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Panel discussion: 6:00 p.m. at Theresa Lang Community and Student Center, 55 West 13th Street
Opening Reception: Sheila Johnson Design Center, 66 5th Avenue @ 13th Street, following the lectures at approximately 7:15 p.m. What can rest stops, information centers, and observation decks tell visitors about a culture? The School of Constructed Environments at Parsons The New School for Design will explore this question when it presents Detour, lectures and a traveling exhibition documenting notable architecture and design along 18 Norwegian National Tourist Routes. The exhibition, which is sponsored by the Royal Norwegian Consulate General and presented in collaboration with the Architectural League of New York and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, will be on view December 4, 2009 through January 19, 2010 at the Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at Parsons. Detour features photography and architectural models of key works from Norway's National Tourist Routes Project initiated by the Norwegian Public Roads Administration, which encourages designers across the world to propose alternatives to the traditional tourist-route architecture, which tends to value function over aesthetic beauty. The architects and designers make structures that harmonize with the surroundings and reinforce travelers’ appreciation of the great outdoors and unspoiled countryside. A centerpiece of the exhibition is a large viewing chamber that lets visitors peek inside at a film that winds along Norway's scenic roads and bike paths and explores in detail some of the projects. The panel discussion will feature participating architects such as Karl Otto Ellefsen, an architect and principal of the Oslo School of Architecture and Design, who chaired the Quality Council for Concept and National Considerations, which oversaw the development of the National Tourist Routes Project. Also participating are the Norwegian architects Marthe Melbye of PUSHAK and Ellen Hellsten of Ghilardi+Hellsten Arkitekter.
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