, Majoren Tegnestue

Image 2: Pir1 Narvik, Norconsult

Image 3: Dyrk fritidsbolig, Majoren Tegnestue

Image 4: Penology, Thesis project

Ahmad Darkhabani

Ahmad Darkhabani (b. Damascus, Syria) lives and works in Graz, Austria. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in architecture at Graz University of Technology after finishing his diploma at Damascus University in 2017.

Darkhabani works as a producer of contemporary art exhibitions at Grazer Kunstverein. In addition he is conducting research that examines the exhibition as a mode of representation while investigating politics of display. This implies describing and understanding the dynamics and interrelations in which particular factors engage with each other and exert influence on the production of the final exhibition.

His current focus is on the mutual impact and intersection between exhibition making and architecture. Through direct engagement and close observation of the ways bodies gather and move in space, Darkhabani constructs an understanding of the interactive relation between bodies and exhibition spaces while considering intangible aspects that frame this interaction such as perception and artistic presentation.

Ahmad Darkhabani has participated in numerous exhibitions and projects including: Which are our Silent Universities? – Unlearning Classroom exhibition at HDA-Haus der Architektur and IZK-Institute for Contemporary Art, Graz 2018, Venice Design Biennial with amm-architektInnen machen möbel, Venice 2018, Grazer Kunstverein moves to an in-between space workshop, Graz 2021, and The Stories We Tell Ourselves publication with Kunstverein München, Munich 2021.

Image 1: ‘A Colonial Fantasy’, 2020. Video still, Those Who Define How We See Art, Possess the Power.

Image 2: ‘Three Blue Houses’, 2021. A research-based illustration of the blue houses located at the Military Demarcation Line (MDL) between North Korea and South Korea.

Image 3: ‘A Government’s Persona’, 2020. Video still, Those Who Define How We See Art, Possess the Power.

Image 4: ‘Terror’, 2020. Video still, virtual theater play on Minecraft, Terror.

Stephanie Florence

Stephanie Florence is a neurodiverse artist and curator originally from amiskwacîwâskahikan, colonially known as Edmonton, Alberta. Their artwork is primarily based in collage and collaboration, borrowing from sculptural objects, installations, performative gestures, explorative painting, and photographic means. Currently, Florence is conducting exploratory research on interspecies citizenship, and how living bodies become a commodity for colonial-capitalist culture during their MFA at the University of Waterloo. Specifically, they are producing collaborative artwork with the flora, fauna, micro-organisms, and humans in the colonized-city landscape, with an intent to understand and communicate with beings that have been devalued by consumer-capitalist culture and extraction economies. 

They are a graduate of the University of Lethbridge with a BFA in Art Studio and a Diploma in Fine Art from MacEwan University. Florence is grateful for the support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund, and Pat the Dog in researching and producing artworks. In 2021, they curated the SkirtsAfire Festival, completed a residency at the Yorath House Studio, and exhibited The Human Wheel at the Lowlands Project Space, while launching their collaborative book titled COVID COLLECTIONS. This anthology was funded by the Edmonton Arts Council and the City of Edmonton, and interweaves collections of experiences, interviews, art, and poetry into a book from an inclusive array of Edmontonians during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a non-binary artist, Florence acknowledges the use of pronouns such as they, them, she, her, he, and him.

Image 1: Stephanie Florence, ‘Dandehead: my roots are showing (colonial roots)’, 2022. Taraxacum officinale in a plantable helmet construct, photo-credit to Stephanie Florence and Ashley Guenette.

Image 2: Stephanie Florence, ‘Is it Exponential Growth or Rapid Decay?’, 2022. Pink Oyster mushroom on my non-binary body, photo-credit to Stephanie Florence and Eric Almberg.

Image 3: Safaa Alnabelseya, Stephanie Florence, Hania Shehab, and Parastoo Varshosaz, ‘Nest(ling) Brick’, 2022. Digitally printed stoneware ceramic clay bricks from a baked Rhino model, photo-credit to Stephanie Florence.

Image 4: Stephanie Florence, ‘The Human Wheel’, 2021. Plywood, lumber, steel, bolts, and rubber wheels, Technicians: Alicia Proudfoot and Eric Almberg, photo-credit to Steven Teeuwsen, and Stephanie Florence.

Doriane Happel

Doriane Happel is a french designer and landscape architect established in Oslo since 2013. She received her education in France, at Ecole Boulle, Paris and Ecole Nationale Superieure du Paysage, Versailles Marseille. She has developed broad creative and technical skills by working across a wide range of projects of different scales including public parks, urban transformation projects, and school playgrounds to name a few. She has also participated in organising creative workshops and designing and putting up decoration in venues for a variety of events (concerts and creative activities).

