ERV: European Research Vessel

Idea by

Oskar Johanson and Tobias Hentzer Dausgaard

London, United Kingdom

Tobias Hentzer Dausgaard is a Danish-American designer, editor and Diploma student at the Architectural Association, London, where he co-founded Critical Practice, a platform that facilitates discussions on the changing role of the architect. Oskar Frederick Johanson is a British-Australian designer and writer and holds RIBA Part I and Part II qualifications from the Architectural Association where, in his final year, he undertook research on London’s adaptability to flood risk.

Call for ideas 2020

A working ship, the ERV will function as both a site of research and a means of cultural exchange.

# Environment

New alliances

Traveling from city to city, the ERV will make use of Europe’s dormant network of inland and coastal waterways. This network will not only be a means of travel but a subject of research itself; Europe’s waterways are at the frontline of the pressures of climate change and social justice — it is critical they are understood.

Its crew will not simply be a crew but an association: an inter-institutional group of students and academics, whose collaboration fosters alliances between organisations across Europe, and whose combined skill sets can produce compelling research and public engagement in whichever ports the ship calls.

This association will be a cross-disciplinary group — geologists, architects, lawyers, artists, geographers, journalists, planners, and economists. We know that Europe is strongest when its citizens work together. Only with such intra-continental associations — of which the ERV will be just one — will the greatest challenges of our age will be met.