Fantastic Norway

Fantastic Norway are two young Norwegians traveling around the country in a red caravan, looking for architectural adventures. Already before having finished their initial degree, Håkon Matre Aasarød and Erlend Blakstad Haffner decided to forget about the conventional practice of competing for projects. So they left school to pursue the rather experimental approach of “going out to find your own”.

Wherever they are, their little mobile office is always open for local communities and clients to have their say or bounce off ideas. With the history of the Norwegian cultural heritage firmly engrained, Fantastic Norway tries to bring architecture as well as architects closer to its communal grassroots. Besides the guys love to take on what they call “urban challenges”. And sometimes this proves to be not only difficult but also dangerous.

One of their most memorable stories from the road includes their van getting shot at 20 times in an attempt to stop them having great ideas about revitalizing a run-down place somewhere in the far North. Luckily the intrepid architects never accept no for an answer.

Both started off together in 2003 by working hands on with locals from Brønnøysund to rescue a public square from being sold off to a private developer. Since then the creative pair has completed many more fantastic projects: the visually stunning Siren, a restaurant placed by the Oslo waterfront with a transparent, floating façade or Polar Night, light sculptures warming up abandoned public spaces during Arctic wintertime that brings 24 hours of darkness.

In the following interview for South Africa's One Small Seed Magazine Håkon and Erlend are looking back at six years of living a Fantastic Norway life.

OSS: What is it like to work „off the beaten track“ and what as architectural pioneers has been your most import discovery?
In short, you can easily compare architects with dogs: Most dogs fetch the stick the owner throws and brings it back. On the other hand, you have dogs that run around in the bush to scare birds for the owner to shoot down. Fantastic Norway aims to be hunting dogs.
We’re living in a time of globalization and centralization, and the notion of the unique, is more important than ever. Together with the environmental issues and challenges, this is one of the most important features that architecture can address. Architecture is a wonderful tool to amplify and clarify the unique, the strange and the powerful notion of local identity.

OSS: What was one of the most revealing aspects that you learned about your own country and culture?
Norwegians are scared of the urban and the complex issues of city life. This might be tracked back one hundred years ago when Norway regained its independence. At this point it was imperative to find something that was truly Norwegian. Our cities were viewed as places built by and for elite outsiders, while our dramatic nature was something truly unique and special to our country.
The romantic idea that nature is good and cities are bad was cemented in this period and is still a strong part of Norwegian identity. This is why most of our celebrated architecture, both contemporary and traditional, is in contrast with or inspired by nature, not urban or socially complex problems. This issue makes it difficult to create enthusiasm and positivism towards urban challenges, which is one of the reasons we bought our caravan in the first place.

OSS: A place in the world where you would like to go because you think it has great potential for change?

Often, it’s not the places that are most obvious that needs attention. Every place needs an open debate and socially aware architects, even if it’s a wealthy or poor community. However, we would love to try out the method in areas dominated by a strong centralized government. These are the places that tend to ignore the unique and local, and that truly needs open debates and creative cooperation’s. So North Korea would be an interesting challenge.


OSS: What do you enjoy most about your work?

Our main ambition with running Fantastic Norway is to explore the field of architecture, evolve and have fun at the same time. We don’t want to be frozen in one position, and find great joy in discussing and revaluing our company that is founded on being an open and socially aware practice.

OSS: Did it affect you at all that you didn’t finish your architecture degree or do you think you benefit more from „doing the job“ and being directly involved with people/local communities?

Even though it was great going back to school for a few years and finishing our degrees, I would say we learned more from being “out there”. We believe the contact between “real life” and the student (in most schools) is neglected in favor of the abstract knowledge.
We are currently teaching at Bergen School of Architecture (a workshop called Fantastic Studio), and are focusing a lot on this issue. Many students get depressed and shocked when meeting the realities of professional architecture. Most of them feel they have to change into machines, leaving the interesting debates, ideas and the creative surroundings they had at school. Our ambition is to show the students that there are a vast number of ways of being an architect. We challenge each student define their own ambitions and to see themselves as professionals. Fantastic Studio is about bringing these ambitions to life.


OSS: Can you imagine settling down in an office?

Not in a traditional sense. We always want to keep our work socially aware and closely connected to the clients and societies we work in. However the last years we have focused on self initiating projects (projects we believe are important and interesting) and anchoring them economically and politically.
Running a firm this way naturally means you need to seek and find your own clients, instead of waiting around for the next competition or commission, so to speak. This idea of the caravan, the public architect, is very much part of this way of working, but not necessary in a physical sense. Moving from town to town, and spending months at each place, isn’t compatible with having a personal life in the long run.

Text and interview: Sandra Pfeifer
Published in One Small Seed Magazine, South Africa, Winter 2009
www.onesmallseed.com