We are proud to present the autumn 2020 edition of AHO
WORKS, this time in a digital version. Last year – and also this
spring – the pandemic affected virtually every part of society, including the
ways of teaching and studying at universities and schools of architecture. Studying architecture is generally laborious, sometimes
extremely entertaining and stimulating, sometimes rather painful. Most of us
need to meet people, get feedback and participate in informal settings in order
to create a project, or for some of us – even to produce a single drawing or a
short text. When the pandemic during last
autumn caused even stronger restrictions resulting in an isolating home office
existence for every student, hardly any relationships to co-students, teachers,
workshops or to the campus was possible outside the computer screen. We experienced
new possibilities, released potentials and learned a lot from digital teaching
and zooming. However, this was a completely new situation one could fear might
cause weak projects and the end of creativity.
The distress proved mostly unfounded. Looking at the second
digital web version of the exhibition AHO WORKS and the projects developed and
produced by AHO´s students and diploma candidates throughout the
2020 autumn semester, both creativity and quality seem to have survived. The
exhibition shows a wide range of themes and topics, formats and genres, investigations
and problem solving, design and evaluation, unfold in compelling presentations,
giving a glimpse into a vivid, energetic world of creativity. Some students
even seem to have benefitted from the relative isolation, being able to dive
into depths, and developing highly original projects. Although a lack of a
commenting and discursive open community is sometimes traceable, we are
delighted to note that many projects deal with the current societal challenges and
our new reality. The collective exhibition AHO WORKS, representing every master
course throughout autumn 2020, can thus to be said to be situated very much in
our time.
I would like to thank every student and teacher
for their contribution. Special thanks
to Aleksandra Ognjanov, Giacomo Pelizzari and Hanna Birkeland Bergh from the
Institute of Architecture, and to Jeppe Sophus Lai from the department of Communication,
for having produced AHO´s second digital AHO WORKS. It works! Congratulations to all, we are looking
forward to celebrate you and the projects in even better ways when the world recovers.
Oslo, 18.01.2021
Professor Nina Berre
Head of Institute of Form, Theory and History
The Oslo School of Architecture and Design