Architectural Design V-IX: Home and Office? (A.Gigon)

Abstract

We will concentrate on the dual function of living and working, taking as an example existing office buildings in Zurich earmarked to be partially transformed and expanded into apartment complexes.Our urban-planning, architectural, functional and constructional interests focus on the combination of occupancies in the same building and on the suitability of such new apartments for home-office work.

Objective

Ability to develop a design from an idea, a concept, to a fully evolved project; to continually selfcritically question the intermediary stages in this process; and, simultaneously, to find an individual design methodology and design stance.

Content

Working from home is an old topic in the history of architecture. The same, however, also applies to the separation of functions. This question is crucial in terms of architecture and urbanism, but likewise from a sociological and economic perspective, and, most recently, from a renewed epidemiological point of view. During the autumn semester we will concentrate on the dual function of living and working, taking as our example existing office buildings in Zurich earmarked to be partially transformed and expanded into apartment complexes. Our urban-planning, architectural, functional and constructional interests focus on the combination of occupancies in the same building, the transitional threshold between the public and the private, and also on the suitability of such new apartments for home-office work. The approach taken is a different one to prior semesters. Classic tools such as maps, as-built plans, texts or 3-D models form the basis of a critical examination of the context and the existing buildings. In addition photography and, now in particular, also the medium video are to be applied as perceptional resources during the selective on-site visits, designed to capture the appearance and the atmosphere of the buildings and their surroundings in their everyday situations – in differing light conditions and soundscapes. This filmic approach will be discussed at the beginning of the semester with the filmmaker and cameraman Severin Kuhn, who for many years now has dedicated himself to recording architecture on film. Our semester topic will likewise be supported by Marcel Bächtiger, and includes the opportunity to absolve an elective subject on the topic “Interiors” within the seminar “Spatial Concepts in Architecture and Film”. At the start of the semester we will treat ourselves to a short foray into the world of film. Various feature films give intimate insights into the life situations of a range of people, and at the same time as making the psychological, individual focus tangible also allow us, again and again, to experience the architectural settings of such. In the process we are also as interested in the everyday – i.e. living or/and working – as we are in the escape from it. Talks with film directors about the art of staging are planned, as are discussions with real-estate experts about the adaptability of buildings. Parallel to the design teaching, from the middle of the semester onwards the course offers a rendering tutorial by David Klemmer, concentrating solely on the creation of moving images. With the final submission the circle closes itself. What began with mobile-phone video shots as a perceptional tool of the existing built situation ideally ends in the ability to visualise the project as a simple animation and as a possible future reality, supplemented by a presentation of the design with floor plans, sections and detail drawings.

Resources