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Workshop Brief

Work Process

 

1. Field trips to selected Berlin’s modernist architecture / one per group

(Philharmonie Scharoun, Akademie der Künste Hansaviertel, Plattenbau East Berlin, Märkisches Viertel)

 

2. Presentation of findings and subjective interpretations to students & invited guests

 

3. Destillation of embedded formal principles and translation/interpretation into small scale experiments in paper

(methods: rescaling, mirroring, duplicating, intersecting, overlaying, folding etc.)

 

4. Collective review of experiments

 

5. Production of 1:1 modules (in groups)

 

6. Spatial construction with modules (groups merging together)

 

7. Collective testing of spaces with students & invited guests

 

 

 

2015 Brief

merzbau-1

 


 

 

 

 

 

Aim

During this Design + Build Workshop Architectural students will explore space, form, construction at its simplest and contribute towards the creation of a large scale installation. Assisted by tutors, one single structure is to be designed and built in a continuous process by the participants in one of the public spaces at the UdK Berlin.

Cardboard

We will experiment with the unlimited potentialities of cardboard as a base material. The concrete task is to transform a defined Surface/ Volume of Cardboard in a spatial and temporal Installation, which is continually added to and changed by you (and the public). As a voluminous entity, the work with cardboard boxes describes fundamental principles of architecture. … The aim is to propose to all participants that they “train” themselves in the craft of building using cardboard as a material, taking full advantage of its numerous properties (useful to carry/store things, easy to pile, easy to compact after/before use, recyclable,…)

 

cardboard-cloud

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Design while you build!

It is our aim for the workshop to create a collaborative environment, which is continuously updated and extended by adding individual constructs developed by the participants. Rather than “splitting” the design process in a concept and realization phase, the proposed process involves ad-hoc experimentation with various configurations which will be merged in a negotiation process.

Working Mode 

The unit will be structured by daily exercises/tasks, introducing different aspects of the project and introducing specific techniques for the task. During the course of the week, you are asked to transform these techniques into your own. …

Pseudocoding

The challenge lies in transforming a given amount of cardboard into a component based, human scale structure, using an intelligent, rule-based system. Rules can be  simple geometric operations as well as rules of use/abuse. Rather than using the software, our rules will be recorded using simple drawings and photo equipment. Our aim is to investigate the realization possibilities of putting together a “pseudo-coded” 3d structure designed in a single material and a short amount of time, which is to be realized using the simplest rules, means and materials. Success criteria are buildability, functionality, originality and effective use of variation within a structure.

 

 

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2013 Brief

Guerrilla Gallery: Designing the Future Kunsthalle
Peter Karl Becher & Christoph Zeller

Whilst contemporary art is leaving behind the white cube as the optimal spatial environment, established institutions still find it hard to offer alternatives to neutral and anonymous gallery space in representative temples of art. Independent art platforms such as galleries or self-initiated enterprises prove to be more open-minded when they – sometimes illegally and often in revolutionary spirit – occupy the city parasitically, or implant positions temporarily. Performance and new media art particularly require alternative spaces, which, often provocative and specific, can function as open stages and include the public audience as part of the art.

Which strategies must be applied to create a gallery in a new dimension able to become a pivotal platform of a wider cultural discourse? The Future Kunsthalle as a parasite, a phantom, a nucleus or a manifesto.

Berlin’s cultural life is changing swiftly. Separated during the Cold War into politically opposing ways of living, Berlin today forms one of Europe’s most vibrant cultural hot spots and puts the city in line with other capitals around the globe. Berlin has one winning margin that cannot be beaten by others: space. An immense reserve of dormant terrain can be found both in its heart and in its outskirts. This terrain is waiting for the rise from the underground to subsequently flourish and eventually turn into established ground with its initiating forces moving on to other areas. How can architects navigate and operate in Berlin’s complex and continuously changing cultural jungle?

Tactics can be defined as the art of carefully planning actions which are embedded in a larger strategy. Neither strategy nor tactics can exist effectively without the other. Often related to guerrilla warfare, tactics offer a way of operating swiftly and changing direction. They have a purpose and lead to a measurable result, here: a concrete design proposal for the Guerrilla Kunsthalle.

At the beginning of the workshop participants will fan out from one central point in the city to find potential locations for a Future Kunsthalle. Acting individually or in small independent groups, participants will then specify their objectives and decide which scale and level to target: founding new strongholds, re-occupying abandoned structures or operating below the ground.

Programmatic manifestos will declare the participants’ positions on the Future Kunsthalle and form the basis for their design proposal. Means of representation will be architectural drawings, models, renderings and photomontages. A ‘guerrilla exhibition’ will further fuel the public discourse on the role of art in the city and might even serve as an ignition spark for a future agenda.