"MATTER FORMS" - 2026
OSLO ARCHITECTURE TRIENNIAL 9th EDITION - "What If Nature Comes First?"
The project takes as its starting point the reuse of stone as a method for form-giving. What if
materials come first?
Like the stone that loosens from its mother mountain and finds a new place through time
and journey, materials enter into cycles. They are displaced, change context, acquire new
functions, enable new perspectives.
The installation consists of elements drawn from existing material flows. The work shows
how available materials can serve as guides for form, and how surplus material can have its
lifecycle extended through new applications with simple interventions. Material choice beco-
mes a design method. By using available resources as the starting point, the process beco-
mes an active part of the work. The material is given a participatory role. Instead of selecting
materials to fit a predetermined form, the project investigates what happens when material
availability influences the outcome. This approach requires balancing between holding on to
an idea and adapting to what is available. Can understanding a material’s cycle contribute
to recognizing the values within it? Continuation becomes a form of care. It sees what has
been, and carries it forward because it has value. Lived lives become possibilities for trans-
formation.
The project points toward both the physical , the stone’s form, variation, and texture, and
the conceptual: how material shapes thoughts, actions, and systems.
The work presents the bench as an architectural intervention. An invitation to sit, to remain,
and to enter into conversation. A place for reflection. A space for exchange, encounter, and
shared time. The bench is an asymmetrical composition, like a landscape. The stones are
a variation of rough, untreated, and polished surfaces. Same material, multiple states. The
granite is assembled using dry-stone masonry, allowing the structure to be disassembled.
What already exists? What can it become? For whom will it stand?
