SHAPES OF THE FOREST

The boreal forest is the quintessential public space in Oslo. On a Saturday afternoon to be in the city is to be in the forest. This space is a machine to produce timber, however its use as a backdrop for all to enjoy, led to decades of discussion and policymaking. The outcome is a sophisticated set of rules
that hide timber extraction from sight This is done in Norway using the following
rules:
1 No planting trees in neat rows.
2 Let the forest grow through to succession where paths and lakes are.
3 Limit the size of clearings or clear cuts.
4 No orthogonal cuts, followtopography.
The project plays with the loopholes of these Norwegian forestry rules and then interprets the Norwegian forest as a large wool carpet, imaging timber harvesting as a design technique to create even better collective spaces in the forest. By embracing the artificiality of forestry, new spatial opportunities are possible for this
urban asset. With this in mind, the project aims to use the extraction of timber as a design tool to create open-air rooms. New shapes amplify the aesthetic possibilities of the clearings, as well as playfully establish a dialogue with the dynamic forms that resist clear definition.