Frida Ellingsen Nordheim

Profile

Frida Ellingsen Nordheim (b. 1997, Ålesund) is an architect based in Berlin. She graduated from the Oslo School of Architecture and Design in 2025 and works between office practice, open competitions and independent research on timber reuse along the Norwegian coast. Her projects move between drawing, physical models and long-form documentation.

Contact

CV

Education

  • Master of Architecture (M.Arch)Diploma: “Tidevann — Working Waterlines”, with distinctionOslo School of Architecture and Design (AHO), Oslo2020–2025
  • Exchange SemesterInstitute for Experimental Architecture, Studio HochbauUniversität Innsbruck, Innsbruck2023
  • Summer School: Building With What Is ThereReuse and disassembly, in collaboration with Baukreisel e.V.Kassel2022
  • Foundation Year, Art and DesignDrawing, form and colourEinar Granum Kunstfagskole, Oslo2019–2020

Employment

  • Architectural AssistantHousing and adaptive reuse, LPH 1–4Feldkamp Ritter Architekten, Berlinsince 2025
  • Competition AssistantOpen competitions and study commissionsStudio Lohse Grimm, Berlin2024–2025
  • Teaching AssistantMaster studio “Timber Futures”, tutor Prof. A. RyggAHO, Oslo2024
  • InternPublic buildings, detailing and site visitsHem & Vidar Arkitektur, Oslo2022–2023
  • Workshop and Model Shop AssistantCNC milling, laser cutting, castingAHO Workshop, Oslo2021–2022
  • Carpenter’s AssistantBoathouse repair and cladding, summer seasonsSunnmøre Byggmesterlag, Ålesund2018–2020

Referrals

Skills

  • Rhinoceros 3D
  • Grasshopper
  • Revit
  • AutoCAD
  • ArchiCAD
  • Adobe InDesign
  • Adobe Photoshop
  • Adobe Illustrator
  • QGIS
  • V-Ray / Enscape
  • Blender
  • CNC milling
  • Laser cutting
  • Plaster and concrete casting
  • Model making, 1:200–1:1
  • Hand drawing
  • Analogue photography
  • Norwegian (native)
  • English (fluent)
  • German (B2)

Exhibitions

  • (upcoming) Coastal RepairGroup exhibition, curated by Baukreisel e.V.Zwitschermaschine, Berlin2026
  • Working WaterlinesDiploma exhibition, AHO WorksAHO Gallery, Oslo2025
  • Depot / DepositTwo-person exhibition with Lea MönnigKunstraum Sonntag, Berlin2025
  • Timber Futures — Studio ShowModels and full-scale mock-upsDoga, Oslo2024
  • Ny Norsk ArkitekturStudent section, catalogue contributionNasjonalmuseet — Arkitektur, Oslo2024
  • Hochbau JahresausstellungExchange semester reviewUniversität Innsbruck2023
  • Papirbredden Pavilion1:1 built structure, summer programmeDrammen2022
  • Twelve JointsModel shop open studioAHO Workshop, Oslo2021

Awards

  • Europan 18 — Runner-upSite: Trondheim Nyhavna, with L. Mönnig and T. AasEuropan Norge2025
  • AHO Diploma PrizeAwarded by the school’s diploma committeeOslo2025
  • Open Ideas: Reuse Depot — 2nd PrizeAnonymous open competition, 214 entriesBerlin2024
  • Statsbygg Student GrantResearch on coastal timber structuresOslo2023

Press

  • “What the Tide Leaves”, interview by K. BrandtBaumeister, No. 11Munich2026
  • “Diploma Season: Six Projects”Arkitektur N, No. 4Oslo2025
  • “Depot / Deposit”, exhibition reviewBerlin Art Link, onlineBerlin2025
  • “Studenter bygger med brukt tre”Byggeindustrien, onlineOslo2024
  • Papirbredden Pavilion, project pageArkitektnytt, No. 7Oslo2022

Last updated 26.08.16

Material

  1. 1.

