Subsea Coffee
by Vera & Kyte

Norway is the largest subsea nation in the world today. The subsea sector is estimated to double in size within the next five years and within twenty years the production will be equal to the traditional oil and gas production offshore. The future of the subsea sector is exciting also because of its potential applications to neighboring fields such as the marine sector, maritime industries and underwater mining to mention a few. One of the largest challenges facing the expanding subsea sector will be recruitment. The industry is already and must in the future increasingly look for personnel abroad and from other specialized fields.

This trend is already clearly visible in the offshore-municipality of Flora which is at the top of the norwegian statistics for labor migration. The large offshore related industry in Florø attracts and depends on workers from all over the world and in this way changes the social landscape of the city. These workplaces were according to the immigrants we met the most important arena for socialisation and integration into the community.

Subsea Coffee is designed as a low threshold meeting point between the local community and its new inhabitants. To represent the future identity of Florø we have applied the hyper functional aesthetics of subsea constructions to this tableware. We decided to work with the slow brewing of coffee as a means of taking time for social interaction. We picture this social brewing ritual being implemented as a natural part of the everyday workflow. An arena to establish a more personal relation to co-workers that can go beyond the workplace.

 

Svele
by Ralston & Bau

In an initial workshop that called for dialog and gathering around Florø identity, the native and migrant participants contributed by bringing homecooked finger foods. The natural choices for the “Florøværingar” with west norwegian culture was to offer the Svele, a small moon shaped pancake, and those with polish background brought Kiefies, a crescent shaped cookie. We were touched by the generous hospitality that was expressed by our city hosts and out of this experience grew our desire to create a dedicated object.

Shapes of both Svele and Kiefies are descending from the moon at different stages. We used the flat circular form to create two serving trays that took the name Svele after the regional pancake speciality that usually is placed flat on a plate and folded in two or three with brunost (brown cheese) or sugared butter inside. Our aim was to elegantly enhance the display and give them an outwards reaching movement symbolising the desire to share. Svele is an open palm reflecting proudly and as a manifest object the metallurgic tradition and heritage of the city. The dramaturgy of the coastal landscape and the colossal forces interacting are illustrated by the contradiction between the strength of the shiny metal material and its unexpectedly thin and bent shape. Hovering over the table and mirroring the surroundings in its shiny surface, Svele gives the illusion of floating with poetic fragility.

 

Float 
by Margit Seland

The series Float consists of a series of porcelain teapots, milkjugs and cups, presented in a cupboard. The fishing huts, (la pecherie) located all along the Atlantic shoreline of Saint Nazaire, have inspired the shape of the wooden cabinets holding the collection of teapots and cups.

The cupboard is made of birch triplex and a ‘roof ’ of black MDF. The tableware is made of white and grey colored porcelain mass, dyeing is done by adding bodystains, which are oxides. Techniques are casting, pot is three casts, – pot, spout and handle separately, and assembled after casting. The products has a sanded matt exterior and transparent glazed inside. Some of the cups also have a partially glazed outer surface, the drinkingedge. The teapots are closed by a float, a wink to fishing from the fishing huts. The bright carmine color that is chosen, is present on the cranes and bridges of the city.

The continuous ebb and tide of the seawater gave inspiration to the color bands in blue, brown and grey-tones along the lower edge. The lids of the pots are exploring different materials like rubber corks, spools from the hardware store (yellow) and a finding from the street (the brown). The teapots represent the different personalities living in a ‘mixed’ city. To share a cup of tea, learn to get to know each other, be open and learn.

 

 

How to spend eternity wisely
by David Brognon & Stéphanie Rollin

A figure in the distance seems to be pacing up and down in a bucolic landscape. His comings and goings, at first sight devoid of all intention and purpose, appear to be determined by the size and movement of a cloud … unless they are themselves dictating the movement of the cloud.

The film propose an osmotic relationship with nature which appears to be a theatre of permanent exchanges where the body and the elements seem to be in perfect accord and rub shoulders in an assumption of equivalence.

