- OCEAN Design Research Association
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OCEAN Design Research Association focuses on design-based research in architecture, urban- and landscape design, industrial design, and a variety of related creative disciplines. The association is registered in Norway.
OCEAN was originally founded by Michael Ulrich Hensel, Ulrich Königs, Tom Verebes and Bostjan Vuga as a think-tank for experimental design in architecture in 1994 in London. In 1995 the group expanded into a network with groups in Cologne, Helsinki, London, Ljubljana and Oslo. In 1998 the Cologne, Helsinki and Oslo groups fused and operated under the name OCEAN NORTH until 2006. During the same year the revision of the network and its expansion began. In result OCEAN was renamed and restructured as a design research association registered in Norway in 2008 under the founding chairman Prof. Michael Ulrich Hensel and the founding secretary Prof. Dr. Birger Ragnvald Sevaldson.
Today OCEAN is an independent, inter-disciplinary and not-for-profit design research association that conducts research by design, bringing together the disciplines of architecture, urban and landscape design, industrial and product design, engineering, biology, ecology, micro-climatology and musical composition. The mission of the association is to initiate, undertake, promote and host collaboration in design research with the aim for improve the built environment and anthropobiosphere, by means of developing and exploring new paradigms to design that are heterogeneous, performative, context-specific, and culturally, socially and environmentally sustainable. The network is active in the intersection between practice, research and education and has currently 10 members and 2 honorary members located in Australia, England, Israel, Norway, Turkey and Cyprus.
Current research areas include Systems-oriented Design (Research Director: Prof. Dr. Birger R. Sevaldson) [1], Performance-oriented Design / Performance-oriented Architecture (Research Directors: Prof. Michael U. Hensel and Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel) [2], , and Heterogeneous Grounds and Envelopes (Research Director: Jeffrey P. Turko), and Sound Environments (Dr. Natasha Barrett and Prof. Dr. Birger Sevaldson).
The work of OCEAN has been published and exhibited widely, including the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2002 and 2004, and the Beijing Architectural Biennale 2008. Among its best known work to date is the ‘World Centre for Human Concerns’ designed for the exhibition ‘A New World Trade Centre’, exhibited at the Max Protetch Gallery in New York, the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2002 and the German Museum of Architecture.[3] The scheme for a 'World Center for Human Concerns' pointed towards a new institution that could provide representation to all people above and beyond nation-state representation. The intention was to project a forum for political processes, with the aim to overcome violent conflict in result of the existence of multiple forms of acceptable representation.
- ^ www.systemsorienteddesign.net
- ^ www.performanceorienteddesign.net
- ^ Protetch M. Ed. (2004). A New World Trade Center – Design Proposals from leading Architects Worldwide. New York: Regan Books Harper Collins. 110-111.
OCEAN members:
Natasha Barrett
Guillem Baraut Bover
Daniel Coll I Capdevila
Mattia Gambardella
Michael Ulrich Hensel- Founding Chairman and Board Member
Pavel Hladik
Birger Ragnvald Sevaldson- Current Chairman
Defne Sunguroğlu Hensel - Current Vice-chairman
Jeffrey P. Turko - Current Secretary
OCEAN Honorary members:
Mark Burry
George JeronimidisExternal links
Categories:- Organisations based in Norway
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