Matrix in Oslo

women architects in 1980s London, a Norwegian anarchist community

I went to the eighth edition of the Oslo Architecture Triennale, which took the very Covid theme of “the neighborhood” as its organizing principal.

Read my full review on PIN–UP here.

The highlight for me was a lecture by Jos Boys, co-founder of the 1980s London feminist architecture practice Matrix. (Verso just republished their book Making Space.) And Boys is also a cofounder of the Disordinary Architecture Project, a platform for disabled artists to lead design discourse.

Matrix’s history was part of an exhibition called Coming Into Community at the National Museum of Architecture, which also told the story of a co-op housing project called Selegrand Hesthaugen in Bergen, Norway and the squatter success story of Svartlamon in Trondheim, Norway.

In Selegrand Hesthaugen, one-third of the homes were reserved for housing-vulnerable groups — immigrants, people with disabilities, single parents. Participation in the building process ensured costs were kept low.

The Svartlamon neighborhood dates back to the 19th century, a working class neighborhood that was saved from rezoning through community action in the 1940s and then again in the 1990s, today defined as an autonomous eco-community with an owner-operator housing model.

These histories underscoring the value of participation and codetermination left me wondering what a more hands-on model for biennales and triennales could look like (the mess of Documenta maybe both a paradigm and a warning). What if the next international architecture event was organized as an evening program of lectures and performances after communally-prepared meals and Habitat for Humanity-type cooperative building? Do we need more idea festivals? Or do we already know what’s good for us, and what we really need are more systems to organize our energies?

If you’re in Oslo, check out the Oslo Badstuforening (“Oslo Sauna Association”) a volunteer-run organization of floating sauna rafts. It’s right on the Fjord so you get the view and can jump in the sea. Also nearby the opera house, all the museums, and a giant Tracey Emin sculpture of a kneeling mother.

Selfie (above) in the elevator of the brand new National Museum, part of the Fjord city redevelopment, replacing the fishing boats and shipping containers with a cultural district. Isaiah Davis (below) came with me and here he is chilling in a tree-house installation outside the Old Munch museum.

Verso’s 1984 book Verso just republished.