Learning from Location - Built Environments and their Adaptability to Climate and Ageing

Identifying how traditional knowledge on localization and organisation of built structures in the landscape, can inform and maybe even generate new approaches to the foreseen and unforeseen climate changes and challenges within the domains of planning and architecture, is the primary goal for this project. Our aim is to provide a new interdisciplinary platform that draws on the diverse knowledge from a group of highly skilled professionals. Through networking activities centred on a workshop, this forum w ill stage a new discussion and an initiate an important investigation of the potentials of re-use and -development of traditional knowledge in future planning and building activities. Finding and developing new methods for climate adaptable solutions wit hin planning, preservation and building, solutions that are based on existing (although almost forgotten) knowledge is thus at the core of the project. Until now the question of the usefulness of this traditional knowledge has only to a limited degree bee n studied in a landscape and district scale, or in a trans-historical and trans-disciplinary approach like ours. The backdrop for the idea is the fact that in Norway quite a few historic buildings have been withstanding at least a hundred years of climate changes, some of them several hundred years. It indicates they are well adapted to changing weather conditions and climate, at least if subject to a certain level of maintenance. Is it possible to single out why these buildings have persisted even though the climate conditions have been both changing and challenging? As location, building techniques and materials cannot be separated as reasons for building durability we need to look at these aspects in combination. The starting point will be location and exposure in relation to climate variations, both locally and on a larger scale.