Minimal Intervention: An Attempt Reading the Ultimate

Norway is mostly known for its natural beauty, fjords and mountains, the amazing Northern Lights and the Midnight Sun - a great intimacy with nature. However, this impression we have of Norway, does not describe the real situation in Oslo. A total length of approximately 3,400 kilometres of Oslo’s coastline is mostly covered with paved concrete for harbour industry. Rivers were sent into pipes during the process of urbanization. The relationship between water and urban life is alienated. Besides, in the wild nature, people are keen on and are encouraged to do adventures and to explore, to conquer and to experience nature. However in the city, the first idea when facing the force of nature is to hide. Urbanization had derived something from us, which is the intimacy with nature. It doesn’t mean that we don’t need it. In Oslo lives 12.8% of the population in Norway, but it only covers 1.25‰ of the land area. There are many other major cities like Oslo where citizens don’t own the privilege of being closed to nature. Why can’t they be gifted the opportunity to engage with water? At this unique place on earth, the land of ice and snow, the temperature drops frequently below zero. The changing form of water is always reshaping the scenery. This city owns unique environmental and landscape architectonic elements. In this project, people are given the opportunity to experience these qualities, the harshness and possibilities of what nature can present in this northern land, in a sheltered condition. It focuses on the basic need from us as human beings to the landscape, which is to experience. The result of this project is a serious of public spaces engaging with nature. These interventions guided by minimal principles are proposed based on the main methodology in this project. It is specifically a characteristic of individual projects and the compositional impacts they create. It also becomes a paradigm in that it reveals the presence and the quality, in general of landscape architectonic environment. Landscape Architecture should not be only about solving problems, but also about valuing a place and make it appreciable. Especially in a modern society, life is fast, busy and exhausted. Behind the method of Minimal Intervention this thesis proposed, is the thinking of, Where locates landscape architects’ ability to provide opportunity of emphasizing nature’s free gift of materials? How could we experience the qualities of space in which we live and reside?