Vev or weave was the winning concept for the new Life Science building that is being built next to IFI. Weave is based on the idea of weaving the outer landscape together with the inner landscape, thus creating a continuous terrain with open, outward-facing functions in the lower levels of the building.
The outer landscape of the Life Science building will consist of trees, birds, a stream (Gaustadbekken) with its salamanders (maybe even fish), and soil with its myriads of living creatures. Can they help us to make the Life Science building a more regenerative building; a building that restores, repairs or contributes more than it takes from nature? What can the building or its inhabitants learn from the natural world around it?
This is an experimental design project. It will investigate how the built environment (the building) and the outside natural world can work together to create sustainable and regenerative ways of living together. The project will also be able to contribute to exploring design approaches with non-humans.
In terms of the particular focus of the project, we are open to discussing this with interested students. You can think about energy, sounds, repair, enabling contact zones between the inside and the outside of the building, measuring devices, etc.
The Life Science building
As part of our ongoing collaboration with the Life Science building project, IFI master students have implemented several master's thesis projects that addressed some aspects of the building, such as visualisation of energy consumption, repair, a dialogue on materials with the building, and 'weave' as a concept for connecting the inside and outside of the building.
Supervision
We regard the social aspect of doing a master's thesis as important as the academic aspect. As supervisors, we will offer you an engaged and inspiring environment in the Sustainability Lab as well as access to experts when needed.
Recommended courses:
- IN5010 Design, Technology & Society (Spring semester)
- IN5470 Design for Sustainability (new course code in 2024)
- You may also want to choose one of the following courses: IN5120 (Tangible Interaction), IN5530 (Research through Design) or IN5510 (Participatory Experimental Design)
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A SUM course is also an option:
SUM4019 – Consumption, Sustainability and Social Change , (spring, 10 credits)
SUM4034 – Debates in Post-development & Degrowth , (spring, 10 credits)
SUM4501 – Achieving the SDGs: Global Goals and National Interests , (spring, 5 credits)
SUM4502 – INCLUDE – Socially Inclusive Energy Transition , (every other spring, 5 credits)
References and inspiring literature:
Design projects
Blurring the lines between humans and nature - Umeå Institute of Design
Advocate: (re)shaping the smart home with a river as the primary stakeholder - Lukas Flynn
The Wise City - Inna Zrajaeva
Resources
About Gaustadbekken: https://www.forskningsparken.no/nyheter/2019/grontomrade-rundt-gaustadbekken/
Ceschin, F., & Gaziulusoy, İ. (2019). Design for Sustainability: A Multi-level Framework from Products to Socio-technical Systems. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429456510
Gibbons, L. V. (2020). Regenerative—The New Sustainable? Sustainability, 12(13), 5483. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135483
Mang, P., & Reed, B. (2012). Regenerative Development and Design. In R. A. Meyers (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology (pp. 8855–8879). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-0851-3_303
Reed, B. (2007). Shifting from ‘sustainability’ to regeneration. Building Research & Information, 35(6), 674–680. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210701475753
Space 10. (2021). Regenerative by Design. https://space10.com/regenerative-by-design/
Wikipedia (2022). Regenerative design. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Regenerative_design