Through her practice she focuses on creating meeting points between culture, environment and communities. Her travels and experiences abroad are sources of inspiration for her design projects. Drawing is a way to collect pieces of stories, to understand new cultures and practices and an important communication tool. She has a sensitive approach to analyzing and understanding places through the different layers they are composed of.

She is currently experimenting with new forms of practice where she wants to develop a more personal approach to placemaking through art, culture and environment.

Image 1 - Telling a story of a place by reusing and redesigning existing elements (2016-2020)
Teamwork at Grindaker AS / Harbitz Torg-urban transformation, Skøyen, Norway (Møller Eiendom). Photo: Damian Heinisch

Image 2 - Sequences illustrating the different social and ecological concepts (2019)
Teamwork at Grindaker AS / Part of an international ideas competition for the design of Lentoasemanpuisto on the site of the former Malmi airport (Held by the City of Helsinki og MARK).

Image 3 - Concept drawing-From planting a tree to creating a sense of community (2019)
Teamwork at Grindaker AS / Part of an international ideas competition for the design of Lentoasemanpuisto on the site of the former Malmi airport (Held by the City of Helsinki og MARK).

Image 4 - Extracts from travel book (2015-2017)

Afaf Ismail

Afaf Ismail is an architectural researcher from Malaysia. She has received grants from the Royal Institute of British Architects, the Norman Foster Foundation, and the Malaysian Institute of Architects to carry out research looking at community-based architecture after natural hazards or crises in Indonesia, Japan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Afaf has presented her work at local and international conferences on the need for participatory design methods that put communities first, especially in post-disaster rebuilding. Here research outcomes have been exhibited in the UK, Shanghai and Malaysia.

Her final year project, she proposed an establishment combining the functions of hotel and health clinic in order to combat the pantomimic state of tourist cities — a solution that serves the community together with the visitor, is vital.

As a young architect, she is building her niche around community-based design, focusing on strengthening each community's capacity. She believes in policies that effectively challenge economic and political relationships between countries at the macro level, while placing communities at the centre of developmental growth at the micro level. 

Image 1: A Pakistani craftsman building a low-carbon house designed by architect Yasmeen Lari

Image 2: Floorplan of Afaf's final year project on a community clinic attached to a hotel in Ipoh Old Town, Perak, Malaysia

Image 3: An Indonesian father rebuilding his house after Lombok's 2018 earthquake

Image 4: A group of Pakistani women making and serving tea at their handmade chulah (stove)

Eleena Jamil

Eleena Jamil is founder and owner of Eleena Jamil Architect (EJA), one of Malaysia’s leading architectural practices. Her work is founded on researching the specific social and climatic imperatives of individual briefs within their broader cultural frameworks.

She was shortlisted for Dezeen Architect of the Year in 2018 and won the Iconic Architecture Award 2021 by the German Design Council for End-lot House. She recently led About Making, a short research project supported by the British Council that explores the roles, processes, and worldview of traditional Malay house craftsman ‘tukang’ and their relevance to contemporary making of sustainable architecture.

For more information visit www.ej-architect.com

Image 1 - 2: WUF09KL Bamboo Pavillion

Image 2: Bamboo Playhouse

Image 3: Kampung Endah Library

Kyrre Midtbø Kalseth

Kyrre Midtbø Kalseth is an Industrial Designer and Passivehouse & Energy Advisor living in Gratangen, Northern Norway. From here he runs the design collective and design studio Erlikpluss (EgualsPluss). The practice focuses on doing both commissioned and self initiated work within the field of design & architecture that in some way or another aims on creating ecological conscious and fun projects. 

He works with various scales and disciplines and the projects are therefore spread within the field of architecture, sustainable building practices and materials, co-creation, product design, graphic design as well as the physical building of small scale architecture. He has worked a great deal with arena development for festivals and cultural arenas such as SALT Art & Music (Oslo), HAVET Arena (Trondheim), Trænafestivalen (Træna) and Rakettnatt Music & Arts Festival (Tromsø). He produces visual profiles, as well as products, architecture and art projects. Kalseth has received numerous design awards and in 2021 was awarded a work scholarship from Kulturrådet (Statens Arbeidsstipend), to work with self initiated regenerative architectural projects. 

Last year Kyrre also established a new practice together with architect Sami Rintala and Cultural Entrepreneur Erlend Mogård Larsen where they design and build both floating and land based sauna and bathing projects; Vulkana Floating Objects. (www.arkobjects.com)

Image 1: The Snolke Cabin (open hiking mountain cabin, Gratangen, 2019)

- An open hiking cabin in wood that is prefabricated and carried to site and mounted by the efforts of the local community. 

Image 2: Haihuset / The Shark House (Explorers Club for marine life, Engenes, Andørja, 2020).

