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 09 Havestue

Christine: Vår første vinter i huset var den kaldeste på mange år. Vi fikk erstattet parafinbrenneren i stuen med et ildsted. Når det blir desember, henger vi opp en ullgardin mellom den kalde hallen og havestuen for å holde på varmen. Gaute fortalte at de pleide å ha en fin gjenstand stående i nisjen over ildstedet. Havestuen var hverdagsstuen, det var her Gaute og familien oppholdt seg for det meste når de leste avisen og drakk kaffe.

Inga: Mer enn at jeg husker ett, enkelt rom, så husker jeg romforløpene. Overgangene i huset, fra kaldt til varmt. Gjennom en ullgardin fra den kalde hallen og inn i stuen.

Tip

Tip