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 20 Omkledning

Christine: Omkledningen er forrommet til badstuen. For å komme hit må man gå forbi matboden og gjennom vaskerommet. Rommet har enkel standard og var ferdig innredet med benk langs den ene veggen. I 20 år har det stått en bøtte klar med lavasteiner som kan legges på toppen av den varme badstuovnen. Tuva mente det var praktisk med en dusj i kjelleren hvis man hadde gjester. Den ble kanskje brukt av de utenlandske arbeiderne som i perioder bodde i huset. En gang i mellom går jeg ned hit og skrur på vannet og tenker at nå skal vi snart få badstuen i gang. Da får jeg lyst til å snekre ferdig spilegulvet, bære ned noen lysestaker og legge rene håndklær i hyllen.

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