    Tidevann — Working Waterlines

    2025

    Diploma, AHO — tutor Prof. Astrid Rygg
    Boathouse, quay and drying rack, Ålesund

    A repair strategy for three disused boathouses on the outer edge of Ålesund, drawn at the scale of the tide rather than the plot. The project keeps the existing timber frames standing, replaces only what has rotted, and adds a public drying rack that fills and empties with the fishing season. Documentation was made over four visits across one year, in drawings, salt-stained models and a written log.

    Placeholder image: long section through the boathouse and quay
    Long section, 1:100. Low tide condition.
    Placeholder image: model photograph of the drying rack
    Model, 1:20. Reused pine, brass pins.
    Placeholder image: site photograph of the three boathouses
    Site, February. Photograph by the author.
  2. 2.

    Reuse Depot

    2024

    Open ideas competition, 2nd prize
    with Lea Mönnig

    A storage and sorting hall for salvaged building components on a former goods yard in Neukölln. The hall is a single unheated volume with a heated strip along its north wall; everything else is shelving, light and circulation. Components arrive dirty and leave catalogued, so the plan is organised as a slow line from the delivery gate to the pick-up door.

    Placeholder image: interior perspective of the sorting hall
    Interior, sorting hall looking north.
    Placeholder image: axonometric of the shelving system
    Shelving axonometric, 1:50.
  3. 3.

    Fjøs

    2024

    Conversion study, Gudbrandsdalen
    with Hem & Vidar Arkitektur

    A study for turning a listed stone-and-log byre into a workspace for four people without touching the outer envelope. New elements are freestanding, dry-jointed and reversible: a stove, a stair, a glazed box that holds the warm room. The building keeps its draughts, and the drawings record which of them were left alone.

    Placeholder image: interior view of the freestanding warm room
    Warm room, freestanding within the byre.
    Placeholder image: plan drawing of the byre conversion
    Plan, 1:100. Existing in grey.
  4. 4.

    A Room for Drying

    2024

    Studio project, Timber Futures
    AHO, Oslo

    One room, tested eleven times. The project asks what a shared drying room can be in a housing block where nobody has a balcony, and answers with a tall top-floor space, a north window and a floor that can be washed. The eleven variants are documented at the same scale and photographed under the same light.

    Placeholder image: grid of eleven room variants
    Eleven variants, 1:50.
  5. 5.

    Nyhavna Commons

    2025

    Europan 18, runner-up
    with L. Mönnig and T. Aas

    A proposal for the harbour edge in Trondheim that keeps the working quay working. Housing is set back behind a continuous public strip, and the existing concrete slipways are left as they are, used for boats in winter and for everything else in summer. The entry was drawn at four scales, from the fjord to a bollard.

    Placeholder image: masterplan view of the harbour edge
    Harbour edge, situation 1:2000.
    Placeholder image: perspective along the public strip
    Public strip, looking east.
  6. 6.

    Cable Study

    2023

    Exchange semester, Studio Hochbau
    Universität Innsbruck

    A survey of nine mountain cable stations above the Inn valley, redrawn from measurements taken on site with a tape and a laser. The study reads the stations as machines that happen to have roofs, and proposes a tenth — a small waiting room that borrows the geometry of the eight it was measured against.

    Placeholder image: comparative elevations of nine cable stations
    Nine stations, comparative elevations 1:200.
  7. 7.

    Papirbredden Pavilion

    2022

    1:1 structure, summer programme
    Drammen, built with fifteen students

    A demountable pavilion built in nine days from graded spruce offcuts donated by a local sawmill, bolted so that it could be taken apart by the same crew that raised it. It stood for one season on the riverbank, was dismantled in October, and the members went back into the university store where most of them are still in use.

    Placeholder image: pavilion under construction on the riverbank
    Raising day, day six of nine.
    Placeholder image: completed pavilion seen from the river path
    Completed structure, from the river path.
  8. 8.

    Twelve Joints

    2021

    Workshop series, AHO Model Shop
    Oslo

    Twelve timber joints cut at 1:1 in the model shop over one term, each one drawn before it was cut and photographed after it failed. The series was made to learn the difference between a joint that is drawn and a joint that is made, and the notes under each photograph record how far apart those two things were.

    Placeholder image: twelve timber joints laid out on a workbench
    Twelve joints, laid out after testing.
    Placeholder image: detail of a housed dovetail in spruce
    Joint 07, housed dovetail in spruce.