3RW was established in year 2000 as a young and independent
office, strongly rooted in Bergen’s art and cultural scene. The founding
partners of 3RW were all educated (and later, also taught) at
the independent Bergen School of Architecture or 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 conceptualizes
architectural language as a “democratic expression” – one which allows
for meaningful social transformations. Designs are to be based on and
interactive with their context, material and immaterial; of the landscape
and climate.
3RW architects regularly work on the completion of diverse sociocultural
site analyses, also using this site-oriented methodology in other
participation processes, both in the fields of planning and architecture.
3RW’s starting point for carrying out sociocultural place analyses is
supported by the understanding that a place is not reducible to its
physical components, but is an ensemble made of local inhabitants’
experiences, memories, values and feelings.
These analyses help 3RW to identify the many understandings,
interests, differences, wishes and needs of an area-bound population.
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’.
