Urban Futures is a new research domain in the department of Geography that is primarily concerned with examining how visions of the future shape contemporary urbanism. As a group of critical geographers, we are interested in the question of the ‘future’ as a conceptual, analytical and methodological lens into challenging current paradigms of urban theory, practice and research. With apocalyptic visions of an urban age predicted by experts, we are interested in examining how alternative visions of urban futures in planning, governance, citizenship and everyday life are being imagined, contested and lived by people across the world. Join the new Research Domain for a special seminar on cities and architecture along Oslo’s iconic waterfront.
Social Justice in the Compact City: The Role of Architectural Mediations and Visions of Social Life in the Transformation of Oslo’s Waterfront
Per Gunnar Røe, University of Oslo
Tuesday 13 December 2016
4:30-6pm, Room K0.20
Oslo’s waterfront is being transformed, as part of a compact city and urban entrepreneurial strategy. Iconic architecture and architectural imaginaries play important roles in this transformation, and in the construction of a collective future vision for a compact and livable city. In this lecture I address the question of social justice, based on an empirical investigation of the centerpiece in the transformed core of Oslo, namely the Barcode project in Bjørvika. How are issues concerning social equity and diversity treated and represented in policies, plans, design and architecture? What is the role of the architectural design process and architectural representations in staging the compact and livable city? What are the social implications of these spatial imaginaries and designs?
