The Neighbourhood Index is Oslo Architecture Triennale’s catalogue of neighbourhood projects, practices and perspectives. This work contributes to the Triennale mission: creating more sustainable, diverse and thriving neighbourhoods.

In the index you can explore visionary work from architects, planners, urban practitioners, academics, artists and activists from around the world. All projects shown in the index were sent in through the international Open Call that the Triennale launched spring 2022. An international jury have made the selection to be featured on the online platform, as well as choosing which projects to be exhibited in Oslo during the Oslo Architecture Triennale starting September 22nd 2022.

Featured projects

Out of the 383 submitted projects, 236 projects were selected to be showcased online as part of the Neighbourhood Index. Six projects were selected to be presented as part of the Triennale’s main exhibition in Oslo. Seven projects received an honourable mention from the jury. All projects can be seen in their entirety on the Index page.

Honorable mention
The Phoenix Project
A remarkable new neighbourhood that will enable people to live easy, communal and low-impact lives at this critical time for the planet
Selected for exhibition
Croydon Urban Room
The Croydon ‘Urban Room’ is a shopfront for public participation, fostering meaningful connection between people & place; past, present & future.
Honorable mention
Frizz23 – Germany’s first Baugruppe co-operative for cultural commercial space.
Frizz23 and the five pioneering participatory processes behind it have charted a new approach to community focussed urban development.
Honorable mention
a fence and a ladder: subversive acts of everyday urbanism at home
This project examines the power of an informal, spontaneous, low-tech spatial gesture: a ladder built to straddle a fence between two properties.
Selected for exhibition
FREIE MITTE, VIELSEITIGER RAND   Ongoing Process of Implementation, Vienna
A field of abandoned railway tracks, taken over by plants, animals and people, is carefully transformed into the center of a new neighbourhood.
Selected for exhibition
THREADS OF THE PUBLIC REALM. Streetscape scenarios for Reykjavík’s model neighbourhood
An inspiring collection of design guidelines formulated to support the City of Reykjavík in steering quality of the planned residential development.

About the Neighbourhood Index

The intention of the index is to share projects, practices and perspectives that contribute to better neighbourhoods.

The aim is to show visionary ideas and examples on how to form better neighbourhoods: What are the practical, architectural, and social features of good neighbourhoods? How can we share more at a neighbourhood scale? How can new urban areas become more diverse and socially and environmentally sustainable?

The index highlights both urban form – the physical planning and design of neighbourhoods – and the community life at a neighbourhood scale: the content of the built environment. The index thus features both practical and systemic reflections, small-scale interventions and master plans, physical and social projects.

Towards better neighbourhoods

The concept of neighbourhood intuitively includes both physical and social dimensions. The neighbourhood is where people live their individual lives, but also an opportunity to come together as communities. The everyday places we share with one another, from streets, squares, bus stops and kindergartens to schools, shops and workplaces, are all sites of (social) potential.

The thriving neighbourhood depends on the co-existence of a diversity of elements – and must be nurtured to flourish. The best projects, places and neighbourhoods weave together lives and opportunities, so that they become greater than the sum of their parts. Although there is no one formula for creating great neighbourhoods, some recurring features tend to create better conditions for communities to thrive than others.

Index themes

The building stones of the good neighbourhood are many. In the Open Call, the following themes were highlighted to be addressed through the Neighbourhood Index:

Streets with (new) meaning

Streets with (new) meaning

The streets are the blood veins of cities and the potential stage for everyday activities and neighbourhood life. How can streets be designed or transformed from serving cars to becoming an asset for the neighbourhood? How is infrastructure integrated in the social and cultural fabric of a place?

Photo: Amund Johne
Public plays

Public plays

Public space – squares, parks, playgrounds – are essential sites where the neighbourhood can come together. Public space can be produced, programmed and designed in ways that engage the community and support neighbourhood life. How does the place enable local actors to use it and co-create activities? How can it inspire and accommodate different communities?

Photo: Asplan Viak
Social infrastructure

Social infrastructure

Neighbourhood is also a question of content – of activities, commercial and non-commercial meeting places. Cultural functions, schools and commercial activity are all functions that can contribute to the neighbourhood. How are public and private functions designed and connected to their surrounding context and communities? How is diversity and community activities supported?

Photo: Gitte Paulsbo
Ways of living, ways of sharing

Ways of living, ways of sharing

The increasing interest in shared living is inspiring on a neighbourhood scale. Different scales of community must be considered – from the building to block and to the entire neighbourhood. What functions can we share on different levels of the neighbourhood? How can residential or commercial projects contribute to neighbourhood quality?

Photo: Sindre Ellingsen
Transforming, adapting, reusing

Transforming, adapting, reusing

The transformation of former industrial areas, low quality and/or low-density urban areas is a common challenge for post-industrial cities across the world. Transformation can turn existing residential or industrial areas into quality neighbourhoods. What are sensitive ways to adapt existing qualities and cultures? How can older structures be put to new use on a neighbourhood scale?

Photo: Fredrikke Wiheden, Aspelin Ramm
Naturehood – wilder and greener

Naturehood – wilder and greener

The biodiversity crisis must be confronted also in an urban context, taking into consideration the wellbeing of other species at a neighbourhood scale. How can green and blue structures be integrated with the urban and social fabric? How can planning for other species nurture more wild nature in ways where local communities also benefit and contribute?

