1 place 33 rooms – Portrait of a house

Christine Petersen

1 place 33 rooms “Memory, including collective memory, is linked to houses. When we eradicate a place in the exterior world, we lose a major pathway into our own history.” Lena Lindgren, Morgenbladet, 2. November 2012 The project is based on a real place, a house in Oslo. I am interested in how our memory connects with places and houses, in expanding our understanding of what a house and a place are, seen from the perspective of our own cultural background, time and history – and in the perceptions and experiences that are associated with it. In the significance of how the rooms are organised in relation to each other and what happens if the room is freed from the context in which it stands. It is rare to experience an isolated room that doesn’t relate to anything else, torn from its place, time and spatial context. The neutral room simply doesn’t exist. A key aspect of architecture is the experience of going from one room to another. The way the rooms are organised in relation to each other affects the sense of what it is like to be in the house. From the starting point that architecture begins with a single room, I have explored what criteria a space has to fulfil to be called a room and how big it has to be. Everyone relates to rooms – whether it is a private room like a bedroom, kitchen, dining room, or a public space such as a café, library or railway station. The work comprises six physical installations, plus the book and archive “33 fortellinger” (33 stories).

NR 11 Atelier

Christine: Rommet, som er i et eget hus ved siden av hovedhuset (?), er unikt fordi det både har en stor grunnflate og det er høyt under taket, 5 meter. Det er sjelden at denne type rom er kombinert med en vanlig bolig. Atelieret ble tegnet for Finn Nielsen. Her jobbet han frem til han døde i 1962, på ett av de største atelierene på Ekely. Huset er bygget med eget toalett, slik at man skal kunne jobbe uavhengig og uforstyrret av de andre oppholdsrommene. Etter at Finn døde, ble rommet leid ut til kunstnere, samtidig som Valdis fortsatte å bo i huset. Anne har sin faste arbeidsplass her, mens jeg sitter på mesaninen som ligger over den lavere delen av atelieret, biblioteket. Når vi skal ha fest, rydder vi atelieret og dekker langbord. Barna feirer bursdager her og kan invitere hele klassen. Når folk kommer på besøk, ser de for seg fantastiske ting de kunne drevet med i rommet. En som var glad i biler, ville gjerne hatt billager i kjelleren og smøregrav i atelieret, en annen så for seg konserter, en tredje yogaklasser.

Anne: Jeg liker at atelieret er røft med flater som tåler at barna kan spikre i gulvet, og vi kan bygge 1:1 modeller av prosjekter. Det er fint at vi kan holde på med prosjekter uten å rydde det vekk når dagen er over.

Anne Kristin: Atelieret er fantastisk og veldig kaldt. Jeg har aldri vært der lenge om gangen fordi jeg er litt frossen.

Dirkjan: I am quite familiar with the whole house, because Lisa's children rented it. I was renting the studio part. We were here for 16 months, and I kept the space almost empty. I like an empty studio to concentrate on just few things. I went through a lot of old drawings and maps. I had the space to lay them all out on the floor and to order them. I simply enjoyed the space and to look into that old world. I used the mezzanine as an office because it was warmer. There were only two problems with the house, the water and the cold.

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