Architectural Design IV: Real Architecture: Workspace (E.Christ / Ch.Gantenbein)

Abstract

What will the workplace of tomorrow look like?Designing a project in four steps:1. Envisioning scenarios about the future of the workplace.2. Design of a spatial system to the scenario.3. Translating the system into an architectural structure in wood.4. Developing of the real project.

Objective

Develop an independent, responsible and visionary attitude towards a current social issue. Ability to critically read and discuss (architectural) theoretical texts and relate them to the question. Develop an independent project that is coherent in terms of urban planning, typology, form and construction in a methodically controlled process.

Content

Our studio’s second semester is the conceptual counterpart of the first semester: research and examination of history is contrasted with a real project, in the here and now where the office of the past will become the workplace of the future. The starting point of the design is a reflection on today's working environment. How and where is work performed and with what means? Is the much-cited "home office" really a desirable alternative to the office desk? And what role does the physical space play in this choice? Which are the spatial needs when it comes to being creative and productive? Texts, lectures, seminars, and discussions will help us to develop various theses on tomorrow’s working environment. Drawing on these inputs, the students will develop scenarios for their individual project at a specific location. The here and now involves a confrontation with the challenges of our environment and calls for action. In our case, it also means to design responsibly. Thus, working with a renewable building material is one of the many contributions in reaction to climate change. As a sustainable material, wood offers unexpected possibilities, especially for contemporary urban architecture and it will become the compulsory material in all student projects. In the course of the semester we will visit historical as well as contemporary wooden buildings, and exchange ideas with experts. Methodologically, "Workspace" directly draws on the previous semester "The Office": the typologies and principles studied during the first semester are further developed in the second semester’s project and linked to the specific aspects of scenario and location. The broad idea of an architectural form and type thus gets a concrete and specific formulation. And there, in its real application in a definite case, the architectural form also acquires its social, economic and ultimately political relevance. When ideal becomes real.

Resources