Ghost City

Two ghost buildings nearby the central station in Oslo. The ghosts are reflections of the Radisson SAS building and Postgirobygget. The picture is taken on my way to the office, crossing the pedestrian bridge connecting the area of Grønland with the new Barcode area downtown. A recommendable place.

The Return

It´s springtime, and the birds are returning from Africa. I´m actually not returning from Africa, but I might be planning a return to cyberspace and upload some NAIve stuff/information, on a more regular basis.

In Your Face

I´m not exaggerating when I say I´ve had enough of the palettes d´hiver. I want colors. So I googled them. Hopefully Nature will catch up with this computer screen in a short while. In the meantime: Enjoy!

Kahn, Louis

Louis Kahn´s post-traced glasses says: Hello.

On The Road

Jack Kerouac (right) and Neal Cassady (left...obviously), posing in front of a camera, somewhere in the United States, probably in the late 40´s. I´m reading "On the road" by Mr. Kerouac at the moment, a semi-autobiographical novel with the two men above featuring as characters. It is a recommendable book indeed, and one of the best known examples of Beat literature. I´ve never read any Beat literature before, but I guess I´m in for a ride...literary speaking.

B Boys

Last time I visited Denmark, B-boy showed me this music video, must say, interesting stuff. Them standing in line, dressed in their best good-boy-outfit, looking frightened light of the camera, singing high-pitched tunes is my favourite part. You don´t see artists do that every day. The song: Don´t worry baby

Living Small

This is my "apartment". It´s not big, in other words, small (320 x 640 cm. to be precise). 1) table area: eating, drinking, reading, computer, etc. 2) table area: cutting mat, Luxo lamp = bright light, knife, pencil, etc. aka. work 3) all my clothes in a closet 4) "Billy" from IKEA (shoes, tools, jackets) 5) tiny kitchen 6) String shelf library + record player 7) "bedroom" 8) bathroom 9) 3 windows 10) hallway 11) entrance 12) one of my homies 13) stool inherited from my Grandma with "A New Nature" on top.

Color Plan

This is part of the city Beni Isguen in the Sahara desert seen from above. It looks like someone chopped of all the roofs and a world of interior design appeared. B e a u t i f u l. The photographer is a guy named George Steinmetz (I re-shot the image from a magazine, surprise: the original is thousand times better). He has been busy flying: Steinmetz

Ra ll + Kon-Tiki

Last Saturday The Kon-Tiki Museum was visited, it was almost like travelling back in time. The exhibition was probably mounted in the 60s and has never seen change since then. The choice of colors and means of presentation is amazing. The below-surface-space underneath the Kon-Tiki raft (area with the big black whale shark) is the most charming place I´ve been in a long time, with it´s naïve representation of life in the ocean (...naïve, as always, in a good way). I´m a fan.

The route through the museum introduce you to the high-lights of Thor Heyerdahls magical wonders of natural science; Ra ll, Tigris and Kon-Tiki. To have a watch: Kon-Tiki

My Homies

A couple of Aaltos from a couple of private Santas just arrived in my tiny apartment. I guess they are what you may call fashionable late since Christmas was last year. When I first saw them I had a flashback-moment to a certain basement in the heart of Tokyo, where I used to spend 10 ass-pain-hours a day on a similar kind (only white). Atelier Alvar.

(The man in the shop was Danish (He arranged a Tour de Lamps for my mom and me, the guy knew a whole lot about lamps, let me tell you). Second flashback-moment: Denmark I miss you!)

2010 -

Welcome!

Gradient Color Setting

1st day of Christmas from my room´s point of view at my parent´s house in Oslo. Couldn´t have done the photoshopping better myself. Thumbs up for the sky.

VV On Ski

Yet another famous person "enjoying" the obviously popular device; skis. This is Mr. Walter Gropius, practising his down hill V-style in a rather sophisticated look. He has carefully chosen, 50% of the garments from the work-outfit-closet, and 50% from the closet of leisure activites. From the modern point of view of old school traditions, a fascinating idea worth copying. Based on the terrified look on his face and the far from professional way he works those sticks, skiing was not Walters forte.