Here, “the landscape is felt to be an extension of personal space, its scale serves to measure the span of oneʼs own body expanded to the limits of the horizon”. In this evocation of a new form of ccosmology, temporality is reinterpreted by the yardstick of the correlation between the pacing of the man and the march of the world. The body is set in the framework of a universal and natural time, in the constantly changing limits of the world.

 

Storm
by Ralston & Bau

On the West coast of Norway, both nature and people are shaped by the extreme weather conditions. The strong winds incline the maritime pine in a vertical position, giving body to the quote: “the wind does not break a bendy tree”. The Florøværing is taking any unexpected situations in a pragmatic stride. A cancelled flight or a black out because of the passing storm is taken with a calm confidence while they are adapting their plans to the new situation. The ability to adapt is essential to integration of new inhabitants and create a replanted local identity.

Both immaterial and material adaptation gives new shape to the existing. We wanted to illustrate this in the Storm vases. Our first idea was to make these vases out of bended steel pipes, inspired by the local oil based industry, which is sustaining the local community of Florø. From a shipbuilding culture, Florњ have had to learn how to be proud of working with pipes. Great strength is used to bend these to adapt them to the need of their usage. In the case of the Storm vases, it is the flowers that are taking the shape of bended glass. Rather than reaching straight upwards the flower reach forward and outward, much like the foreigner that wants to integrate a new community and the community that receives the new inhabitant cultures.

 

Tideograph
by Les M Studio

The main advantage of the city of Saint-Nazaire is its geographical situation by the sea. The harbour and beaches are a real attraction both the implanted companies and for the tourism. However the city does not propose any point of view towards the sea and one could almost forget its presence even if it is so close. Our project aims to valorise this natural resource at the heart of the city centre and more exactly the specificity of the Atlantic coastline: the tides. The inhabitants of the coast live according to and fro of the ocean.

This project of urban indicator of tides aims at accompanying the inhabitants’ everyday life by informing them at which moment of the day they can go either fishing or to the beach. As well as a contemplative and playful object, this project is a landmark in the city centre connected in real time to the harbour.

 

Marançoire
by Mélanie Buatois

The Marançoire is a two person swing made for the city of Saint Nazaire. It is inspired by the “va et vient” – the endless coming and going of the tides. Saint Nazaire itself is defined by the same endless movement, with the gigantic vessels of the naval and aeronautic industry endlessly building up momentum just to leave town once finished. It is a movement that is both omnipresent and entirely invisible from the city centre. The Marançoire tries in its own way to bring back the movement to the inhabitants, to make them feel like being a part of it, in a playful way.

As always, the material and its manufacturing play a central role in the design. Fiberglass embodies in many ways the contradictory feeling of Saint Nazaire. It is still a city of shipyards, but behind the same façades now lies a world of high-tech craftsmen building vital parts of our airplanes, ships and windmills. Even the material itself has this ambivalence: light but hard, a layered composite leaving its true nature invisible. It is yesterday’s futuristic material, vital to today’s world. Responding to a city that has a certain heaviness, with the echoes of the hard work and conditions that shaped itself and its citizens, the object itself is deliberately « light », something without any importance, just for the fun of it.

 

Gleam of Light
by Anne Lise Stenseth

For me as an artist and a former inhabitant in the outskirts of the town Florø, I thought it was interesting to have this possibility within the frame of the project “Replanted Identity” to meet people, make a new work and reflect on the contemporary conditions of the place and observe the changes that has taken place since I was going to high school there in the 70’s.

My contribution to the project is a short film informed and inspired by people we met, and circumstances and activities at the Westcon shipyard in Florø. This business has a history back to 1949, and has produced equipment for agriculture industry, a high number of various tankers, repair, maintenance and modification services for ships and rigs and building of subsea and offshore steel constructions. Like in most shipyards the people who work there come from different countries and the workers are a mixture of permanent employees and temporary workers.

The new film Ljoske/Gleam Of Light consists of sequences filmed in the welding hall in the shipyard in Florø in combination with a short story interpreted by Kyrre EikМs from Sogn og Fjordane Theater. It is a story about a man that has come to a new country to work because there is no work in his native country. We follow the life and work in the shipyard, as well as his alienation, longing and solitude.

