A place of silence

Sigurd Aarvig

"Silence is our architect", says senior lecturer Bodvar Schjelderup of "A Place of Silence".

At the moment, silence seems more abstract than ever, as we tootle north on the E6 in a low-flying 1974 VW "bubble" with the senior lecturer at NTH´s Dept. of Architecture behind the wheel. We are on our way to the "place of silence".

Our conversation on the importance of seeking peace and harmony takes place in fierce competition with the noise of the VW's engine in the course of a 60 mile drive to Sparbu in mid-Norway. This is where Schjelderup, with the good help of his colleague Hallvard Selmer and a number of Norwegian and overseas students of architecture, is in the process of turning the project "A place of silence": a little house in the forest with an upstairs meditation room, into reality. Surrounded by forest and green moss, but with a view of moors through its big windows and glimpses of the villages of Innherred over the tops of the pines.

"Silence is a condition we carry within ourselves. When you go from here to there, and there becomes here, then there is also silent, for you are there and you are silent". (A student)

It all started at the beginning of 1988 with a combined specialization and building course, a desire to build something that would last and thoughts of a process of maturation. "Colleagues told me that it is not the University's job to invite young students to mature. But I thought that it must be possible to teach in such a way that you help people to find solutions. Most student projects are based on activities that lead to a product, but for me, the process itself was most important", says Schjelderup. He wanted an overall aim for the course that would place its various aspects into a general framework - a framework that would have room for feelings, thinking and intuitive work. The overall keyword was silence .

"When surprise causes happiness, there is silence. Not "a "dead" or "timeless" silence, not a state of unconditional rest, but the warm silence of play, the silence of content and safe children, doing wonderful things." (B.S.)

"I often need silence. I find it difficult to concentrate when I am surrounded by noise, even visual noise. When you allow yourself to listen to noise, you realise that you become tired".

"Do you have a definition of silence".
"No, but there are many closely related words, such as peace, rest, belongingness. The approach to pure existence. Silence is what we seek in prayer and meditation, when we set our mood to zero".

"Has silence ever inspired architects?"
"Silence is precisely what has inspired the greatest works of architecture. There is often silence in the symmetry of buildings."

"After a long period of fumbling, there grew a realisation that silence can be found everywhere and in everything, and that it is a question of an attitude whereby buildings and details are created and understood, rather than any particular form of expression. An attitude that is related to sincerity, will and respect. This is what freed me to create whatever I wanted, while forcing me to do so with insight." (A student)

Bodvar Schjelderup is from the County of Nordmøre and he trained as an architect at NTH in the 50s. As well as practising as an architect, he worked in Stavanger's Department of Urban Planning before returning to Trondheim and the Faculty of Architecture

Although he is more than 60 years old he still burns with youthful enthusiasm for his ideas - and there are may of them. In his spare time he studies the Egyptian pyramids and publishes books from his own company on the pyramids and other subjects. He is keen to see the spiritual leadership of Nidaros Cathedral in Trondheim search for the grave of St. Olav, but without much response so far.

He also sees his place of silence in Sparbu in relation to places of significance in world history. The meridian that passes through the Bering Strait, diving East from West, passes through Rongve as well as a number of historic sites. He calls the summer course that he holds at Rongve "WE" - an abbreviation of West-East. In 1991 and 1993, student from the east and the west met here to carry on the project. One way of observing the importance of silence was to agree to work without saying a word for an hour and a half. "This was a very special experience," Schjelderup assures us.

His current aim is to persuade a foundation to take over the house in the forest and run it as a place for reflection and meditation.

"You sought peacefulness, but not the first peacefulness. For you could not make use of it - not now. You had experienced too much, you knew the world too well, had learned to maneouvre and find out about things. And the first peacefulness could no longer serve you. It was not even achievable. It was impossible to return to your mother's lap, not to speak of her womb." (B.S.)

Even in May patches of snow still lie between the trees as we arrive at Rongve and park the car. From the narrow village street we have to walk a few hundred metres to the place of silence, where the main building has now got doors and windows. It is more like a two-storey cabin, with the kitchen on the ground floor and an upstairs sitting room. Nearby, an outside toilet and a small building with a few bunk-beds are being built.

"Silence is our architect here," says Bodvar Schjelderup.
"What is a minute of silence worth in money?"
"No, we cannot put a price on silence. Just doing so distances us from it. It is immeasurable - silence is nothing."

"In some connections silence can also be frightening; it can be used in psychic torture." "When anxiety and terror come into the picture, everything is distorted. But good silence smiles".

"Unquiet is there, it lies in the lack of balance in the world, in its need and exploitation, in it ecological catastrophes, forgetfulness, alienation and lack of sense of history. Silence comes in between, it is understanding, wonder, pain and hope". (A student)

"Silence can be a powerful effect, as in film and music?"

The construction courses at the place of silence have not been without their problems. The idea has been to create a form of architecture that serves the cause of silence, but also to study stress and unstressing, noise and silence, work and rest. The participants' discussions of how turn abstract ideas into practice have been intense, and have lasted until the small hours. People have wept with frustration, but also because of locked-up feelings that the concepts of silence and peace have released.

Hallvard Selmer, lecturer at the Faculty of Architecture is the person who has often converted ideas into practical means of construction during the building process. "It has happened that I have left this place in anger and gone home after the hardest discussions," he says. Nevertheless, collaborating with Schjelderup on the silence project is something he sets great store by, and he has been involved since preparatory work started in 1987.

"In architecture, we must also find room for the inexplicable and unforeseeable, and there must be room enough for everyone to see and find them." (Architect Helge Hjertholm, examiner for the construction course at Rongve, 1988)

The idealist and the practical man at the place of silence in Rognve: Bodvar Schjelderup and Hallvard Selmer, both of NTH's Faculty of Architecture.

"Occupying yourself with something as difficult to measure as silence must make you something of a peculiarity at the Norwegian Institute of Technology?"

"I don't feel it in that way. Most people mind their own business. But if I cannot work in such a way that my soul is in the same gear as my body, I´m not interested in being here. I have to teach in such a way that I am still in one piece when I get home," says Bodvar Schjelderup. Although he has not found silence, he has found a place for silence. At any rate, he has sown the seeds of reflection along those around him. As one of the participants wrote at the end of the international summer school at Rongve, WE-93:

"Silence can be found. When people in one community can work and live together to reach one goal, the body and the soul can find it. Maybe this is such a place."