Student Spotlight: Bert De Jonghe

During the Fall semester of 2023, Doctor of Design candidate Bert De Jonghe was based in Tromsø, Arctic Norway. He was fortunate to work as a University Lecturer in a third-semester MLA studio titled “Territorial Practices.” This studio was part of a joint master’s program in landscape architecture between the ‘Oslo School of Architecture and Design’ and ‘UiT The Arctic University of Norway.’ Led by Eimear Tynan and with the participation of 14 graduate students, the course focused on high-Arctic delta environments in and around the town of Longyearbyen on the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard.

Delta environments are undergoing rapid change in high-Arctic regions, primarily due to accelerating temperatures. The repercussions of a warmer climate include melting and receding glaciers, rising sea levels, disrupted weather patterns, and thawing permafrost. To address complex environmental change, a range of spatial and temporal views of Arctic territories was needed. This incorporated mapping Svalbard’s aerial, marine and terrestrial territory from political, climatic, ecological, environmental, and cultural standpoints. It also required site-specific engagement on a human scale where graduate students were asked to design with an Arctic delta landscape in the town of Longyearbyen, Svalbard, and to address present and future needs for human and non-human stakeholders.

In many ways, the studio aligned well with De Jonghe’s Doctor of Design project. His dissertation anticipates and frames the next chapter of settlement and infrastructural development in the high-Arctic. Departing as a work of synthesis and curation, the study is grounded in a historical understanding of Arctic settlements across a range of spatial, temporal, and cultural registers. This diverse, relational, and extensive reading of a plural Arctic is in each chapter linked to the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard. Norway has complete sovereignty of the island group. Yet, the Svalbard Treaty grants all 46 signatory states equal rights to conduct commercial and scientific research activities on the archipelago. This results in an intricate mix of interests and stakeholders, as well as a fertile ground for design experimentation, collaboration, and speculation in a high-Arctic context.