New cleaning list intervention - results
In this apartment people have been using the cleaning list according to the way I have been designing it!
Experiencing Bjerke student accommodation in Oslo
This is a tumblelog, kinda like a blog but with short-form, mixed-media posts with stuff I like. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more to read more about me.
New cleaning list intervention - results
In this apartment, people didn’t use the cleaning list yet but they have been starting communicating because of it. A simple white piece of paper and a new cleaning list created communication between the residents!
New cleaning list intervention - results
In this case people reacted to the cleaning list and someone wrote some information. Anyway they have been especially commenting it. Someone wrote that it is complicated toclean one thing each every week, while someone else wrote that it is self-explanatory and he/she invited the other people to follow it.
New cleaning list intervention - results
In this case one girl started to put information about herself.
New cleaning list intervention - results
In this apartment people didn’t start to use the cleaning list but they left some advice about how to clean
New cleaning list intervention - results
In this case it seems just like people have been playing with the post it, because there are no room numbers or information about the people living in the different rooms.
New cleaning list intervention - results
In this apartment someone has been interacting with it, putting some info about him/herself. Someone else commented that the cleaning list was ugly, suggesting tu put up something “artificially beautiful” or a poem.
New cleaning list intervention - results
In just one case there were no reactions at all.
Intervention 6-A good way to improve Bjerke would be…- final update
This is how the poster looked after circa 2 weeks. There are not many more responses than after few days.
The most common proposal to improve Bjerke are to open the common room, but also fixing the elevators and provide stuff for cleaning.
Yesterday I found this announcement attached to the kitchen’s door.
SiO ordered a bureau to clean our kitchen, which is going to clean what I defined “everlasting dirtiness”.
At first I thought that we had to pay for that, but after I realized that on the announcement it was not mentioned. So I thought that was nice from SiO and felt they cared a little.
Mapping out social interactions with people in the building. Final update
The final results confirm the tendency that I underlined from the beginning. The elevator is definitely the place where I met the most people. Also the mail boxes area is a place where many people go.
I spoke with people mostly in the elevator, once at the entrance door and once on the stairs. In the last two cases the conversation raised from accidental situations: in the first case the entrance door was blocked, while in the second there was a blackout.
A month of social interactions
During the last week, in my apartment I didn’t meet almost anybody. I just met Martin and I saw a new guy going out from the apartment. I got to know from Martin that Mani, the Iranian guy, was moving out too.
I feel this is not the way I would like to share an apartment with someone: people moving in and out without me knowing anything. I share common spaces with this people, I would like to know them and have at least a little communication. The best would be of course to be able to trust all of them and not having to lock the door every time I go to the kitchen.
Moving out
Today I moved out from Bjerke student house.
Yesterday I moved all my stuff and today I had to be moved out and gave back the keys by 12.00. So this morning I have been cleaning well my room and the toilet. Then I went to the SiO center in Blindern to give back the keys and the laundry card.
I didn’t like that much the attitude of SiO towards the students when moving out, and in general. Basically if you do anything wrong you pay. If you don’t bring back the keys on time you pay 300 nok, if your room is not well cleaned you will be charged 280 nok per hour, based on the hours they need to clean properly. I understand SiO is a big organization and need to be strict, but this made me feel SiO didn’t trust me and it didn’t contribute to make me have a good experience.
Once in Blindern I had to wait five minutes for my turn and I gave a look around. On the wall behind the employees I realized that there were some writing painted. They were words in Norwegian that are supposed to represent SiO as an organization. The words were: hope, friends, warm, easy, alive, activities, safety and welfare.
Actually I feel I cannot associate any of this words to my experience in SiO housing. But I have been living there just for a month and SiO is not just housing, they offer many other possibilities for students, so maybe these words fit more other parts of the organization?
Revealing my role
Yesterday I met Martin, one of the guys living in my apartment, in the corridor. We both were going to take the bus so we have been walking together.
I felt it was time to reveal my role, so I told him it was me carrying out a research through interventions in the building. He was quite surprised, but he appreciated I told him.
We have been discussing quite a lot about the project during the bus ride, so in the end I asked him if he wanted to participate to further developments. I hope he will.
Someone else started to use the elevator as a place to communicate.
The post-it is asking if someone found some keys that got lost.
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About
I am a master student at AHO - Oslo school of Architecture and Design, doing my diploma in service design. This blog is about my field studies in a SiO student accommodation in Oslo, which I would like to improve through better services.
You can contact me at: andreoli.alice@gmail.com
