Skogsformande - om bilden av skogen som rum eller resurs, och en jakt på en tredje dröm

This work investigates, from an architect’s perspective, images of the forest as a space and as a resource. In a personal exploration, the author’s own relationship to forests, as well as cultural and scholarly conceptions of what the forest is and means are examined and questioned, connected and contrasted. Seemingly uncomplicated popular images that are shaping our view of the forest as well as the living forests themselves, turn out to be both complex and conflicting. The idea of wood as an eco-friendly building material, and marketing slogans such as the “green factory”, are set up against the realities of industrial forestry and forest devastation. The sentimental human desire to regain or return to the forest is contrasted with our species’ history of dominating it. And the romantic idea of the forest as a static epitome of Nature is challenged by the shifting shapes of forests and the inescapability of human interference. Recurring throughout this inquiry is the problematic dual role of the forest as both space and resource; nature and culture. In an attempt to find a forest path between and beyond divisive dualities, the author is escorted on her journey by the philosophy of Donna Haraway. Haraway’s calls to “stay with the trouble” and “becoming-with” may inspire new alliances between humans, trees and the other life forms of the woods. Should we manage to discover the forests in ourselves, and vice-versa, we might also become able to create images and spaces that - instead of separation, exploitation and uniformity - are shaped by and shape connectedness, co-dependency and complexity. The written report of this work is supplemented by recorded talks with ten different professionals who in one way or another have strong relationships to the forest. The talks, which are available online, are cited throughout the written text and comprise an equal part of this work as the report itself