Klasse Klima

Archive of a Utopia: A West Berlin Youth Experiment in the Arctic A West Berlin Youth Experiment in the Arctic

WHAT: Workshop at wannseeFORUM Berlin

WHEN: 1–7 February 2026

PARTICIPATION IS FREE: this includes accommodation in 2–3 bed rooms, food: breakfast, lunch, dinner

DO YOU KNOW THE INTERNATIONAL NYKSUND PROJECT?
The International Nyksund Project (1984–1992) aimed to create an „international youth city“ where young people could shape their own futures. The project was led by students from the TU West Berlin. They experimented with practical technological solutions for sustainable living in Arctic conditions. Windmills, biogas systems and solar panels were constructed alongside the repair of abandoned buildings and the rebuilding of infrastructure. A grassroots community emerged through physical labor, collaboration and collective responsibility. The INP was groundbreaking for its time, pioneering practice-led pedagogies and peace work through dialogue and crosscultural exchange. A foundation called QUABS, led by social pedagogues, played an important role in involving the local population.
Over 3,000 young people from West Berlin and other parts of Europe travelled to the abandoned fisher village Nyksund in Vesterålen in order to save it from falling into the sea. In 1988, the INP received the EU‘s first Environmental Prize in the Cultural Heritage category. The jury commended the project for its consistent commitment, creative vision and rare combination of idealism and persistence. The initiative integrated environmental care, cultural heritage preservation, job creation and international understanding in a way that was ahead of its time.
By the early 1990s, the project began to decline due to internal and external challenges. Since then, the INP has remained largely overlooked and its history scattered across personal collections, with no formal archive established — until now.

ENCOUNTER _RESEARCH_EXCURSION_INTERVIEWS
The project invites young people from Vesterålen, Oslo, and Berlin to explore and reactivate the largely forgotten International Nyksund Project — an educational and ecological initiative launched in the 1980s by students of the Technical University of West Berlin. The Nyksund Berlin Artistic Archive (NBAA) serves as both the platform and the point of departure for revisiting this radical experiment, which combined youth participation, environmental education, and communal living.

POSSIBLE THEMATIC FIELDS
— The International Nyksund Project was initiated by students and developed within their theory–practice seminars. How did the project begin, and why was Nyksund chosen as its site?
—Who were the young people involved in restoring Nyksund, and who constituted the project’s target group?
—Who from the Øksnes community and Nordland county was involved in the project? In what ways did they support it, and what forms of criticism did the International Nyksund Project face?
—The founding of the Alternative List (1978) and The Greens (1979) fundamentally transformed public environmental awareness and had a lasting impact on environmental policy. Were there comparable movements in Norway at the same time?

TEAM
The workshop is lead by Katja Pratschke (Berlin) and Elisabeth Brun (Oslo/ Vesterålen), both NODES collective members, as well as Grethe Andreassen (teacher at VGS & author of „En annen verden“/ “Another world“), and klasse klima (arts design climate e.V.) Berlin.

SCHEDULE
Workshop – What You Can Expect
We will work together through research, encounters, and excursions. You will dive into archival materials and explore the historical background of the project, while discovering the themes and questions that matter most to you. By meeting time witnesses, you’ll hear personal stories and gain first-hand insights into the project’s history and why it is still relevant today.
Together, we will visit project-related sites across Berlin, connecting what we find in the archives with real places in the city. Based on these experiences, you will help develop the first set of interview questions. You’ll also learn practical skills in sound recording, interview techniques, podcast production, and sound design. Step by step, we will use these tools to jointly create a concept for an audio storytelling project.

NYKSUND RELOADED
The initiative NYKSUND RELOADED — launched by the artist NODES collective — takes care of the INP scattered archive of documents, images and video, and explores its renewed significance today. It creates links between Nyksund and cities like Berlin, as well as other rural and urban areas in Europe and beyond, where communities face similar ecological, cultural and social shifts.
„We believe that the energies and ideas of the INP carry a powerful potential to inspire new generations, especially youth, towards environmental enga- gement, knowledge exchange and a deeper sense of belonging across urban and rural divides.“

MORE INFO:
https://nyksundreloaded.org/
https://www.nbaarchive.org/nbaaarchive