The Common narrative – transformation of cultural environments

With a point of departure in the work by “Screening of Cultural Environments”, the Ph.D.-project investigates a transformation strategy of cultural environments in Denmark, using the method “research-by-design”. The project originates from the perspective; that cultural environments contains both physical and social understandings, and that it shall not be conserved, but rather reinterpreted. Through experiments the project focuses on a development of the cultural environments that is anchored to and integrates the local community.

Through action research the project will explore a transformation process that includes different local parties and the local community, which is understood as a social layer that needs to be a part of the processes in the built environment and the management of heritage. Within this is the notion of identity, which is linked to the narrative of the cultural environment. By introducing the narrative, as part of the project, the understanding of the cultural environment as a living thing becomes evident, both in terms of the history and future, but also in terms of the cultural environment being dependent on the life surrounding and defining it. This understanding of the cultural environment, is investigated through architectural registrations and combined with a phenomenological approach that springs from an extended understanding of the built environment.

The method “research by design” revolves around a physical design or an event in a selected cultural environment. It has the purpose of activating the cultural environment both to inform and invite the local community to engage. Events or small designs can act like acupuncture that, with a small needle, gives energy to an area beyond the small pin. When one is working with designs as catalyst to activate an area, the main purposes is to explore the opportunities of the area and to change the perception of the area. The group “Screeing of Cultural Environments” points towards a set of potentials within the cultural environment: habitation, tourism, business or culture. This can be translated to potentials for “new life”, which underlines the importance of integrating the local community and respective relevant parties in the development of the cultural environment.

Supervisors

• Professor Mogens A. Morgen
• Associate Professor Simon Ostenfeld Pedersen