Sustainable design approaches
When? Augsust-september 2025
What? Exam project within the masters program for Product Design at OsloMet.
Who? Mathilde Haugen Gamme, Magnus Skarstad Bogø, Baltasar Haugland & Lisa Bøe Drivenes.
INTRODUCTION
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The Oslofjord has long been central to the identity and everyday life of people in Oslo. Once a thriving ecosystem that offered recreation, food, and connection to nature, it is now facing severe ecological decline. Rising pollution, habitat loss, and overdevelopment have pushed the fjord beyond safe ecological limits, threatening both marine life and the human experiences tied to it.
Our project explores how design can contribute to restoring coexistence between people and marine life in Fjordbyen, an urban waterfront area symbolizing both Oslo’s growth and its environmental challenges. Using the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development as a foundation and the double diamond for our design process, we have analyzed Fjordbyen as a socio-ecological system where human activity and natural processes are tightly interlinked.
Through the story of our persona Mina Marina, a preschool teacher and resident of Sørenga, we connect the broader sustainability challenge to everyday life. Mina’s longing for her daughter to experience a healthy fjord reflects a shared public sentiment, a mix of nostalgia, worry, and hope. Her perspective helps us frame the problem not only as an ecological issue, but as a social and emotional one, where citizens feel disconnected from both responsibility and agency.
This project seeks to identify where and how design can intervene to
promote systemic change, focusing on improving information flows and shifting societal paradigms toward stewardship and coexistence. By combining sustainability frameworks and systemic mapping, we aim to develop insights and strategies that open the funnel of possibilities for a sustainable Fjordbyen.
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The Sustainability Challenge of fjordbyen
The sustainability challenge can be understood through the funnel paradigm, showing how societal activities degrade socio-ecological systems and narrow the room to maneuver for people and nature (Broman et al., 2019, pp. 24–28). As environmental capacity declines and pressures increase, opportunities for sustainable development shrink. The funnel walls represent pollution, habitat loss, overconsumption, and urban expansion, collectively eroding long-term well-being.
In Fjordbyen, the Oslofjord’s resilience is declining due to urban development, nutrient pollution, and biodiversity loss, while human demand for recreation and housing rises. Through our persona, Mina Marina, the impact becomes tangible: she witnesses unsafe waters, disappearing fish, and collapsing ecosystems, reflecting the narrowing space for ecological and social flourishing. Her wish to reconnect with a living fjord embodies the collective need to reverse this trend.
The funnel paradigm highlights the urgency of systemic change. The Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development provides a method to expand the funnel’s opening, where human and natural systems can coexist, and design can help reconnect citizens with their environment and catalyze regenerative actions for the Oslofjord system.
Introduction to The five level framework
Using a systemic design approach, our project applies the Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development (FSSD) to structure and guide our analysis and interventions. The FSSD provides a science based method for backcasting from sustainability principles, helping designers identify the gap between current practices and a sustainable future (Broman et al., 2012).
The Five Level Framework provides a structured approach for planning strategically within complex systems by organizing information across five levels: System, Success, Strategic, Actions, and Tools (Broman et al., 2019, pp. 38–41).
Using this model allowed us to connect scientific principles of sustainability with the emotional and behavioral aspects embodied by our persona, Mina Marina.
At the same time, Meadows (2008) identifies multiple leverage points for systemic intervention, ranging from shallow points such as information flows and rules, to deep points such as goals and paradigms. Our project investigates the leverage points within the Oslofjord system where design interventions could have the greatest impact.
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RESEARCH
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Field research: snorkeling in the Oslo Fjord
To better understand the marine life and situation of the Oslofjord, we went on a field study to Vollen marina to snorkel in an eelgrass field. Our instructor Heidi-Marie also gave a lecture about her first-hand experience of the fjords’ development during the past 20-30 years, as well as the importance of marine plant species such as eelgrass and kelp.
We learned the importance of eelgrass for the oxygen in the ocean floor, while being an important area for small fish to grow. Unfortunately, it dies from lack of sunlight. She also told us that mussels help filter the water, which can be seen as the water around them is often clearer. And about the several invasive species which are causing problems in the fjord, among these are: lurv, pacific oyster, asian shore crab and american lobster.
Eelgrass
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Lives on 1-6 meters depth
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Needs sunlight
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Works as a habitat for small fish to grow safely
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Works as a filtering system for the pollution in the water
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Dies and does not grow in shaded places, e.g. under bridges, harbors, piers, by high buildings and other shadow-causing constructions
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Highly affected by stress from noise and stressful movement, e.g. building projects near the shoreline or boat activity
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Highly affected by lurv because it creates shadow and can steal oxygen
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Although there are building bans along parts of the beach zone, the municipalities often grant dispensations that allow development and damage the vulnerable ecosystems
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Lurv
The Norwegian word lurv refers to a type of marine growth, specifically a shapeless mass of fine-threaded algae that accumulates and often indicates an ecological imbalance in coastal waters (Egeland, 2024).
Our first-hand experience with lurv
On our snorkelling excursion at Vollen Marina, we were warned that we might not be able to see the eelgrass or the bottom at all, because it had rained a few days prior and there was still a thick layer of algae we could not see through. Some of this layer being lurv. We had to dive quite deep to be able to swim through this and then see the eelgrass and bottom of the water. While doing this a few of us got lurv stuck to us and were able to bring some back onto land. We could then see how thick this could grow, and it made much sense that this can create shadows in the water that stops the growth of e.g. eelgrass.
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