29 March 2018

Join the Biotope team

UPDATE: The positions are filled 
(We are currently not in search for the below mentioned collegues. However: If you have awesome architect / technical design skills, and is very keen to work with us... let us know)

Biotope is an architecture office dedicated to nature. Through architecture we aim to bring people and nature closer together. We typically work with a wide range of small scale architecture projects, fascilitating for nature experiences. We specialise in outdoors living, birdwatching, nature photography, nature conservation and ecotourism projects. We are not your generalist architecture office working with everything from urbanism, housing to cultural buildings, etc. We love nature and we aim to work with organisations, companies and people that are passionate about nature. As such most of our work happens within the nature conservation and ecotourism scene. Through our work we aim to promote wildlife and nature, but we also see our work as being a great opportunity to positively contribute in rural communities such as Vardø where our office is based. In many ways we think of ourselves as destination designers and developers rather then architects for small scale buildings. We are a niche office, but that does not mean being narrowly focused in our work. In fact we work with everything from architecture to designing books, developing tourism concepts, branding, marketing, video productions, digital strategy, writing books and much more. We do not only provide architectural solutions for our clients we also help contextualise and promote both sigle architecture projects and onwards to destinations development projects. In many cases we do not wait for commisions to appear, but we initiate projects where we see possibilities. 

Vardø town and the Biotope office (currently under construction).



The Biotope office. We recently bought this building that for years was a fishermans workshop. Now we are in the process of adding a gallery, studio and a shop to the office upgrade.



JOBS



We are first and foremost looking for an architect og technical designer to join us in Vardø, preferably on a long term basis. We think we have found the dream place to live and work from, and now we hope to find a colleague that want to live in Vardø and be a part of building the office and make more good things happen! Although we are based in Vardø Biotope is currently doing projects in 9 countries, and we aim to build our international presence too.
  1. Architect / technical drawing
  2. Manage the Biotope UK office
  3. Manage the Biotope Iceland office
  4. Writer / videographer / consultant
If you want to know more about Biotope and our work it is very easy to get a sense of what we do through our various social media platforms. A good place to start is to read this interview with Biotope CEO Tormod :

Check out our weekly vlogs posted on Biotope Facebook and Biotope Youtube.

Architect / techical drawing:
We are now looking for an architect (or someone skilled in technical drawing) to work with us at our office in Vardø. You do not have to be a keen birder, nature photographer or a hard core wildlife enthusiast, but an appreciation for nature is important. As is a desire to be a part of a new kind of architectural practise. Too often architecture happens at the expense of nature. We aim to be an office that promote and protect nature, and we believe that good architecture can be a key part of that. We are looking for architects or technical designers that want to move to arctic Norway and work at our office in Vardø. However we are thinking long term and in (the unlikely) case you do not fall in completely in love with this small fishing town in the arctic, and decide to settle in the north, we hope you are the person that would want to continue to work with us in our up and coming UK based Biotope office. In short: we are looking for someone to work with long term. 

Biotope designed gapahuk (shelter & fireplace) in Varangerbotn, Finnmark.

UK office manager (UPDATE: POSITION IS FILLED!! See www.biotope.org.uk):
Again, like mentioned above, you do not have to be a birder, but a passion for nature is important. Biotope already have several projects built in UK and more are in progress. We believe that we have a lot to contribute with in the UK nature conservation and ecotourism scene. Equally we are ourselves hugely inspired by the same UK scene. The nature conservation efforts by both organisations and individuals in UK is of a wide ranging character and has become a culture and a large community in itself, with conservation organisations, wildlife artists, bird id specialists, presenters, bird ringers, sound recordists and so much more. But not architects. We aim to contribute as architects that speak up for nature and help promote nature through our work. We find the making and management of UK nature reserves to be very innovative, however we do miss innovation and variety in the birding architecture or bird hides / nature viewing shelters in the same reserves. With more requests from UK we think that we have a lot to offer and contribute with. Now we aim to set up a Biotope office in UK, and we are looking for the right person to help run the UK office. We hope to find someone with great project management skills and a drive and desire to establish a new and unique kind of architectural practise in UK.  We are flexible about where in UK, but preferably somewhere near good birding!

Biotope wind shelter at the RSPB Wallasea nature reserve in Essex, UK.

Iceland office manager:
Biotope is working on a wide range of projects in Iceland. These are destination development projects mostly geared towards the niches of birding and nature photography. However as the case is with most of our projects we aim to bring nature experiences to a wider audience, and as such many of our designs for  the Iceland projects are open and inviting wind shelters made for everyone, tourists and locals alike. Biotope have for a couple of years been a part of a series of projects in the north of Iceland focusing on nature based tourism. Now we hope that several of our designs will be built and we aim to strengthen our presence in Iceland to make make sure we can contribute even better in the future. We are currently doing project collaborations based out of Saudarkrokur, Akureyri and Husavik in north Iceland. Now we hope to find a great project manager in Iceland that want to be a part of building the Biotope Iceland office. We have had the privilege of working with a lot of good people in Iceland and we feel a strong connection to both people, landscape and wildlife in this amazing part of the world. If you are the right person (an architect, technical desinger or a project manager) that want to make new things happen in Iceland, please let us know! Takk fyrir.
A series of blogs and vlogs from our Iceland engagements can be found on our website (Example: https://www.biotope.cloud/2016/08/birding-north-iceland-nature.html)


Videographer / writer / consultant / word wizard
Biotope is more then a basic architetcture office. We do not wait for things happen. We make things happen. We do not sit around and wait for commisions to appear. We go after proejcts we think should become a reality. We aim to make a positive difference with what we do. In our own town Vardø and our region Varanger we have had the privilege of positively affecting the economy and even the indentity of Vardø and Varanger. In particular we want to expand our efforts to work in rural communities and to help build an appreciation for nature that extends to both identity and economy. To do this we need an word wizard or writer or a videographer. Essentially a content producer. We need to efficiently explain projects we aim to undertake. Get the stories told by whichever means that will make things more likely to happen. Often times this is writing a project proposal or writing an offer to a potential client. We are currently working quite a lot like a small media company as well as an architecture office. Our media and content production is an integral part of our architecture practise. We do architecture for a reason and we need to take ownership of this by telling the stories before, during and after a project. If you feel you are the right person to move Biotope forward let us know! 
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We hope you will join us in making good things happen and to build projects and an office that will make a positive difference for nature and people. The above 4 positions we are looking for is however something that will happen over some time. Biotope is not (yet) in a position to go foreward with everything in one go. We still wanted to make our intentions public, and what we prioritise will be based on you. To begin with we are very much interested in building our team in Vardø and if you see yourself living an arctic life we want to hear from you! 

In short:  
Feel free to submit your CV, portfolio and concise application to tormod@biotope.no, and let us know your skills and passion and what you can contribute with!

Many thanks, 
Tormod Amundsen, Architcect and CEO / Biotope
Vardø / Arctic Norway, March 2018

Vardø town by midnight sun