Jacobs, Jane

Merry Christmas to You from Jane Jacobs´ glasses. (Jane Jacobs´ glasses are not alone in the "traced-glasses-from-pictures-of-architects"- folder, check out the latest Arkitektur N. There you will find the whole collection, in an add for NAL Akademiet on page: something. Made by the NAIve Architect)

Mounty Everest

Sir Edmund Hillary on his way up to the top of the tops, Mount Everest. Looking mighty cool in his blue outfit, oxygen mask, strange sunglasses and handmade(/homemade?) mittens. For some reason, this image gives the impression that it used to be warmer up there. If you compare these two people with the characters stolling up the steep hills along a rope nowadays, the modern crowd seems to wear a whole lot more down paraphernalia.

Once a climber was asked the question: Why do you want to climb Everest and risk your life? The climber responded rather nonchalant, as if the answer was obvious: Because it´s there. (Lets say the climber was Sir E. Hillary, the origin of the Hillary steps)

King Winter

Skiing is not only good for your health, it is also a splendid opportunity to trace a landscape with the trail you leave behind. If you want to ski hardcore in a geometric way, patterns could be your focus of choice. From time to time, your pattern will be erased by the arrival of fresh snow, and a new clean sheet lays before you. Follow the example of these fine people, from the right: Crown prince Olav, Queen Maud, King Haakon, a lady with a big hat and a guy trying to get a glimpse of something.

Dot Matrix

After being interviewed by a kind of creepy guy with no head on the internet, answering: emotional, understated, progressive and relaxed to his questions, he could annonce that my type is: Dot Matrix. I´m very much happy with the result.

Do the interview (even though your level of internet scepticism will probably increase when you have to type your name), do it: Your type

Al To The Bert

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." Albert Einstein. (Einstein, baby!) I really like his pointing finger. Note to self: Time for some more index-finger-pointing-action.

Play It Self

Snapshot moment from: LA plays itself. A seriously long movie where the information flow is fascinating but sort of extreme. If your level of concentration drops during the never ending watch, I recommend the entertainment of a camera to reshoot the scenes of LA into snapshots of your own. Picture above: Shopping carts in action on their way through a parking lot.

(mis(s))Match

My after work activity these days; decide colors for my home made posters. The production of posters is actually just an excuse to write a few sentences and create nice color combinations. A good example of activity match making. My poster collection is called (for now): Things I tell myself.

Bottle Of Rome

I really (really) want to go to Rome. I´ve never been there, and I guess that is a terrible thing/sin when you´re supposed to call yourself an architect (not that I do). But I´m not sure a tourist trip is enough, imagine waking up to crazy traffic and espresso in a tiny apartment where the ceilings are high and the windows wide open, in some old dodgy building in the cheap area (if they exist) of town. Followed by days of slow adventures and impressive impressions. Priceless.

The drawing is a section of Pantheon. A place to remember I´ve heard.

Love Letter

Bonus: Apart from the fact that letters joined together often create fantastic imaginary worlds and/or add a level of enlightenment through well or poorly written books, they look pretty good.

Independent Day

Directly translated from Norwegian: Sprawl takes the cake. This version of the popular urban planning system looks like a spaceship, transformed into buildings of serious similarity. Orbiting the most important feature of the local neighbourhood, the one and only Mall. Sweet.

Brain Fuel

Brain(s). More later. Fascinating piece of human body part. CT scans. More later. Fascinating medical equipment. Bonus info: Did you know that if you "unwrap" the brain tissue, it would cover the surface of a swimming pool? ...What kind of swimming pool? Medium size I would say.

Rails Of Russia

The Trans siberian railway from Beijing/Vladivostok to St. Petersburg or vice versa. It´s 9289 km from Moscow to Vladivostok, and 7622 km between Beijing and the Russian capital. To traverse the great distance between Beijing and Moscow you need more or less six days. According to a Finnish friend of mine (she decided to go countryside when moving back to Finland after a year in Hongkong. (I have the feeling that three days might have been more than enough)) you´ll get a view of pretty much every tree in Russia during the quite monotonous travel. The only interruption is the green fields of Mongolia, and a few hours of outback China.

The little shape of dotted line is Lake Baikal, despite a small surface area the lake contains more (fresh)water than any other lake in the world. In other words, very deep. A population of freshwater seals enjoys life here. The other bigger shape of dotted line is the Caspian Sea, the largest enclosed body of water on Earth by area.