Oyster 2022

Oysterseminariet 2022 vill att du ska överväga ett till synes enkelt idiom – mer eller mindre, eller helt enkelt lagom. Vad betyder det i kontexten av vår profession och för landskapsarkitekturen? En kompromiss eller ett val? En mellanväg eller två extremer?

Nya trender inom, landskapsarkitektur, stadsplanering och stadsutveckling använder sig av både omfattande och hisnande, liksom genialiskt subtila designstrategier som kombinerar gamla visdomar med nya innovationer. Vi ser djärva beslut som skapar effektfulla, storslagna projekt som tar itu med vår tids utmaningar såväl som genomtänkta initiativ som kan förändra vår sätt att tänka och leva våra vardagliga liv. I varje projekt måste vi bestämma var på dessa skalor det mest användbara tillvägagångssättet finns.

What can More or Less mean in the context of our practice? An approximation and a question? A compromise and a choice. A middle ground or two extremes?

New trends in landscape architecture, rural- and urban development are utilizing both comprehensively breathtaking as well as ingeniously subtle design strategies combining old wisdoms with novel innovations. We are seeing bold decisions that create impactful, grandiose projects which address the challenges of our time as well as thoughtful initiatives that might change our way of thinking and living our everyday lives. Every project needs to decide where on these scales the most useful approach is to be found.

We believe urban design-, planning and landscape architecture are creative processes which cannot be completely captured by our consciousness. Do we consider More or Less as a way of emphasizing the presence of vagueness in such a creative process? Or do we take a practical approach – using it to examine how we can create more with less, achieve more by doing more or do more while creating less? Do we deconstruct it into its parts, using strategies derived from either Less or More or do we use More or Less as a strategy in itself?

Nevertheless, it is a dichotomy we must take into consideration in every process, every vision, every project. A more or less simple concept with unlimited depth and opportunity. We believe it is time to make a conscious decision. This is what the 2022 Oyster Seminar, more or less.

Pernilla Glaser is a writer, an educator and facilitator. She works in the intersection of art, research and civil society. Pernillas main focus is dialogue and collaborative practices. She is the initiator of Salong Krångel, a space for interdisciplinary knowledge on complexity and Festival of Sketches together with Museum of Sketches and Malmö University among others. Pernilla coaches and teaches among other places, at Uniarts Stockholm and the Foundation for industrial design.

Pernilla created the writing course for professional urban developers at The Swedish Architects and is starting a reading-circle on research for societal change together with Malmö University during 2023.

Salad Dressing is a landscape design firm based in Singapore. The studio leads a practice that leverages on the flux of humanity during this post-Anthropocene transition  It is inspired by contemporary culture that is defined by information technology, genomic science and cosmic explorations. By magnifying humankind’s original limited ability through machines, the studio challenges a change in bio-ethnics. Salad Dressing embraces the transformation towards a seamless world where society, economy, technology and scientific progress are all dancing in tandem.

Jason Bruges Studio is internationally renowned as a pioneer of the hybrid space between art, architecture, and technology. Through intervening in the urban environment, the Studio produces moments of theatre that weave a sense of magic into the fabric of a place. Bespoke and site-specific, each project explores interrelationships between people, data, nature and technology.

Lenora Ditzler is an agricultural scientist working with the Farming Systems Ecology Group at Wageningen University. Her research on Pixel Cropping is focused on high-resolution small-scale farming systems where potential for combining the diversity of species is examined for increasing crop yield, advancing biodiversity, improving the soil quality and preserving resources.

CENTRALA is a Warsaw-based architecture and research studio that works with reinterpretations and spatial interventions aimed at renewing the language of architecture. In their architecture research practice, they examine the relationship between architecture and natural phenomena. They conceive of architecture as a process, considering gravity, water circulation, and atmospheric and astronomical events its building materials.

Darius Reznek is one of the partners at Karres en Brands. His unique approach to urban development based on a landscape context earned him recognition from Europe’s 40 under 40 talent in Architecture and Design in 2020.  Darius is responsible for the winning competition proposal for Hamburg’s newest district – Oberbillwerder. The masterplan is currently Germany’s largest and most ambitious development.