Oslo Hydropolis: Transplanting traditional water management techniques into Greater Oslo’s urban landscape

Transplanting traditional water management techniques into Greater Oslo’s urban landscape

Abstract

Oslo Hydropolis is a running landscape and urbanism design studio at the Oslo School of Architecture and Design that investigates how water can play a socially, ecologically, and economically active role in shaping life in the Oslo region. Historically a water-rich area, weather extremes and seasonal abnormalities question the functionality of cultural landscapes in the Oslo region, which is characterised by rain-fed agriculture in the soils of limited valley areas. Excess and scarcity of water—flood and drought—are exacerbated by the uncertainty of climate change, but even more so by the effects of urbanisation. Population in the Oslo region is growing and new models of how water, urbanisation, and social life integrate have to be defined.