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 15 Mesanin

Christine: Jeg har mitt arbeidsrom på mesaninen som ligger i 2. etasje. Den er både en del av atelieret og av peisestuen. Fordi rommet er så lite er det et av de varmeste rommene i huset.

Kirsten: Rommet dere kaller mesaninen, kalte vi for souspenden. Der hadde Gautes far kontor. I perioder hadde han flere italienske elever. Da stod han der og kikket ned og kommenterte elevene sine.

Nina: Håper dere ikke har kvittet dere med dørhåndtaket i messing inn til mesaninen i 2. etasje; det kommer fra Edvard Munch sitt hus. Jeg bodde i huset i 2 år. Fra 2000, rett etter at Valdis Nielsen flyttet ut.

Tuva: Jeg er ikke sikker på om dørhåndtaket kan stamme fra Munch sitt hus. Det var ennå ikke revet da deres hus ble bygget i 1952. Munch sin bolig sto tom noen år før den ble leid ut som kommunale nødleiligheter etter krigen da folk hadde det vanskelig. På Ekely hadde Munch to store sommeratelierer, nordvest for huset sitt.

Tip

Tip