Ingrid Dobloug Roede - Arenas. On Architectural Travels and Transfers

Discursive arenas can condition, affect, and occasionally disrupt architecture as built form and discipline. The broad aim of the research is to accent the multiplicity of impulses that conditioned architectural discourse in Norway in the years leading up to, during, and immediately following World War II, finding networks of people and ideas that persevered even where war and unrest turned material conditions and cultures on its head. More specifically, the dissertation studies channels for architectural exchange circa 1935–1947, with architect and planner Harald Hals (1876–1959) as a focal character. 

Hals is a pivotal figure in Norwegian architectural history, widely recognized as Oslo’s influential chief planning officer (1926–1947). Episodes from Hals’ "extracurricular" activities elucidate how networks unfold across various scales and spheres. Through travels, congresses, exhibitions, and other architectural media, the research follows movements, both physical and intellectual movements. The period was marked by social and geopolitical unrest, material destruction, a changing demographic, and technological innovations, which yielded new disciplinary concerns. The urgent search for timely solutions motivated transnational exchange and mobility before and after, but also during, the war. Models and representations circulated between exhibitions and publications. Meanwhile, architects experienced and exchanged ideas through physical meetings and study trips. These events had internal and external repercussions for the profession, at home and across borders.

Ingrid Dobloug Roede is a PhD fellow at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO). Her background includes design practice, historic preservation, teaching, and cultural programming. She holds a Master of Science in History, Theory and Criticism of Art and Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Master in Architecture from AHO. At MIT, Roede was a Fulbright Grantee, Aker Scholar, and recipient of the MIT SA+P SMArchS 2019 Thesis Prize. Her current research is supervised by Mari Hvattum (AHO) and Richard Anderson (University of Edinburgh).