NoReV – Nomadic Restoration Vehicle, 2005

This is a manual and design toolbox for setting up a mobile restoration service. With a step-by-step process and fill-in-forms the manual slowly grows and becomes a logg during the journey with collaborative notes, documenting in transparency.

NoReV – Nomadic Restoration Vehicle project has taken its first shape during the NIFCA Suomenlinna residency in March 2005. This project is a cross-over design task and practical exploration of possibilities and design of an itinerant vehicle, which aims to establish possible solutions for increasing the life quality by supporting local communities, in the deteriorated inner city areas. This support includes providing the inhabitants technical assistance, training, material and tools via itinerant vehicle. Main aim is to establish a process model based on NoReV (Nomadic Restoration Vehicle) to search for its possible contribution for the areas where people have different priorities than repairing and painting their houses, which would have a dramatic affect in long term for the housing structures. NoReV is wandering around the streets as if an ice-cream car for delivering its knowledge and material for those who are in need and are interested.

From the questions of ‘what if Oranssi was mobile? Or Is Nomadic Restoration Vehicle Possible?’ the idea of establishing a itinerant vehicle instead of a fixed organizational center has came up with the basis;
• to provide equal access to the service of technical assistance and training,
• to be small and less bureaucratic within the process as much as possible,
• to provide flat hierarchy, practical solutions with less structural costs,
• to empower the communities in their place in their structure and
• by being based on a local community to focus in means of labor, resource and targeted aims and population.

As a functioning example of participatory housing with a unique background, Oranssi in Helsinki-Finland has been the initial inspiration for Nomadic Restoration Vehicle Process. Small scale interventions like mending leaking pipes, fixing windows and doors would have a dramatic affect in long term for the well being of housing structures and increasing environmental and life quality. According to Hamdi, Local and Central Governments are becoming poor to directly intervene to deteriorated areas for restoration, upgrading or redevelopment. (N. Hamdi, Housing without Houses) For those areas, NoReV service will provide sustainable interventions, since it includes enablement by training the inhabitants. This model and schema is open to change and also encouraging the local groups to modify it according to their needs, local circumstances, financial conditions, social and physical structure. This manual is arranged as main tasks on a timeline and each task field includes sub tasks such as organizing meetings and workshops or giving initial training. Seeing the existing tenants as the target population and cultural heritage as a sustainable source for the cities, this project is seeking for practical solutions for the areas where the deteriorated historical wooden houses used as low-income housing.

Evaluation of the possible scenario of NOREV processes are based on individual and group meetings with people who took part in Oranssi experience in different levels and/or people who are working on Oranssi experience. As a final product for this phase we have produced a draft manual which is including all the possible stages for establishing NoReV in a community, in the form of a step by step booklet for the NGO or local group can follow.

Next phase for NoReV is the implementation experiments in two locations Istanbul/ Turkey and Tallinn/ Estonia, of both we hope to make the possible connections in 2006. Main idea for the upcoming applications is to test the applicability of such a service in different mediums and under varying conditions, contributing the life and environmental quality with a small intervention and hopefully to give an inspiration for other people’s works.

[Downloads]
Manual for Nomadic Restoration Vehicle
- booklet/screen
- booklet/print (copy doublesided and staple in back - with ISBN)

“In Tools We Trust: Implementing Local Currency to Oranssi Community” prepared for Helsinki University /urban interventions summer school, August 2004.
- paper

“Unfolding the service: Implementing a Participative Nomadic Restoration Vehicle Service for Empowerment of the Communities” that is presented in ENHR June 2005 in Reykjavik.
- paper

(Oranssi has started as a squatting group in 1990s in Helsinki pointing at a big problem of affordable housing for the young at that time. After two years they’ve decided to repair an old house financed by bank credit and carried on with the future tenants. Their first two houses were rented for long term from the municipality who were planning to demolish them. After first successful application of changing the layouts of houses and repairing and restorating with future tenants , they had more offers from municipality. Today Oranssi a group producing low cost rental housing for the youth in Helsinki, (http://www.oranssi.net) has 75 houses at different locations in Helsinki where everybody who are under 25 and in urgent need of housing can apply. Main administration is carried by three half time employee but whole Oranssi tenants are welcomed in the board with all decisions related to Oranssi houses and the firm. Oranssi houses’ rent is half of the medium Helsinki rent and they have a close contact with the tenants.)