Most design and architecture practices are private businesses, on the same terms as any other business. But what sets a designer or an architect apart from any other merchant? In this course we explore creative practices, both as a phenomenon and as a practical reality.
Through the course you will learn about the practical side of running a practice, things like salaries, bookkeeping and rent, and about the more existential side, such as self-realisation and identity. The course consists mainly of guest lectures, and the main deliverable is a case for your own practice.
We meet every Tuesday at 09:30 for a lecture and discussion, and finish at 12:00. When we have guests, we spend 45 minutes on the talk and 45 minutes on discussion. In week 45 we hold an intensive week, where you develop a case for your own practice.
Practitioners from across design and architecture. Different fields, different sizes and different ways of making a living. All follow the same format: an open talk about the work, the numbers and what they have learned.
Founded Vardehaugen in 2015 and still runs it. Before that he co-founded Fantastic Norway. Vardehaugen works on cabins, homes, community buildings and travel destinations, and has won awards both for the buildings and for how it works with people.
Founded Whee!, a subscription service for electric cargo bikes. She designs services and systems for green mobility, and for cities meant to work for more people than just drivers. In 2023 she won Empower Women in Shared Mobility.
Co-founder and head of Våre steder. She has more than ten years behind her advising place developers on process, participation and building meeting places, and runs the digital programme “Sammen for stedet”. She is the narrator and editor of the podcasts Våre steder and Bak fasaden.
Started Fragment in 2018, having co-founded Eriksen Skajaa Arkitekter in 2010. Fragment works on inclusive place development and the multifunctional city, mostly housing, schools and cultural buildings. The office is based in Oslo and Bergen.
Started Bielke&Yang in 2012 with Martin Yang. The studio began as a pure design agency and now works across disciplines on brands, places and experiences, for clients such as Maaemo and Oda.
Co-founder and partner at Beta Mobility, a Nordic mobility startup studio. He co-founded Urban Sharing and was its CTO, behind the technology running the city bikes in Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim. He has founded and invested in several mobility ventures.
Marte and Jan Walter run Tend together with two others. Both came out of EGGS Design, she as one of the people who built it, he as a founder and professional lead there for twenty years. At Tend she builds programmes and nurtures the ecosystem around regenerative business, while he works on the deep design of companies, alongside teaching change management at BI.
An Oslo designer working across tableware, lighting, furniture, textiles and graphic design. She holds master's degrees in industrial design from AHO and in visual communication from the Oslo National Academy of the Arts, and designs for producers including HAY, Vestre, Røros Tweed and Heymat.
Started mopo in 2007 with Siri Moseng, the same year the office won both of the competitions it entered for the National Tourist Routes. The work now runs from large planning tasks to careful interventions in existing buildings, alongside housing. In 2023 it won the Oslo Architects' Association architecture prize for “1938 + 2023”.
Terms you'll meet when starting a practice in Norway, explained without detours. Click a term to see the explanation.
The first three are about why creative fields behave the way they do. The last two are about running the company.