alvor Weider Ellefsen, Fredrik van der Horst and Marja Folde are part of the research group Norwegian Urbanism at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Halvor Weider Ellefsen, Fredrik van der Horst and Marja Folde are a part of the exhibition Mission Neighbourhood – (Re)forming communities with the project The Peripheral Neighbourhood.
With the project The Peripheral Neighbourhood architects and academics Halvor Ellefsen and Marja Folde explore the notion of spatial justice defined as the “fair and equitable distribution in space of socially valued resources and opportunities to use them” in the everyday urban landscapes of Norway: The vast and shapeless habitats along and in-between infrastructures, logistical installations, and agricultural areas. The work includes case-studies in European cities that have “rescaled” infrastructures and reconnected neighbourhoods, aiming to increase social integration across barriers.
The work features an ongoing exploration of a particular peri-urban condition in Bærum Vest outside Oslo, questioning the challenges – but also the potentials – hidden in the fragmented and dispersed, and exploring what spatial models and approaches are needed to secure “spatial capital” as social sustainability-strategy in peripheral neighbourhoods.
The Oslo Architecture and Design (AHO) research group Norwegian Urbanism explores the specificities of the Norwegian urban condition, framed within an European discourse of urban- and landscape form. Trough in-dept case studies and close collaboration with private and public stakeholders, the group bridges academic research, education and disciplinary practice, with a particular focus on replanning, transformation and strategic, urban projects. Currently, the group collaborates with Bærum municipality, where 85 architecture- and landscape students from AHO explores the urbanism of peripheral neighbourhoods.
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Marja Skotheim Folde, Architect, Master in Urbanism, coordinator landscape third year Oslo School of architecture
Halvor Weider Ellefsen, Architect, Associate Professor at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Fredrik van der Horst, Assistant teacher landscape and architecture, Landscape Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Halvor Weider Ellefsen is an architect, researcher, and associate professor at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design. He specializes in the history of urban planning in Norway, strategic planning, and large-scale architecture/urban design. Through consultancy work, lectures, and teaching, he addresses various issues related to planning and the challenges facing Norwegian cities today and in the future.
Ellefsen specifically focuses on interdisciplinary collaboration and strategic planning in urban development. In project-driven urban development, both developers and planning authorities bear significant responsibility, and mapping effective public-private collaboration strategies is essential. At the same time, cities face challenges where cultural heritage, ecology, and social sustainability must be viewed from a resource perspective: blue-green structures, environmental benefits, existing building stock, and local characteristics must be actively used as tools in urban development, alongside the economic logic of property development. Therefore, planning must emphasize synergies and incentives for urban development in closer collaboration with developers, architects, and property owners. Strategic planning works best on a shared platform, in the form of master plans and models where development projects can be discussed concretely, and where citizens can be actively included.
In parallel, Ellefsen also works as an academician on various research projects. His doctoral work focused on how different political-economic practices have influenced ideals and strategies for urban development in Norway over the past 40 years, based on the emergence of the "Fjordbyen" (Fjord City) in Oslo. Recently, he has also worked on valuing ecosystem services through the research project Urban EEA, with a focus on alternative use and testing of the "blue-green factor" tool for Norwegian cities. Through teaching and courses at the bachelor's, master's, and Ph.D. levels at AHO, Ellefsen also collaborates with local municipalities and developers to develop new urban development strategies for Norwegian cities and urban areas.
Marja’s work is committed to the understanding, re-planning and transformation of the urban tissue and the territory. From her formation in the urban project in Spain, to working on the everyday urban problems in Norway: her interest has been focused on the capacity of the architect of understanding and transforming the complexity of the city- elements, processes, interests- into form and architecture of the open space.
Marja is Assistant Professor at the Institute of landscape and urbanism, AHO and Leader of the Norwegian association of housing and urbanism, Norsk Bolig og byplanforening, since 2020Marja has experience working as a landscape urbanist. She has extensive experience in participation, development of public spaces, public administration, planning, urban transformation, complex urban issues, and project-driven urban development. She is interested in complex urban transformations and the transformation of landscapes where design is closely linked to a deep understanding of the context, changes in conditions and uncertainties, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the need for generating new knowledge. Marja works at the intersection of landscape, mobility, and urban structure for the development of shared spaces. She trained in landscapeurbanism and the urban project, experienced in project-driven and strategic planning, and has many years of experience working with studies and assessments according to planning and building regulations. She enjoys working with cities at different scales and exploring the concrete and overarching aspects in relation to each other. As the leader of the Norwegian Association for Housing and Urban Planning, she is interested in contributing to a greater interdisciplinary approach in urban development and fostering openness between municipalities, educational institutions, and professional communities in Europe. In her work at AHO (Oslo School of Architecture and Design), she coordinates and teaches the third year of landscape and urbanism together with Halvor Weider, where she develops methods to study and influence the relationship between landscapes and the internal and external factors that shape them, and how landscape architecture can contribute to sustainable development. She closely collaborates with Norwegian municipalities and urban areas in Nordland and Oslo/Akershus. Central to this work is the development of future visions or scenarios for potential development opportunities.
Fredrik van der Horst is teaching landscape at third year of landscape and urbamism and has been while doing the master in landscape assistant of the thirs year studio of landscape and urbanism helping developing the new program. He is the first student graduating after five years studying landscape at the school of architecture in Oslo and is committed to the urban project especially in rescaling infrastructure and the impact on and spaces produced by infrastructurewithin the consolidated urban tissue and the landscape