The project had the aim of utilizing the terrain without any harm to the site, using a floating steel structure to hold the massive wood buildings hovering above the rocks towards the sea. The buildings are almost self sufficient, using an air-to-water heating system and natural ventilation.

Image 3: Hemmingodden Lodge (Fishing & Hiking Hub, Hemmingodden, Lofoten Islands, 2021)

- All the new units for the site were prefabricated and craned on to piers out towards the sea that bears resemblance of old fish racks (hjeller) that use to be here. They are fully removable from the site in a matter of days.

Image 4: ARK Lauga - Floating Sauna & Bathing Village (Havet Arena, Trondheim, 2022)

- ARK Lauga is a part of a large urban development scheme in Nyhavna. We have developed and delivered a floating village which measures 400 square meters. It boasts four public saunas, a Russian inspired banja, one bathtub inspired by the Japanese Onsen, as well as a salt water pool, bar and reception and outdoor shower. The buildings are made in massive wood and are topped off with sedum / green roofs. The whole structure is fully demountable. 

Ketut Karya

Ketut Karya is Co-founder and Director of Samong Haven, Bali. Ketut has over 10 years of experience working in the travel industry, starting as a trainee at a hotel, working his way up to manager, before co-founding Samong Haven. Ketut has first hand experience of how tourism has (and continues to) changes where he lives, both for the good and not so good.

Samong Haven Bali is a development initiative aiming to create a socially responsible tourist destination with the arts at its core. Its development criteria include supporting culture, community and conservation and positively impacting the local environment, people and its visitors. Theoretical and practical outcomes from 'An Urgent Situation' will directly shape Samong Haven’s future development.

Don Lawrence

Don Lawrence is an award winning architect, based in Oslo, Norway. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from the Cooper Union in New York City and a Masters degree in Architecture from the Arkitektur og Designhøgskolen in Oslo, Norway. In 2013 he established Don Lawrence Arkitekt AS which focuses on projects bordering between art and architecture´s potential for to develop senses of place.

Don discovered his interest in architecture as a young boy in Jamaica through combining his love of hand-drawing and his curiosity for the natural sciences. He has always been a dreamer and enjoys nothing better than crafting thoughtful architectural solutions.

For more information visit www.don-lawrence.com/index.html

Image 1-2: Tree house design

Image 3: Apollo cabin

Image 4: Bee garden

Image 5: Wooden pavilion

Tadeo Nedala

Tadeo Nedala’s work ranges across architectural design, product design and graphic design. He graduated with a Bachelor of Environmental Design with Honours at Uganda Martyrs University in 2019. He is currently a product designer at Baraza Design Village in Uganda where he provides detailed drawings and illustrations for interior furniture pieces.

Alongside his professional work, Tadeo is undertaking a Master of Architecture at Uganda Martyrs University. He enjoys the physicality of architecture and is interested in the process of emphasizing architectural details to form objects. Previous work has included contributing to the design of a temporary Mobile Money Kiosk in Kampala, Uganda. The work explored existing kiosks to better understand the use of space, materiality and character of business. This exploration resulted in the redesign, fabrication and installation of a new mobile money kiosk for a mobile money vendor.

Ibrahim Mufti Pradityo

Ibrahim Mufti Pradityo graduated in 2020 from University of Stavanger with a master’s degree in city planning and urban design. His thesis, investigated how urban areas could be developed to better facilitate families with young children.

He currently works as an urban planner at Nomad planning office, and advocates for socially sustainable cities. In his professional practice, he works with citizen participation processes in combination with Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and qualitative analysis methods.

Image 1: Participatory planning in the historical neighbourhood of Vaterland in Fredrikstad, Norway

Image 2: Mural unveiling, “children’s dream city”. Photo: Mad Arkitekter

Image 3: Mapping the walkability of Skien, Norway

​Tanja Thorjussen

Tanja Thorjussen (b. 1970) is an artist living in Oslo (NO). Her artistic medium spans between drawing, sculpture, performance and art in public space. Through speculative research her artistic practice revolves around how ancient art can inform the present.

At the upcoming exhibition at Archeological Museum – University of Stavanger (NO) in 2023 she is making artworks about historical objects from the collection, speculating on its meaning through artistic methodology such as drawing and intuitive listening.

Her current artistic focus is on the mystic and spiritual in nature and bodies of water, hydrofeminism, and the science embedded in indigenous knowledge and ancient mythology. Thorjussen holds a BFA from KHIB in Bergen (NO) and Parsons The New School in New York (USA) and is educated as curator from Telemark University. She is the initiator of LOCUS since 2006 and PAO - Performance Art Oslo since 2012 and from 2019 she is elected chairwoman of Tegnerforbundet (The Norwegian Drawing Association)