How can Losæter make its intangible impacts visible and valued by the community and wider public?

Losæter is more than an urban farm, it is a living community where knowledge, relationships, cultural practices and ecological experiences are continuously created. This project explores how these often invisible values can become more visible, recognized and valued.

Losæter is a museum without walls in Bjørvika, Oslo, where urban farming, art, cultural practices and community life come together. Through everyday activities, people share knowledge, meet others, learn about plants and natural cycles, cook, create, care for the place and develop a sense of belonging. Much of this value, however, is difficult to see from the outside. A visitor may encounter the garden and its activities without understanding the people, relationships and knowledge that make Losæter what it is.

The project looks at what already exists and explores how to capture, communicate, and strengthen it. The interventions work across physical space, digital communication, governance, seasonal programming and artistic practice. Together, they aim to make community knowledge and experiences easier to discover, create more opportunities for participation, recognize the contributions of those who shape Losæter, and strengthen its collective memory. In the long term, this can help build a more resilient community, one that can adapt and continue even as the physical conditions of Losæter change.

Olá! I am a Brazilian designer and architect currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Product Design at the University of Lisbon. My work has often brought me into contact with artisan communities, where I have explored how design can support existing knowledge and ways of making. Working with communities has also made me interested in the less visible aspects of these relationships: the knowledge that is shared, the identities that are built and the value that emerges through collaboration. Coming to AHO/Losæter as an exchange student gave me the opportunity to explore these questions in a different cultural context, and to understand how design can contribute to recognizing and strengthening the value already created within a community.

Beyond what happens physically in the garden, what is being created between people? I wanted to explore how design could help make these less visible forms of value more recognized, without changing what already makes the community meaningful. By recognizing the knowledge, relationships and experiences already created at Losæter, the community can better understand its own value, strengthen its connections and become more resilient. This visibility can also help communicate Losæter’s broader contribution to the municipality and other institutions, creating stronger grounds for support and collaboration.

The first step was to understand how Losæter is perceived, both by the people who are part of it and through the different channels that communicate about the place. I found several different ways of describing and understanding the same place, which reinforced the idea that Losæter can mean something different to each person who experiences it.

From there, I mapped what was already happening: initiatives, workshops, Wednesday dinners, gardening, art and other activities. Only then did I start looking for what was less visible. Conversations with volunteers, first-time visitors and other members of the community became important clues. They pointed towards values such as connection, belonging and wellbeing, which were not always reflected in the more visible activities. I then used theoretical references on belonging to support these findings, particularly Allen et al.’s Belonging: A Review of Conceptual Issues, an Integrative Framework, and Directions for Future Research. Combining these theoretical perspectives with what I heard from the community helped me build a broader understanding of the system and guided the interventions that followed.

The map brings these findings together around a central idea: Losæter already creates a wide range of social, cultural and ecological value, but much of it remains difficult to see, recognize and reinforce. The first layer highlights eight intangible values identified through the research: Belonging & Sense of Ownership, Knowledge & Learning, Inclusion, Joy & Wellbeing, Sharing & Reciprocity, Connection, Biodiversity, and Food & Cultural Exchange.

The next layer looks at what gets in the way of these values becoming visible, from seasonal discontinuity and a constantly changing community to the first-visit experience, fragmented stories and a lack of recognition. Finally, the map identifies the conditions already present at Losæter that could support change, including its openness and spontaneity, seasonal rhythms, artistic character, existing community and knowledge, city farmers as connectors, and the space itself as a resource. Together, these layers helped identify where interventions could strengthen what is already there rather than introduce something entirely new.

The future scenarios explore what could happen if this visibility gap continues, and what could happen if the existing values of Losæter become more visible and recognized. In the undesirable future, participation becomes harder to sustain, collective memory is gradually lost, seasonal gaps become stronger and visitors remain mostly spectators. Losæter risks being understood primarily as a physical place rather than as a living community.

In the desirable future, visibility supports participation, recognition and continuity. The goal is not to preserve Losæter exactly as it is, but to strengthen a community that can adapt as people, seasons and physical conditions change.

The interventions act on different parts of this system: the physical space, digital communication, governance, seasonal programming and artistic practice. They include ways to welcome newcomers, share community stories, capture collective memory, recognize contributions, maintain connections through winter and communicate the different forms of value generated by Losæter.

Rather than introducing an entirely new system, they build on practices and resources that already exist. Together, they follow a simple logic: capture what happens, make it visible, recognize its value and use that recognition to strengthen participation and continuity. This can help Losæter build resilience not only as a place, but as a community capable of adapting beyond the place itself.