Umeå, Västerbotten, Norrland
A peripheral school with globally diverse influences
63°49'13.4"N 20°16'38.2"E
#7 on Hold
#6 Beauty
Things are looking bleak, news flashes every day, and it is challenging, to say the least. In many ways, this time might have felt like drowning, all the while pretending to be coping. As Covid-19 has swept over the world leisure, work, and our lives, has all been put on Hold.
#5 Power
#4 Invisible Umeå
Beauty is, in some ways, boring.
Even if its concept changes through the ages, nevertheless a beautiful object must always follow certain rules...
Ugliness is unpredictable and offers an infinite range of possibilities.
Beauty is finite.
Ugliness is infinite, like God.
– Umberto Eco, On Ugliness
Power can be understood in multiple ways when talking about architecture. In the context of the society it acts within, architecture is never neutral, but manifests power in various ways.
#3 Standards
#2 2015
The invisible. The unseen. The thing we do not/
can not/will not recognise.
This publication makes no attempt at defining the term. The invisible, as such, is left a reflection of itself.
As is, invisibility can only be observed from within.
Today, large parts of society are standardised, or homogenised, or somehow work with (or occasionally against) standards. This means that we have certain values that we see as “normal”. This can be very useful for communication, particularly with architecture that relies on collaboration. But standardisation also creates problems, since not all of the world is or should be alike.
As we see how UmeÃ¥ is expanding and the physical environment of the city is changing from day to day, we worry about the years to come. We think that the coming establishment of IKEA must mean something to our city, and that we don’t want UmeÃ¥ to become another shopping mall. So when everyone’s focus is on 2014, we ask ourselves: what will happen when the party is over? What will come out of all this when we write 2015 and UmeÃ¥ is no longer the Capital of culture?
#1 Introduction
An introverted investigation into UMA and its manifesto. When it comes to the school’s vision, Peter Kjaer has been important as a visionary leader and as one of the key founders of UMA. Unfortunately and unexpectedly, Kjaer was let go two weeks before UMAN was to be printed. We try to cover this story from the perspective of the students. Etcetera...