1 place 33 rooms – Portrait of a house

Christine Petersen

1 place 33 rooms “Memory, including collective memory, is linked to houses. When we eradicate a place in the exterior world, we lose a major pathway into our own history.” Lena Lindgren, Morgenbladet, 2. November 2012 The project is based on a real place, a house in Oslo. I am interested in how our memory connects with places and houses, in expanding our understanding of what a house and a place are, seen from the perspective of our own cultural background, time and history – and in the perceptions and experiences that are associated with it. In the significance of how the rooms are organised in relation to each other and what happens if the room is freed from the context in which it stands. It is rare to experience an isolated room that doesn’t relate to anything else, torn from its place, time and spatial context. The neutral room simply doesn’t exist. A key aspect of architecture is the experience of going from one room to another. The way the rooms are organised in relation to each other affects the sense of what it is like to be in the house. From the starting point that architecture begins with a single room, I have explored what criteria a space has to fulfil to be called a room and how big it has to be. Everyone relates to rooms – whether it is a private room like a bedroom, kitchen, dining room, or a public space such as a café, library or railway station. The work comprises six physical installations, plus the book and archive “33 fortellinger” (33 stories).

NR 06 Soverom 1

Nina: Perry og jeg leide hele huset bortsett fra atelieret, etter at Valdis kom på gamlehjem i 2000. Vi bodde på soverommet nede og brukte bare kjøkkenet og frokoststuen om vinteren. Jeg opplevde en gang at det spøkte på dette rommet. En natt rett etter at vi hadde flyttet dit, så fornemmet jeg at det var en mannsperson som prøvde å dra meg ut av sengen. Jeg ble aldri skremt av det, derfor tror jeg at han gav seg.

Christine: Valdis og Finn Nielsen sov i værelset innenfor kjøkkenet i 1. etasje. Hushjelpen bodde i 2. etasje med barna. Soverommene i 2. etasjen, med mange små, mørke rom, var det eneste området i huset som ikke fungerte så godt. Før vi ville flytte opp, ønsket vi å åpne opp ved å rive flere vegger der. Derfor ble det til at vi det første året sov på dette soverommet, alle fire. I én kjempeseng som var 2,5 meter bred. Etter at vi flyttet opp bruker vi bare rommet som gjesterom, eller som et rom man sover i hvis man er syk.

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