I HAVE BEEN EXCAVATING a structure UNDERNEATH the ob-vious layer of earth. I HAVE MOVED the layer 1 meter to the side. CAREFULLY, SLOWLY.
Have I told you the STORIES I found under the moss and soil? The squirrel has HIDDEN its oak nuts beside the tree root. The WHITE mushroom is like a powder, the soil suddenly dry and strange.
Going underneath the present layer I found an old complexity
1940s: The reality
Cutting away the earth, the green layer, to build the factory
Now I am adding a new layer
The nature, the mountain
walls are very strong
Årdal is a planned community, built around the existence of the factory
The bridge tells us that the allmenning actually is related to the factory! It’s a space for the factory.
Årdal’s position in the landscape
is reflected in the contrast
between USE (fjord) and RECREATION (mountain).
I find it important to let the public space communicate these landscape
conditions stronger.
Factory Resources
Hydro power - generates factory - generates heat -generates new program
From the inside of the new factory - a new floor with offices and common functions, a new layer - waves on which a commercial herb garden is placed. The old farmland returns.
