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NTNU – THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND FINE ART
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Academic groups at the Faculty that have potential
for international academic excellence
A key point of discussion in the preparation of the strategy for
2011 to 2020 has been the Faculty’s future priorities and com-
mitments to its disciplines, as well as defining good processes
for setting priorities and areas of academic concentration. The
Faculty would like to build further on the academic groups that
have already achieved the highest international standards,
evident at the Centre for Zero Emission Buildings and the Centre
for Real Estate Development and Facilities Management. At the
same time, the Faculty will focus on academic groups with special
potential for development of international excellence in their sub-
ject areas. A number of groups in disciplines at the Faculty fulfil
needs for national and international competence. They are led
by experts in their field who have a high level of engagement and
valuable networks. They have great relevance for the Faculty’s
teaching and for development of the Faculty’s disciplines and sub-
ject areas. The following academic groups have been identified as
relevant to the Faculty’s priorities and commitment of resources:
> Sustainable Urban Development
> Art and Common Space
> Housing Form and Housing Quality
> Theory of Architecture and Art
> Wood as a Building Material
> Light and Colour in Architecture
> Building Preservation
> Building Processes
All these communities are important for the Faculty, but they vary
greatly in terms of academic focus, size, and scope of outreach
activities. This creates the need for various measures to promote
further professional development, profiling and clear communi-
cation, in the context of the Faculty’s other activities in education
and innovation. Defining these measures will be an important
task in the preparation of the action plans for the Faculty and
departments for the coming years. Through targeted cooperation
with other faculties at NTNU and/or with other leading interna-
tional and national communities of expertise, two to three of our
academic groups can be developed further to achieve top-level
international rankings. At the same time, the Faculty will make
room for the emergence of new ideas and initiatives that chal-
lenge the familiar and explore the unknown.
Externally Funded Activities andWork to Establish a
National Architecture Research Programme
Approximately 25% of the total revenue of the Faculty is externally
funded – sponsored activity and activity funded on a commission
basis (”BOA”). Projects funded by the Research Council of Norway
make up the largest proportion of this externally funded project
portfolio. The Faculty is actively working towards expanding this
portfolio, including projects funded through the EU Framework
Programme.
Externally funded activity is an important forum for the profes-
sional development of the Faculty, the application of knowledge
and active collaboration with the professions, the construction
industry, and the public sector. Such projects help to develop net-
works and partnerships. Externally funded projects also provide
opportunities for academic promotion, outreach, dissemination
and scientific production, and lay the foundation for financing
doctoral degrees and academic posts.
In line with the growing internationalization of all research and
development work, there is growing competition with other
knowledge communities for external research funding. The Fac-
ulty would like to meet this challenge through long-term develop-
ment of good and robust academic groups of high international
quality. At the same time, the Faculty’s academic communities
need to be proactive in formulating their research interests in na-
tional and international programmes of research and education.
Only to a small extent are the Research Council’s programmes
and priority areas directed at the entire breadth of the Faculty’s
professional activities. The Faculty is therefore working to estab-
lish a national Architecture Research Programme.
Artistic and Architectural Activities at the Faculty
The Faculty’s profiled architects and artists contribute actively to
artistic and architectural activities, both in Norway and abroad.
Architectural and artistic activities are development-oriented and
experimental, where knowledge, skills, and understanding of
artisanship are acquired through practice and reflection. .
Activities in art are centred on the Faculty’s Department of Archi-
tectural Design, Form and Colour Studies, and at the Trondheim
Academy of Fine Art (KiT). It is characterized by an open and ex-
perimental approach, and a work form that cuts across technical
and traditional boundaries. The architectural and artistic activities
form an important basis for the Faculty’s production of works, and
are on an equal footing with research in the allocation of resourc-
es. KiT is working to incorporate collaboration with other faculties
in its artistic work. The Faculty has also initiated collaboration
with the Faculty of Humanities for the exchange of experience and
development of common interest areas.