Recently I have been doing some more digital paintings of zen gardens, inspired by the aesthetic sense of "yūgen": the profound, mysterious beauty that is sensed rather than seen, and that suggests depths of experience beyond human understanding. I draw these free-hand on an Ipad with the Procreate app. I will add them to the "Drawings" section of my website soon. Occasionally I like to browse through some of the books that I have lying around my studio for inspiration. A couple of years ago I found a short collection of essays "Three Japanese Buddhist Monks" from Penguin Books' series "Great Ideas" in a bookstore. On one page, Yoshida Kenkō (c.1283-c.1352) offers some insightful thoughts about house design which are in my opinion still valid to this day: I was also reminded of this amusing story about the priest Jōshin, also told by Kenkō. I have great respect for strong personalities, people that dare to create their own meaning in the world and do what they want. Personally I have a

Recently I have produced some drawings to be used to change the use classification of the basement level in a large house on Ullernåsen in Oslo. The basement is actually quite spacious (and was thankfully originally built with 2,1 meter ceiling height internally), but through the years it has never been considered to be a part of the house's permanent living area. The basement is exposed over the ground to its full height on the west facade, and a rental apartment with its own entrance has been created on this side with a larger window. The owner wishes now to apply to change the use of the basement to a room for permanent living formally. The plan of this basement is quite unusual. There are concrete walls almost 400 mm thick in some places, and in the centre of the plan is a large iron safe! On the south side are garden terraces on several levels, and the garden features several large apple trees. This house was built on the ridge Ullernåsen in 1936, and it has been maintained very w

There is far too much ground covered with asphalt for parking cars in the world. A single normal parking space covers over 12 square metres of the Earth with an ecologically unproductive surface, and it often lies completely unused when no one has parked there. This is a rather silly situation. What can be done with these existing parking lots? I have recently been exploring how new dwellings and residential areas could be built on parking lots, instead of on previously unbuilt ground. Naturally it is always possible to see a site covered with a parking lot as a blank page, and build something there that does not relate at all to the parking lot's strict organisation. In a lot of contexts such an approach will be best, but in other cases it will be necessary or advantageous to retain the strict area limits of the parking spaces. This project is an attempt to test out how this original spatial structure can form the basis for new modular houses, where the typical outer dimensions of a s

Recently I have been working on concept sketches which solve the common problem of "What can we do with this space?" This is one of my favourite questions to be asked, and I always like to respond with a drawing. I have begun to turn these concepts into a short video series on my Instagram page (https://www.instagram.com/adamic_studio/). In the videos I share some of the thinking behind my design when I develop environmental concepts. As usual I draw everything by hand on an iPad with the Procreate app. Here are some examples from my latest projects. 01) The interior of a 3-room apartment currently for sale in Lillestrøm Before: After: 02) The garden around a house currently for sale in Hafrsfjord, Norway Before: After: 03) The interior of an apartment currently for sale in Oslo Before (a very awkward space): After: 04) The garden outside of a house currently for sale in Kristiansand Before: After: 05) A commercial space currently up for rent in Oslo Before: After: If you ever need hel

Recently I have been working on a concept for the total renovation of a small house in Haugesund, Norway. The site lies at the edge of an existing residential area, just south of the lake Urdadalsvatnet. At the moment there is a beautiful unbuilt forest patch right to the east. The brief was to improve both the house and the garden, and turn the site as a whole into a fantastic new home for a young family with small children. The existing house is relatively small (140 m2), with some awkward rooms and a tiny, enclosed kitchen on the first floor. A few years ago the previous owner built out a very large terrace on the south and west side, which seems to tower over the garden on a generous system of point supports. We attempted to find a way to accommodate all of the owners’ wishes within the footprint of the existing house and terrace, without the need for new additions. It worked out quite well. All bedrooms are moved down to the lower level, such that everyone can sleep on the same fl

Concept sketches of a fun little personal project: ideas for some dream houses. These are explorations of possible solutions to a very pressing architectural problem of the times (laughs): how can a house be built around a private tennis court? Imagine how awesome it would be to be able to walk out of your bedroom and have access to something like this. ***