Kirsten: ‘I worry that my cat, who’s used to being outdoors, might not like it at Enerhaugen’. Oslo, Norway
When she received her pack, Kirsten had just moved into her flat in one of the blocks at Enerhaugen Coop. Her photographs show many of her belongings still in boxes. When asked to send us a receipt, she selected a recent receipt from IKEA, where she had bought pillows, sheets, and storage boxes for her new home. Kirsten was excited about her new home, but she was also worried that her cat — whose hair she sent as a dust sample — would not like it in the block. In the end, it was not the cat that made Kirsten leave the block: as lockdowns became more frequent, she moved out to her partner’s house in a nearby town. Here she has more space, and they live close to nature. They could both work from home, and over time it has become easy to stay in the town. More recently, Kirsten said that she might be coming back to the block sometime soon, but she is not sure when. As time passes, it looks like her partner’s house might become more of a permanent solution.
The COVID-19 lockdowns affected the everyday lives of people in the blocks. This sometimes led to creative solutions: because of her noisy neighbours, one participant moved out to her boat on the fjord where she lived and worked. Many who had moved in during the pandemic said that life in the blocks was not what they had expected. Petter, a man in his thirties who moved in December 2020, said that although he would have liked to live further up the block for the better view, he also saw benefits with being further down. During the 2021 winter lockdowns, Petter worked from home and spent most of his time in the flat, so living on a lower floor made him feel more in touch with everyday life at the street level and other human beings.