A small village on the southwestern coast of Norway, at the intersection of the land, sea, and sky. Vacation homes, which were once small cabins have grown to luxury estates, and increasingly are becoming permanent residences. With the discovery of north sea oil and the money that has come with it, Norway has changed. Vikevåg, on the island of Rennesøy, is now connected to Stavanger on the mainland by the E-39 tunnel. This tunnel has made access to Vikevåg convenient for those who work in Stavanger. As such, Vikevåg is growing at an unprecedented rate and it is facing an existence as a bedroom community for Stavanger.

In the next thirty years, the population of Vikevåg is expected to increase from 1,500 to 10,000 individuals. The goal of this exercise [bringing together a studio of 13 students and their instructor, Torgier Norheim] is to develop a plan in which this kind of growth can occur while the city maintains its independence, its charm, its connection to the landscape and history, while it becomes something more.

The Trip
As part of understanding this place, seven of us traveled to Norway to see Vikevåg, Stavanger, Bergen, and the countryside inbetween. We met with the incoming young mayor of Rennesøy [the municipality which includes Vikevåg and several other villages] and discussed our ideas, as well as the city's plans and concerns.

The Theatre
The theatre of everyday life is life itself; the everyday routine of humanity: recreation, transportation, community. It is a living system, constantly in flux. What drama will unfold in Vikevåg?

This theatre is not entirely conventional, the city itself is the stage. Where land, sea, and sky merge with the complexities of human interaction. The boundaries are blurred, the fourth wall, and all other walls, are broken. Performers, audience, and crew, are one. This is a performance at a multitude of scales. Temporary coalitions, collisions, hybridization, and migration, what we call life.

Five principles underlie this project:

Identity
What makes Vikevåg itself? Why do people come to this place? These characteristics must be amplified.

Connection
How can the city be connected so that its performance is tied to the world on multiple scales?

Harmony
A place comprises a multitude of overlapping symbiotic relationships, each element must maintain its own integrity, but create a dialogue which amplifies the effect of each and creates new depth.

Imagination
Can the city be a place of play? Can work be play? Connection and feedback of information and people themselves can create an environment in which every aspect of life is stimulating.

Adaptability
Life is complex, life is versatile, life is constantly changing. The city must keep up to maintain its imagination, harmony, connections, and identity.

Ultimately, the information which we developed was assembled into a 161 page document detailing the strategy for Vikevåg and the process of its conception. Copies were sent to the Rennesøy government and were discussed in the local press.

mForum

Within the revised city structure which was created, Individual projects arose. The mForum is the municipal and administrative core of Vikevåg.

As a city indivisibly tied to its landscape, Vikevåg has been envisioned as a both a city, and a landscape. The supple green carpet of Rennesøy has been peeled up and manipulated, sliced and stretched over an inhabited framework like the pelt of some huge beast.

This is a landscape formed by immense forces, glaciers scraping across stone, carving grooves, valleys, fjords. The land itself is the tracery of ancient movement. The Municipal Forum (mForum) attempts to trace modern movement, cutting the paths of human activity into the earth.

The fractured surface houses the crucial functions of the city: police, fire, courts, and the council chamber. The administration functions sit above, separating the upper plaza from the quayside, in a fissured crystalline structure lifted off the landscape overlooking the city for which it is responsible. The lifted structure allows the connection, both visual and physical, between land and sea which pervades the city itself.

This is the both/and city. Rural and urban, land and sea, ancient and modern, isolated and connected. The mForum, the city’s nervous system, is the reduction of this idea.