DESIGNING FOR WATER MANAGEMENT ON TROMSØYA
Welcome to the end-of-semester exhibition of Studio 1: Urban Practices in the Landscape Architecture programme at the Academy of Arts!
Our first-year group (MLA1) will present landscape designs for water management on Tromsøya, featuring 15 projects across 5 watersheds. Please join us in celebrating the excellent work of our students!
Excerpt from the course description:
Landscape architects have become crucial in developing designs for water management in urban landscapes. These designs not only address water-related problems but also enhance experiential qualities and promote biodiversity. With the anticipated increase in precipitation and unstable weather due to climate change, this task will become increasingly urgent.
Studio 1: Urban Practices 2025 focuses on this important and topical issue within a subarctic context, where climate changes occur more rapidly than average, and managing water also involves addressing snow, ice, and frost, which significantly complicates the process. Moreover, the unique conditions in the subarctic often render existing design typologies, developed in warmer and more stable climates, inadequate. Therefore, there is a pressing need for landscape architectural designs tailored to the specific climatic, ecological, and urban conditions of the subarctic.
In addressing water management and understanding the unique conditions of subarctic urban landscapes, the studio course emphasises aesthetic experiences and ways of knowing involving sensory modalities. We aim to explore the real complexities of the landscape and avoid preconceived notions associated with terms like "nature-based solutions" (NbS). Our goal is to develop design proposals that are deeply rooted in the aesthetic qualities observed in the specific landscape.