Kjersti Aase Winjum

Wall, father and daughter
A book about dry masonry

Haakon Aase, Norway's foremost dry stone waller, lived in Litlebergen in Vestland. In Oslo, his dauther feels a strong responsibility to preserve her father’s legacy. She wants to learn how to build with stone.

Dry stone walling is one of humanity’s oldest construction techniques and has a long tradition in Norway. You clear the land of stones, and use them to build fences, walls, houses and bridges. Without mortar, just stone, completely dry.

In this book project, architect Kjersti Aase Winjum is the apprentice, and her father is the master craftsman. Together, they build a wall on his farm, using the same fundamental principles and materials that an Iron Age farmer used for his longhouse, the Incas used for their homes, and a medieval waller from the ancient Great Zimbabwe used to construct city walls.

The red thread in the book is the conversations between father and daughter – a kind of live broadcast of action-based knowledge transfer. This provides a unique insight into how craftsmanship traditions are practically passed down from generation to generation.

In addition to showcasing how action-based and intangible culture is transferred from generation to generation, the book offers a thorough depiction of both the craft, its history, and the future prospects of dry stone walling in Norway – while also being a portrait of one of Norway’s most skilled cultural craftsmen.

With photographs by Morten Spaberg and illustrations by Kristian Krogh-Sørensen.