——————-

Excerpt from the filmtext :

“… Most of the time I stayed in this environment at the shipyard. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t live here. I had a studio appartment. In the beginning I only stayed during working hours. I arrived, put on my overalls, my safety gear, went into the production hall, exchanged a few words in my new language and hooked up to the oxygen generators. Those who did the same work as me were already connected. Everybody had to be…”

 

The Wrestler
by Signe Solberg

A week in Florø of meeting people, hearing their stories and working at the shipyard. A couple brought food from their home country of Poland. They proudly presented the food they had made for us, a huge table with all kinds of different polish dishes. For decoration they had carved vegetables and fruits into flowers. And the next morning at the hotel breakfast, the same kind of “flowers” were decorating the buffet. I liked the shape and the engagement. At Westcon Yards, one of the biggest shipyards in Norway, we met the HMS-inspector, a former teacher and judo-champion from Romania. He claimed that he didn´t train anymore but I got the feeling that he missed it. Extremely dedicated to his work with safety, he seemed well-integrated and happy in the community. Although just that had taken some time and muscle.

The thing that stuck on my mind was their dedication to their work. Their engagement to show their skills and eager to get involved with the community. At the Westcon shipyard I met the local workers and got do do some work myself. Most of them nearly retirement age, people with amazing skills in their craft. They put their stuff aside in a minute to help me out. They let me use their machines and pick any material I wanted. The shipyard, both in it´s scale and well functioning “machinery” of different people working together was impressive. Small, but amazingly heavy pieces of 25mm steel plates became the starting point of a sculpture. Rusted, as the patina of the steel at the shipyard made by the sea.

 

FL 1014 T & FL 1014 B
by Pierre Dubourg

The starting point of this reflection was the shipyard. It as a central point in the city because of his impact on the landscape but mostly because of his the economical impact. If we talk about immigrants it’s also the most important reason that why people came to Florø. So we can consider the shipyard as a place where immigrants, natives and also ship crews members of all over the world can meet.

As a designer I wanted to create a DIY furnitures made in the shipyards by the different populations who works there. Make “together” as a creative and social link. So, a table appears to me, the most efficient meeting point. Sharing a lunch or discussions. The table is also one  of the first necessity furniture piece when someone want to set up somewhere. Concerning the construction, the concept is to use the material and also technics of the shipyard. Trying to set a new standard furniture born from the shipyard.

 

Les Lamaneurs
by Ralston & Bau

Situated by the Saint-Nazaire port, six little docking houses made in 50’s architecture, are hosting the lamaneurs. They are professional seamen on land that guide the ships going in and out of the harbour and fasten them safely at quay. A lamaneur is guarding and monitoring the harbour, empathically looking after any vessel passing through. Day and night. Saint-Nazaire is a workers city. Its centre is a place you go through or jump into to buy something on your way home, without really linger or take part in a social urban life. We wished to offer spaces for the Nazariens to indulge in a well deserved break.

We created Les Lamaneurs, a series of urban furnitures that invite the habitants to slow down and enjoy their city. Like the locksmen guiding the ship, these furnitures are taking care of people. The shapes are taken from the docking houses that have a rounded front to provide a wide angle visibility and the metal and wood materials where selected from the ship building artisan industries we collaborated with. Four versions of Lamaneurs each with its own attitude, has been created inspired by their rituals: Lunch break, Coffee break, Long watch and Power nap.

 

Moor
by Øyvind Wyller

Saint-Nazaire has a beautiful location and an interesting history. I would love to see this charming little town embrace more of its own identity, and accept what it really is: An industrial harbor town. There are too many towns in Europe that have no industry to define their character. In Oslo, where I come from, we once had a proud industry, but now there is only consumption, and no real production. Personally I think a town is enriched by creating something. One of the first things I noticed about Saint-Nazaire is how great it would be to ride a bicycle around. There are short distances and its fairly flat.

My little contribution to make Saint-Nazaire more pleasurable to bike in is the Moor  bicycle stand. The stand is a ring fastened to the pavement, or sideways in concrete walls or objects, in the city landscape. It is easy to access from all sides, and the whole shape can be used. The ring makes it easy to lock bikes of any size. Moor  is inspired by the docks and how boats are moored there. Now you can also moor your bike.