Praxis and Design Techniques
Praxis and Design Techniques is a research group based at The Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Praxis and Design Techniques addresses the development, experimentation, dissemination and scholarship on design techniques as knowledge forms particular to Architecture, Landscape Architecture and Urban DesignPraxis and Design Techniques is:
Professor Luis Callejas
Professor Sabine Müller
Professor Beate Hølmebakk
Professor Gro Bonesmo
PhD. Fellow Mattias Josefsson
Lektor. Hanna Birkeland Berg
26News
IMLA 20th Annivesary conference at AHO
Sabine Müller recipient of the 2026 Patrick Geddes fellowship at the University of Edinburgh
Luis Callejas named visiting professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Design
Mattias Josefsson is visiting professor at the Versailles Landscape Architecture School in autumm 2025
LCLA Office and MantheyKula featured in AMAG 35
Beate Hølmebakk in the jury for the new Design Museum in Helsinki
Beate Hølmebakk speaking at the 2026 UIA World congress of Architects in Barcelona
Gro Bonesmo new publication in press: Hvorfor ble det sånn? edited by Even Smith Wergeland
The studio “The Road” collaborates with Porsche Norway, studying the spaces of road and car culture in Norway
Publications
Drawing Matter. Luis Callejas
60 Metres, 60 degrees
A+U On the works of MantheyKula
Hydropolis. On watershed urbanism
Hvorfor ble det sånn. Gro Bonesmo
On Oslo’s large scale architecture
Hydropolis. On watershed urbanism
Hvorfor ble det sånn. On Oslo’s large scale architecture
Events
IMLA 20th Annyvesary conference at AHO
Sabine Müller lectures at the Edinburgh College of Art
Luis Callejas lectures at the Bartlett
Beate Hølmebakk lectures in Barcelona at UIA 2026
Gro Bonesmo lectures in Universidad Javeriana
Mattias Josefsson lectures in Versailles
Book launch at AHO in OsloTeaching
Studio Systems
Studio Form
Studio CAP
Studio TAP Content
Studio TAP Context
Elective Taste in Print
Elective Landscapes in Print
Praxis and Design Techniques addresses the development, experimentation, dissemination and scholarship on design techniques as forms of knowledge particular to the design fields.
Design techniques disproportionally emerge from within practice itself in the form of projects, a path for knowledge formation which is very different than in peripheral fields, where text-based scholarship can often completely contain, describe and transmit their techniques. The connection between practice and design techniques lies in the fact that it is often within practice that techniques are first tested and developed; projects contain and embody this knowledge, while later, scholarship on techniques contextualises, theorises, and eventually historicises these developments.The group’s vision is therefore not limited to undertake scholarly work on design techniques, but also to actively contextualise state-of-the-art techniques as they are currently used across fields within the school, frequently through master-level design studios, and to conduct inquiries (via curation, testing and dissemination) into the advanced techniques developed and deployed in selected practices outside the school. Design techniques are not just the tools employed in the development of projects, but also the intellectual enquires associated to the development of such tools, as well as the consequences to the fields in which the tools are used. Central to this inquiry is the question of authorship: to what extent techniques act as co-authors of architectural and landscape works, shaping outcomes in equal measure to intentions and contexts.The link between scholarship on practice and scholarship on design techniques is foundational to the group’s agenda. If practice constitutes the primary site where architectural and landscape knowledge is tested against reality, then design techniques are the operative means through which this knowledge is produced, stabilised, and transmitted. Techniques emerge first within practice, through specific projects negotiating form, technology, material systems, regulations and territories. By coupling these two forms of inquiry, the group understands techniques not as abstract methods detached from production, nor simply as tools relegated to the school’s technical courses, but as situated, evolving instruments embedded in both academic and professional work.Within the university, traditionally techniques and practice are addressed separately, as techniques tend to be associated to technical curriculums and supplementary courses, while practice is often associated to studio courses and the life after school. The aim of this group is to focus precisely on the link between technique and practice, as well as serving as an arena to test, disseminate, and curate the state-of-the-art techniques we should invoke from outside the school, that is, to deliberative test techniques without the pressure and inner workings of commercial practice.
People
Luis Callejas ( Director), Sabine Müller, Gro Bonesmo, Beate Hølmebakk, Mattias Josefsson and Hanna Birkeland Berg.
Praxis and Design Techniques
The Oslo School of Architecture and Design
Maridalsveien 29, 0175. Oslo, Norway
Email: praxis@aho.no
: @praxis