In this project, 12 boys aged 13-15 years and six architecture students from NTNU created a meeting place outside the Nidaros cathedral in Trondheim. All the boys came to Norway from Afghanistan as unaccompanied minors in the past year, and are now living in Trondheim. With almost none previous building experience, they built three seating groups and a pavilion in only four days together with the students.
The boys also contributed in the design process through idea-workshops using modelling, pictures and discussions. It was important that all participants was involved in the whole process to ensure that everyone had a relation and ownership to what was being built.
The project started as an initiative from three second year students who saw a lack of places for interaction between newcomers and the people of Trondheim. As integration can only happen through interaction, interaction is what we were trying to achieve. The aim was to create a meeting place, during the process and building, as well as after the completion. Building something together is a great way to get to know one another, because you have an interaction pretext. To give other people an interactional pretext in the built space after completion, we provided it with a “kubbespill” (log game).
The project was realized in cooperation with the family festival Olavsfestdagene, Trondheim municipality and Live Studio.
FACTS
Location: Outside Nidaros Cathedral, Trondheim, Norway
Completed: July 2016
Organizations: Olavsfestdagene, Trondheim municipality, Aleris and NTNU Live Studio
Supervisors:
Steffen Wellinger and Vilde Ulset
Cost: 15 000 nok
Project leaders/architect students:
Emilie Johanne Berge, Kristina Stendal Karlsen and Marie Langsholt Holmqvist
Project participants: Hadi, Alibaba, Zeinullah, Samsor, Kahn, Mehdi, Abdul, Frank, Momen, Mohammad, Sharif, Hanif, Kristin Bostrøm, Anja Lian and Idunn Dagestad
