Beschreibung
des Entwurfs-programmes |
"Time, like mind, is not knowable as such. We know time only indirectly by what happens in it: by observing change and permanence; by marking the succession of events among stable settings; and by noting the contrast of varying rates of change."
George Kubler, The Shape of Time, 1962
Growth and Decay are inextricably connected with architecture: while Growth refers to the conceptual 'birth,' planning, and construction of a building, biologically speaking, the upward-striving energy to erect an artifact of human order, Decay contrarily denotes the downward-dragging, deteriorating force and fundamental truth that structures will not last, that nature with crumbling power and indifference will gradually erode them into 'dead' matter and reassert its entropic equilibrium. Hence, and as Paul Virilio aptly said, "inventing the ship is inventing the shipwreck," both terms deal more broadly with architectural time as they imply issues of re-use, preservation, and metabolic transformation, the geological age and time-enhanced patina of materials, the archeological but also emotional value of ruins and sites of abandonment–their serene, melancholic calm relating to our fragile being but also their peaceful reconciliation with nature's ambient conditions–or the plain sense of duration and passage when traversing the rhythmic layout of a series of spaces. These aspects of temporality, as buildings exist both in and as chroniclers of time, rattle the foundations of the discipline, one that, by definition, is about stasis and not mobility, and raise essential questions: for instance, why not think of buildings as "ruins-in-reverse," thus, not as ends but as fragmentary beginnings, which like infrastructures are open, undetermined configurations that remain permanently unfinished?
Our concrete site for exploring these topics will be Schönenbach, an isolated mountain hamlet ("Vorsäss") in the Bregenzerwald, Austria, which, with its centuries' old homesteads and rural setting, is considered the "Wooden Acropolis" of the region. Home to the "Vorarlberger Barockbaumeister" that are renowned for their majestic churches in Einsiedeln, Weingarten, or St.Gallen, there also flourishes within the trajectory of the "Vorarlberger Baukünstler" an acclaimed building culture in the area today. Not without ambiguity trying to establish a "New Tradition," the current movement does not seek folkloristic mimicry in response to the wealth of vernacular examples but the critical and progressive evolution of the old by respecting its inner principles and sensitive adaption to the natural environment. Simultaneously, the territorial, "ruralistic" structure of the Bregenzerwald, with its patchwork of solitary farms and small villages, all demonstrating self-reliance and economy of means, serves as a laboratory condition for non-densification in the Anthropocene.
Organizationally, we will begin in a philosophical forum before expressing our theoretical reflections through abstract means. Avoiding a linear design sequence, the resulting drawings shall establish the unorthodox foundation for developing the actual design projects. Critically influenced by a prolonged study of the context and program, the final task will be the projection of an Arts Residency. Encouraging experimentation and an elemental sense of rootedness, we will attempt to surrender to the unattended moment and make time a measure of the project's intelligence: its capacity to absorb unanticipated effects and benefit from the results of allowing multiple readings of conditions past, present, and future. |
Lernziele |
Architectural thinking is never straightforward but challenges one's ability to integrate diverging factors that constitute the discipline's complex reality. Together with our students, we aim to manifest an attitude of open-mindedness. Each project must be non-dogmatically thought according to its own set of rules deriving from specific internal and external conditions. A unique kind of playfulness that finds equal merit in the urban, rural, and primeval realms is evoked. At the basis of this realistic-utopian approach, cultivated eclecticism is to intensify the students' observations, memories, and intuitions. Since the goal is not to emulate the past nor to be lost in futuristic technofixes, we seek to foster authentic forms and spaces of inherent necessity that make one pause as they radiate presence and unveil our being in the world. At last, each project's impact will be measured by its degree of achieving a radical framework for beauty. Stretching one's mind, what are the limits of architecture anyway? |
