DIPLOMA PROGRAM FALL 2018

Diploma candidate: Magdalena Alfredova

Institute: Architecture

Main supervisor: Jørgen Tandberg

Second supervisor: -

External supervisor: -

Company cooperation:

Title of project: “ A fish processing facility: Sørvær”

FISH PROCESSING FACILITY: SØRVÆR - BY MAGDALENA ALFREDOVA Fig. 1 Lofoten 1971, Robert Capa. Sjark vessels between 25-35 foot are still very common in small fishing villiages along the Norwefian coast.

1 “Et land mot ishavet, som alle gutter langs kysten drømte om å få komme til. Der ble det øvd storverk. Der kunne en vinne rikdom, der kappsegla karene med døden. En folkevandring hadde søkt der opp gjennom mange hundre år,og en god del bleiv på sjøen. Noen kom heim med en blank skilling, men de fleste segla livet igjennom i fattigdom. Og likevel – dit opp søkte de igjen, år etter år, den ene slekta etter den andre. Det var eventyret. Dit måtte de. Og nå var det hans tur. Nå så han Lofoten.”

From the book “The last of the Vikings” by Johan Bojer, 1921

2 SUPERVISOR

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Jørgen Johan Tandberg

THESIS

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In 2013 the Norwegian Coastal Administration registered a total of 673 fisheries, 93 of which are facilities located along the coastal line of and . The project will investigate these industries in transition and the architectural opportunities they have.

Today the locally based fish production is economically challenged by the growing industry of fish farming and large fishing vessels with production on board. Because of its incapability of competing, the differences of these industries will only diverge further. The traditional industries along the coast decreases in size, but survives focusing on high quality products and local traditions (Fig.2).

The project will propose a strategically located fish processing facility, capable of a year-round operation in a local context. This requires rethinking of the fish handling facility’s identity. The project will be designed as a one-off, with qualities serving as an example in how industrial typologies along the coast can be adapted for modern production methods, and how they can be reorganized for the future.

THE PROJECTS AIM

- Finding suitable and realistic location for a new handling facility, based on statistics and analysis of a local context - A proposition for internal organization of production and additional areas - A construction proposal with emphasis on materials and detailing

3 PROGRAM

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A FISH PROCESSING FACILITY

1. Area for unloading and transportation

2. Production: Area for sorting, weighting and washing Area for heading and cutting Area for filleting, scaling and trimming Area for weighing and packaging Area for freezing (tunnelfreezer,freezer,coldstorage) 3. Area for dry storage (packaging)

4. Area for administration

+ Service programs

BACKGROUND

CHALLENGES

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The whitefish industry is an outcome of post-war optimism where new strategies for modernization and industrialization led to economical investments in Northern with strong public participation. This gave rise to industrial specialization where clip fish and dry fish became a commodity for export. Along the coast companies established new businesses making Norway world famous.

However in the 70`s these industries were challenged. Because they were small and locally formed, they weren’t economically profitable half of the year (Fig.4). Reduced access to raw product resulted in fewer jobs and fewer industries. This downside lead to necessary reorganizations, where several small productions were assembled together in order to maintain activity. In the period between 1995 and 2007, 1/3 of all registered compa¬nies (Fig.5) were replaced by fewer but centralized companies. In the media, we often hear about these big modern industries and their conversion processes. Small independent businesses are rarely mentioned despite the fact they account for more than 95 percent of the total fishing industry.

4 DEVELOPMENT

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Fishing was the main reason for settling along the Northern coast of Norway. Less than 40 years ago, the fish processing facility had a vital role for these local communities. The industry was not only seen as a production line, but also a representative of the local communal spirit. Traditions were created (Fig.6) symbolizing a favorable future for the nation. The architectural aesthetic of the traditional fish processing facility was to unify the harbor and village, rather than stand out and dominate (Fig.7).

Today such harbor industries are often created by similar industrial modules that can easily be recognized anywhere in the world (Fig.8 & Fig.9). However with fish handling and receiving facilities there are few characteristics that deviate from the typical production halls. The first one is the site, the building always lies at the harbor, strategically placed for direct access to the fishing vessels. The second is the dock, crucial for the unloading activity and traditionally viewed as an extension of the production line (Fig.10). The third is immediate access to road infrastructure, from where the fish can be distributed.

APPROACH

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The approach for the project will be to study small fishery villages in the counties of Troms and Finnmark, their progression and development. Specifically looking into received data from “Norges råfisklag” in how activities of the fishing industries have changed over the past 20 years. By analyzing and comparing them with each other, they will be used to develop a demographical understanding of today’s situation, as well as pointing out a potential region and a building site for the project.

Part of the process will be to visit regions with facilities that have had a stable growth in production through a longer period of time. What kind of influence do they have on the regions nearby? The strategy is to visit a variety of facilities and study their production line within their architecture, which is already challenged by the growing requirements for food production.

The diploma project will try to rethink small existing fish processing facilities (Fig.11 & Fig.12) and how to maintain local activity despite short fishing seasons. The final result, a modern fish processing facility with local production, will form an industrial topology with emphasis on materials and construction method.

5 SITE

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New and advanced methods of fish processing are crucial in satisfying the demand for efficiency. Increased consumer expectations regarding quality and stricter legal regulations calls for cold and hygienic food processing (Fig.13 &Fig.14). These improvements include robots that lift pallets and boxes, fully automated production line and digital registration of the raw material. However these robots are mostly implemented on big scale facilities in larger density areas (Fig.15).

The production today is no longer bonded directly to the nearest fishing areas, this is partially because of the modern fleet which can store and handle fish on board. While smaller sized vessels like the traditional “Sjark” (Fig.1) are still commonly used along the coast. These are locally driven and unlike the larger vessels, they can’t survive at sea for longer periods of time. Once the fish is caught they need to return and unload at the nearest facility. Most of the receiving facilities in the small villages today are too small and inefficient to even have a full production line. They serve as cold stockrooms for the larger facilities, depending on the demand for raw product.

