Reading Socio-Spatial Interplay - Arkitektur- og designhøgskolen i ...

R E A D I N G S O C I O - S P A T I A L I N T E R P L A Y P A R T 2THE ARCHITECTURAL STRUCTURE BEFORE 1850Primary elements from before 1850The landscape situation and the node that constituted urban developmentfrom the beginning – the crossroad between the old traffic arteries and thenatural harbour in the inner end of the Oslo fjord 255 – is a constitutiveprimary element in the urban landscape of Oslo. Although the actual physicalform and content of the node has changed as the means of communicationspecifically, and the urban society and the urban structure in general, hasdeveloped, the node still represents a place of centrality, density in encountersituations, and dynamics related to contact with the world outside the urbanlandscape.The medieval urban structure of the city burnt down in 1624 and wasabandoned after the Danish-Norwegian King Christian IV decided to movethe city further west, close to the castle. The medieval fragments (paths,churches and cloister ruins) can still be considered as primary elements, inthe sense that they are physical, tangible, architectural elements related to thecollective memory and the history of the city.The Kings city – since Medieval times, Akershus castle was the seat of theNorwegian kings. During the Danish-Norwegian union (1380-1814) thepower-relation between the two cities Oslo and Bergen changed in favour ofOslo. The architectural system of the renaissance grid relates to the Akershuscastle: the fortified city within the urban walls. (I will soon return to thedifferences between the renaissance grid and later grid plans).The rivers Akerselva and Lo – were important in the pre-industrialcommercial development by providing water, transportation and power formills, sawmills, etc.The Capital city with the 19 th century monumental spatial ensemble of theKarl Johans gate axis, laid out between the 19 th century castle, the parliamentand the central railway station and flanked by all the monumental nationalinstitutional buildings, is another primary element in the urban centre. (Theplans for the two monumental spatial ensembles of the urban centre – theplan for Karl Johans gate of 1836-38, and the plan of 1839 for its easterncounterpart in Torggata – defines these two axis in relation to each other).255 The ancient name of the Oslo-fjord was “Viken”, which also is the etymological root of the term “Viking”.136