TYPOLOGY / mixed program / dwelling, work, production, culture, recreation
LOCATION / Saupstad, Trondheim, Norway
DATE / jan. - may 2026
STATUS / master thesis at ntnu
WITH / Kine Tingstad
KEYWORDS / resource-driven transformation, reuse, decay, waste, architectural process
winner of best master thesis by Trondheim Arkitektforening.
In the contemporary construction industry, resources are continuously extracted, consumed, and discarded. This thesis therefore argues for a more responsible engagement with the existing, and asks:
How can existing resources on a site become the starting point for architectural process and form – both as an aesthetic and ethical practice – through the transformation of the former Heimdal upper secondary school?
This master thesis explores a more radical approach to transformation in architectural practice, grounded in material cycles, where architecture is understood as an ongoing process and the resources already present on site become the driving force for form-making. The point of departure is the reorganisation of what already exists, rather than the introduction of new resources.
Through a discussion of the themes house, reuse, decay, and waste, the project develops an understanding of a building as an interwoven system balanced on the threshold between life and death, where resources remain in constant transformation.
The method is based on reading, dismantling, and reorganising the building as a landscape of extraction, where all existing resources are retained within a closed loop. The thesis demonstrates how such an approach can be operationalised in practice, and points towards an architecture in which care, transformation, and material awareness form the fundamental premises for a more responsible practice.
project coming soon.
