The Project Landsby 

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In this project, I question the existing immigration-integration program in Norway to uncover and discuss the factors that contribute to setbacks in integration process of the society. I aim to widen the possibilities that both the society and immigrants create for each other while also focusing on finding an integrative approach for the immigration and integration in Norway.

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By the end of 2015, the number of displaced people in the world was over 60 million. As a complex topic, immigration is inextricably interwoven with population growth and global warming. My question is how we, as designers, should respond to this issue.

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The project Landsby is briefly dealing with immigration and integration within agricultural context in Norway. I have looked at the current systems and organisations and their methods in terms of handling these issues. Within this project, I am proposing possibility not only to improve the existing system but also to create chances to break the conventional ways of creating those systems.

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The key part of the project is its relationship to agriculture in Norway, in terms of its both environmental and cultural values in the society. The project itself is called Landsby referring to originally a collaborative Norwegian countryside structure. Simply, Landsby is a project that aims to facilitate interactions between immigrants and locals by utilising the abandoned farms in Norway in order to change the perception and the role of the immigrants in the society.

 

Landsby is a social, economic and technical infrastructure in which new forms of collaborative work will take place. Landsby is studying integration problems in the Norwegian society between the diverse immigrant groups and the ethnic Norwegian citizens while digging into the world’s growing population in a relation to sustainable living and Norwegian farming. Landsby aims to utilise vacant farms to increase the local production and to improve the maintenance of the vacant farms by encouraging sustainable farming with the help of immigrant families who are in need of accommodation and employment and would like to participate in this project.

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With Landsby, a diverse micro society will be encouraged in order to create self-sufficient, sustainable and productive collaborative work and living on a vacant farm, bringing new knowledge and attraction to the local community. The integration process will begin primarily on a smaller scale among the immigrant families who create the diverse micro society, and the local community. The goal is that it will spread out to the whole society gradually.

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Primary Objectives:

to increase understanding of how the existing integration system fails, and how we can improve it.

to propose a system where different crises will benefit.

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Secondary Objectives:

In this project I study immigration and integration in Norway. I analyse the existing integration system’s strong and weak sides and how it works. My goal is with a designer’s insight to improve these weak parts in order to contribute to immigration problematic, changing the way we look at it, offering another perspective and generate ideas in order to bring optimistic standpoint.

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Possible Clients:

Norwegian Government, UDI, IMDI.

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Possible Partners:

UDI, IMDI, Landbruks- og Mat Departementet, Bygde Forskning, Farmers Union, Municipalities.

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Research field:

Population trends, immigration, integration, agriculture, sustainability.