{"id":836749,"date":"2026-03-19T18:37:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T18:37:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/836749\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T18:37:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T18:37:25","slug":"amphibious-dwellings-in-the-norwegian-fjords-by-dionisio-gonzalez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/836749\/","title":{"rendered":"amphibious dwellings in the norwegian fjords by dionisio gonza\u0301lez"},"content":{"rendered":"

contemporary cabins in the norwegian fjords<\/p>\n

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In \u2018Wittgenstein\u2019s Cabin\u2019, visual artist Dionisio Gonza\u0301lez<\/strong><\/a> envisions a group of fictional<\/a><\/strong> dwellings set on the Norwegian<\/a><\/strong> fjords that drift between philosophical refuge and experimental habitat. Working across photography, digital manipulation, and architectural fiction, the Spanish artist has long focused on reimagining forms of living in overlooked or extreme contexts, from informal settlements to climate-exposed landscapes. In this series, Gonz\u00e1lez draws from Austrian-British philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein\u2019s remote 1914 cabin, planned and built in 1914 on the steep shore of Lake Eidsvatnet in Skjolden, to extend its logic of withdrawal into a fluid, unstable setting where architecture meets water and speculation meets reality. The resulting amphibious dwellings<\/a> <\/strong> operate as prototypes for inhabitation and reflection, translating a historical model of solitude\u00a0into a speculative architectural language shaped by present-day conditions.<\/p>\n

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\u2018There is something revealing and emphatic in Wittgenstein\u2019s Norwegian cabin, and that is the confrontation, the frontality with the fjord, with the water lodged behind the action of the glaciers,\u2019 explains Gonza\u0301lez.<\/strong> \u2018Wittgenstein worked on his studies of logic on a boat his friend David Pinsent sailed in the Sognefjord. This fact, this \u201cevent\u201d of the research, the learning and memorizing on a small aquatic means of transport, which serves as a writing desk, led me to consider the relationship of architecture with water, and of philosophy as an \u201camphibian\u201d endeavour. How would Wittgenstein frame that organic building, that architectonic construction in a liquid medium with the present media? What would contemporary cabins be like in diffracting settings of propagating waves, such as the Norwegian fjords?\u2019\"rethinking<\/p>\n

all images courtesy of dionisio gonza\u0301lez\u00a0<\/p>\n

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fictional aquatic architecture by dionisio gonza\u0301lez\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

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With Wittgenstein\u2019s Norwegian cabin as a starting point, Gonza\u0301lez analyzes the early structural plan of architecture, the wooden cabin, as a space for reflection and seclusion.\u00a0\u2018The acoustic properties of wooden houses are excellent, as wood absorbs any waves it receives,\u2019 notes the Spanish artist<\/a>.<\/strong> \u2018The wooden house is a silent house. The walls of Heidegger\u2019s cabin in the black forest were (are) cladded in wood shingles.\u2019\u00a0 At the same time, Gonza\u0301lez singles out the confrontation with the water and the surrounding landscape in Wittgenstein\u2019s cabin, and translates it into fictional examples of contemporary aquatic architecture.<\/p>\n

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Wittgenstein\u2019s studies of logic on a boat his friend David Pinsent sailed in the Sognefjord inspired Gonza\u0301lez to explore the relationship between architecture and water. \u2018\u201cAm Anfang war die Tat\u201d (\u201cin the beginning was the deed\u201d), Goethe\u2019s verse in Faust, which Wittgenstein quoted with approval, was perhaps the rubric, the statement of all of Wittgenstein\u2019s late philosophy. And perhaps, too, the principle from which to face the challenge of the construction of an aquatic retreat,\u2019 says the artist. \u2018Ultimately the Austrian philosopher would say, am I not getting closer and closer to saying that in the end logic cannot be described? You must look at the practice of language, then you will see it.\u2018 That you will see it is the function of this series. That recreating a world of possibilities, complex but anchored in logic, which can be conceived as real.\"rethinking<\/p>\n

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wittgenstein\u2019s historic model adapted to present day<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Explaining more about the context behind \u2018Wittgenstein\u2019s Cabin\u2019, Dionisio Gonza\u0301lez says: \u2018In 1914, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) sketched and planned the construction of a wooden house on the steep shore of lake eidsvatnet in skjolden, beside the sognefjord in norway. In that small space, on a slope, Wittgenstein had found the tranquillity he needed to work ascetically, like a hermit, on his studies of logic. After deciding on the location in which to \u2018ensconce\u2019 himself, in order to disappear and concentrate on the work of thinking and contemplation, he built a house and a small jetty. To access it, one had to cross the lake by boat or walk over the ice during the winter months. it was built on a stone platform \u2013 typical of local architecture \u2013 and in wood, with horizontal planks, a slate roof and rooms at different heights; one of its facades was asymmetrical.\u2019<\/p>\n

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World War I delayed Wittgenstein\u2019s return to Norway until 1921, and his last visit to Skjolden took place in the September holiday of 1950, when he was convalescing, and suffering from prostate cancer. There, with his friend Ben Richards, he studied Frege\u2019s foundations of arithmetic. He had intended to come back again, and purchased a ticket on a steamship that was due to set off from Newcastle to Bergen in December, but by then he was too weak to embark on the journey. As Heidegger said, we are only capable of inhabiting on the basis of rootlessness.<\/p>\n

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\"rethinking
contemporary aquatic architecture from \u2018wittgenstein\u2019s cabin\u2019 by dionisio gonza\u0301lez<\/p>\n

\"wittgenstein's
amphibious dwellings floating on norway\u2019s fjords<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"contemporary cabins in the norwegian fjords \u00a0 In \u2018Wittgenstein\u2019s Cabin\u2019, visual artist Dionisio Gonza\u0301lez envisions a group of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":836750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,239790,77,239791,58162,16,15,239389],"class_list":["post-836749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-design","tag-dionisio-gonzalez","tag-entertainment","tag-fictional-architecture","tag-floating-architecture","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-utopia-then-and-now"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116257295423068013","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/836750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}