Photo: Mikkel Eye, SLA
Production and commercial diversity

Production and commercial diversity

Neighbourhoods in cities are increasingly becoming mono-cultural places of housing and consumption. An important question is how to integrate forms of light industrial activity with communal activities and public life. How do we cater for diverse, local production and circular practices? How do we support local (co-)ownership on the street level?

Photo: Dyrvik Arkitekter, Transborder Studio, SLA
Rethinking processes and governance

Rethinking processes and governance

The planning, design and management of cities and neighbourhoods is an immense challenge. Creative planning and design processes, models of participation and political instruments can support diverse and inclusive neighbourhood development. What processes, policies or organisational resources should be then put in place to improve neighbourhood quality? What are the great examples of co-creation and shared management of neighbourhoods?

Photo: LINK Landskap

Jury statement

We, the jury, are excited to announce the six submissions selected for exhibition at the Triennale 2022, as well as seven honourable mentions.

The submissions showed a wide variety of urban planning and architectural projects, urban practices and academic and artistic perspectives. We are especially happy to see many submissions displaying creativity in both (architectural) form and (cultural, social) content contributing to more diverse, generous and sustainable neighbourhoods. All in all – an impressive demonstration of neighbourhood engagement and thinking. 236 submissions have been selected for online exhibition at the Neighbourhood Index.

We would like to thank all submitters for the effort invested in the work, and we hope you will take the time to explore the ventures into neighbourhood projects and practices.

Jury

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Matevž Čelik

Founder and program director, Future Architecture Platform

Photo: Jože Suhadolnik
Matevž Čelik is an architect, writer, editor, researcher, cultural manager and developer of new cultural models. He is the founder and program director of Future Architecture platform, a pan-European platform for exchange and networking between emerging talents and architectural institutions. Between 2010 and 2020 he served as director of MAO, Museum of Architecture and Design in Ljubljana, which under his leadership grew into a flagship national institution with international reach. Matevž Čelik stands behind the repositioning of BIO Ljubljana, the oldest design biennial in Europe. 2016, 2018 and 2020 Matevž Čelik was the Commissioner of the Slovenian Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia.
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Camilla van Deurs

City Architect of Copenhagen

As City Architect of Copenhagen, van Deurs is engaged in shaping a liveable, inclusive, and sustainable city. Previously, van Deurs has been partner at the urban design and research consultancy Gehl Architects, working with urban strategy, planning and design for both public and private clients around the world.
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Francesco Garutti

Curator at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal

Photo: Mathieu Bolduc
He was formerly Art and Architecture Editor at Abitare magazine (2011–2013) and worked as an architect and researcher for Peter Zumthor Architekturbüro between 2007 and 2008. Using art and architecture to activate cross-disciplinary researches, Garutti’s curatorial work aims to investigate key contemporary issues and their spatial implications – from the relationship between technology and politics to the role of the institutions today with exhibition projects such as Elegantia at the Triennale Milan in 2017 and the book FAIRLAND – Explorations, Insights and Outlooks on the Future of Art Fairs edited by Koenig Books in 2014. For the CCA Garutti has recently curated The Things Around Us: 51N4E and Rural Urban Framework (2020–2021) and the research and exhibition project Our Happy Life: Architecture and Well-Being in the Age of Emotional Capitalism (2019). He’s directing the “Out of the Box” program on the Gordon Matta-Clark collection at CCA (2019–2022).
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Jenny B. Osuldsen

Partner Snøhetta, professor landscape architecture NMBU

Photo: CVUT v Praze
Jenny B. Osuldsen, graduated with a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in 1991, has also studied landscape architecture and art at Cal Poly University Pomona, Los Angeles, USA. She has been working in Snøhetta since 1995 and is a partner in Snøhetta. She is a professor and teaching landscape architecture at the Norwegian university of Life Sciences at Ås and is also an AxJohnson Guest Professor at SUDes Master’s Program in Sustainable Urban Design at the Lund University in Sweden. In 2017 she was appointed to be an Honorary Doctor at LTU Luleå technical university, Sweden.
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Christian Pagh

Director and chief curator of Oslo Architecture Triennale (chair)

Photo: Jan Khur
Christian Pagh is Director and Chief curator of the Oslo Architecture Triennale. Before joining the Triennale, Pagh was partner and cultural director in the Danish strategic design office Urgent.Agency. He has headed a range of projects within urban planning, strategic design, architecture and cultural development. He is an external lecturer in Copenhagen Business School and holds a master’s degree in Modern culture and Philosophy from Copenhagen University. Christian has explored urban and place development in a number of projects and articles with a special focus on the social, cultural and artistic aspects of urban development.

About the Oslo Architecture Triennale 2022

Oslo Architecture Triennale 2022 spotlights neighbourhood as a place and horizon for rethinking our cities. With the working title Mission Neighbourhood – (Re)forming Communities, the Triennale explores how we form the places we share. Mission Neighbourhood is an invitation to broaden the collective imagination regarding the spaces of everyday life.

The making of good neighbourhoods is interwoven with a range of practices – social, political, commercial, architectural. We make a point of looking in, between and beyond sectors for answers and inspiration. As with any mission, there is a goal: To visibly boost critical and constructive inquiry into the possibilities of neighbourhood within and across different disciplines. We seek responses and responsibilities: What must be done? Who can do it? What is our responsibility? And last, not least: What can we accomplish together?

To read more about Oslo Architecture Triennale and Mission Neighbourhood, visit our website

oslotriennale.no