Cultivated Landscape – 3RW Architects

3RW was established in year 2000 as a young and independent of- fice, strongly rooted in Bergen’s art and cultural scene. The found- ing partners of 3RW were all educated (and later, also teaching) at the independent Bergen School of Architecture, BAS. A school founded by Svein Hatløy, who oriented the institution towards the philosophy of ‘open form’.

Open form seeks to create an inclusive architecture. It conceptu- alizes architectural language as a “democratic expression” – one which allows for meaningful social transformations. Designs are to be based on and interactiong with the context, material and imma- terial; with the landscape and climate.

3RW architects regularly works on the completion of diverse so- cio-cultural site analyses, also using this site-oriented methodolo- gy in other participation processes, both in the fields of planning and architecture. 3RW’s starting point for carrying out socio-cultural place analyses is supported by the fact that a place is not reducible to its physical components, but also an ensemble made of local inhabitants’ various experiences, memories, values and feelings.

These analyses help 3RW to identify the many understandings, in- terests, differences, wishes and needs of an area-bound popula- tion. Such analyses critically contribute to the dimension of social sustainability of projects; their purpose is to unearth the relevant aspects of ‘the socially constructed place’.