Architectural Design V-IX: New Centers (Caminada)

Abstract

Centers have defined life in our towns and villages for centuries. Important decisions were made in these public places. The centers were both market and meeting place. The formal structural character was also clearly in a hierarchy that offered orientation in the built context.

Objective

In teaching, we remain true to our goals and do not want to convey a certain type of architecture to the students - be it in terms of methods, images or styles. To develop is rather an idea supporting the place. Architecture requires a fine perception of what already exists and a bold design for what is to come. As a basic prerequisite for both moments, we consider a sustainable attitude to be developed from the collective life world. The aim of the course is to strengthen the sensitivity for such an attitude. At the same time, the skills should be learned in order to make this attitude effective in the design.

Content

Centers built today are mostly spaces with specific functions, such as health facilities, shops, sports facilities or spaces for leisure activities. The large shopping areas in particular are propagated as the focal points of public life. The rush is great – after all, the market is the aim of the flâneur. But market means negotiation in the traditional sense. There is indeed a market in the shopping centers, but it is a market without trade, it is exclusively for consumption. Negotiation should be the aim of the new centers that we envisage. We want to find the serving and built entities under present realities. On the one hand, there should be spaces for appropriation or places that open up possibilities for events or promote such events. On the other hand, there needs to be order in the sense of clear management. We imagine a place filled with comings and goings. We see the centers in different agglomeration municipalities. The relationship of distance and proximity between each center will be important. The relationship to each other on the one hand and the independence on the other hand are key moments of their effect. Every student works on a place. The design goal is spaces that are meaningful for a critical and at the same time for an open community. During the Renaissance we find referential approaches that are still relevant today.

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