The placement of the facility is to be determined within the borders of Troms and Finnmark county. On the foundations of my analyses of both counties, I have chosen to look closer at and municipality because they both serve each of their extremes. The municipality of Loppa is well known for lacking proper road infrastructure, with the exception of Øksfjord which has road connections to . According to “Norges Råfisklag” none of the villages in Loppa municipality has a full year production.

Unlike Loppa, Hasvik municipality lies on the island of Sørøya, and is fully dependent on the ferry boat to connect with the mainland. Hasvik has three registered full-year manufacturers. One of them is , called “Lille Lofoten”. It attracts boats all the way from Lofoten because of its near proximity to the Cod and Pollock fishing fields. Since Loppa and Hasvik are so different, I visited four of their existing production facilities: Øksfjord in Loppa municipality and Hasvik, Breivikbotn and Sørvær in Hasvik municipality.

The existing facilities are focusing on different fish products. Øksfjord and Breivikbotn has the most spacious and modernized facilities. Hasvik functions mainly as a cold storage for Breivikbotn 20 km away, which is owned by the same company. Not far from the fish facility at Hasvik lies the pier where the ferryboat connects directly to Øksfjord in under two hours. Hasvik also has a small airport (landing strip), currently used only three times a day and in case of emergencies.

6 The production facility at Sørvær is remotely situated and in the worst condition compared to the others, but is better located in relation to the fishing fields and has a harbor able to receive the larger vessels. Sørvær is directly linked by road to Breivikbotn and Hasvik. Since 2005, Sørvær has had a large drop in its population, with under 200 permanent residents the area is no longer counted as a village (Fig.3). With its landscape, the place stands out from other fishing villages, built on three islets where agricultural farming is impossible next to fishing.

After visiting these four facilities, I decided to choose Sørvær as a site for my project. The existing facility, built in the ‘50s, has production spread over two floors which is both inconvenient and unhygienic according to the new standards set by the Norwegian Food Safety Authority.

The project will investigate how a new physical intervention could contribute to a small traditional community, where the same improvements of big scale facilities can be made, but on a smaller scale. Securing locally produced commodity by specializing in fish processing. Locally produced food can also be viewed as a bargaining chip for other industries such as tourism, where the interest in small northern villages is growing.

7 Fig.2 Fish that can be caught in Nortern Norway, From the book “Norges fisker” by Alf Wollebæk, 1924

8 “An urban area has at leats 200 residents where assuming that houses are no further than 50 meters apart and at least 75% of the inhabitants have an employment in other industries than Land and forestry production.”

Fig. 3 Definituion of urban agglomeration, from the book “Norges tettbygde steder 1875-1950” by Hallstein Myklebosts

9 Fig.4 From Fiskedirektoratet. Annual cycle for fishing activities recording to differend species.

10 The industrial sectors in the fishing industry in Northern- Norway and Northern- Trøndelag.

Number of employees in the Norwegian whitefish industry as an example of the employment in one of the main sectors between the period 1995- 2007.

Fig.5 Both figures are from the repport “Fishing industries in and Northern Trøndelag: Changes in structure, employs settings and production” from 2009, Nofima

11 Fig.6 Tobias(10) from the documentaty “Tungeskjærerne” in Myre fish handling facility cutting cod tongues. Film by Solveig Melkeraaens.

12 Fig.7 Typical fish handling facilities in Norway

13 Fig.8 Modern Fish handling and Pallet factory in Arnøy.

14 Fig.9 Industrial Facades by Bernd and Hilla Becher,1972–1995, 9 gelatin silver prints.

15 Fig.10 Berntsenbruket in February, Myre 1977 (from “Fiskevær” by Karl Otto Ellefsen & Tarald Lundevall, 2017)

16 Fig.11 Typical small scale fish receiving facility, without own production. “ fiskemottak AS” in Sildevika, Grovfjord

17 Fig.12 Simple layout of a fish processing facility

18 Fig.13 Older methods of production where fish is handled, skinned and packed by hand. The work provides employment for the locals but it is inefficient. Modern methods of production are more advanced, the main labour is performed by the machines, saving time and money.

19 Fig.14 German manufacturer “Wittenstein”, produces Corrosion Resistant and Hygienic Design products for a hygienic and sterile automation process in fish and meat production.

20 Fig.15 A Dynatec Robot at Brødrene Karlsen AS in Husøy, . Doing continuous heavy lifting of boxes with fish.

21 REFERENCES

Johan Bojer, 1921, novel “The last of the vikings”

Karl Otto Ellefsen & Tarald Lundevall, 2017, book “ Fiskevær. Myre på yttersiden”

Alf Wollebæk, 1924. Hefte “ Norges fisker”

http://www.rafisklaget.no/portal/page/portal/NR/Salgavfangst/Fiskemottak http://www.fiskeridir.no/ http://www.fhf.no/villfisk/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3038323/ http://www.wittenstein.co.uk/hygienic-design/ https://dynamic.as/ https://issuu.com/dynatec/docs/robotanlegg_for_lakseindustrien https://www.nofima.no/filearchive/Rapport%2010-2009.pdf http://fangstbehandling.no/?p=16 https://tv.nrk.no/serie/brennpunkt/MDDP11001516/10-11-2016 https://tv.nrk.no/serie/den-leiken-den-ville-han-sjaa/PRHO65004107/sesong-1/episode-1 https://fiskeribladet.no/nyheter/?artikkel=29864 https://fiskeribladet.no/ https://www.lofotposten.no/

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