Architectural Design IV: How do we live together? (De Vylder)

Abstract

Do we live a houseOr do we house a life?How. Do. We. Live.Do we know HOW we live TOGETHER? Do we know enough HOW we live TOGETHER? HOW do things around us shape the way we live TOGETHER? HOW do we live with the things around us? WHAT are the conditions around us? WHAT makes our habits? HOW do habits change conditions? How do we live TOGETHER? This studio will be organized in 3 MOVEMENTS.

Objective

For the first 2 movements, students will work in groups of 3. These 3 students become a practice. Each practice will be assigned 1 out of 7 SITES along a street in a generic but specific neighborhood - the SIEWERDTSTRASSE in Oerlikon. A street that has many layers of time, program, speed, and attitude. OFFICE BUILDINGS, SPORTS BUILDINGS, INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS, PARKING BUILDINGS, FAIR BUILDINGS, REMNANT BUILDINGS. All will be adapted, translated, and transformed by 33%. 33% of housing. What are the needs of TODAY? Is it possible for the 33% to meet the needs of TODAY? HOW do we live? How do the 33% and 66% meet?MOVEMENT 0 - DAYS OF DRAWINGS, the DAY OF NORMS and the DAY OF WORDS We will start the semester with the DAY OF DRAWINGS, the DAY OF NORMS and the DAY OF WORDS. Several practitioners will share the attitude of their practice, its relevance, and its beauty. They will introduce us to their way of working with DRAWINGS, NORMS and WORDS. In the realm of the digital, the analogue and of course the in between. With these new perspectives, in the form of workshops, we will encounter the SITES, getting to know them, by measuring, performing, drawing, and imagining new scenarios. This will be the time you will establish your PRACTICE. MOVEMENT 1- OBSERVATION Each SITE is an existing building to be visited, analyzed, and drawn by the PRACTICE. Observing the SITE, measuring its structural elements, DRAWING the bricks of the facades, the tiles of the floors, the frames of the windows and more. To find the things you were not searching. RECONSTRUCT; DECONSTRUCT; UNDERSTAND; Based on your subjective observation, you will define a program, readjusting the existing construction with added housing typologies. MOVEMENT 2 – A PRACTICE A HOUSE – 33,3 % The project will house 33% of the existing m2 TO LIVE, in whatever form; a multi-generational house, a youth-hostel, an orphanage, an elderly home, a detention center, a cooperative,… This will be in relation to the remaining 66%. 66% will contain the existing COLLECTIVE ACTIVITIES in whatever form ; a supermarket, a kindergarten, a laundry room, an office space, garage etc. We will think about RE-, RE-USE, RE-STORE, RE-PAIR, RE-ACT, RE-CYCLE, RE-CARE, RE-ACCEPT, RE-SUMPTIONS, RE-COMPRESSIONS*, RE-ECONOMY*, RE-LOVE, RE-LEAVE, RE-LESS, RE-CONFIRM, RE-SILIENCE, RE-VIVE, RE-LIVE, RE-VEAL, UN-RE-VEL, RE-COLLAGE, RE-CONFIGURATE, RE-OBSERVE, RE-CALL, RE-READ, RE-FOCUS, RE-DRAW, RE-PRACTICE, RE-DETAIL, RE-INVENT, RE-QUESTION, RE-STRATEGY, RE-CONFRONT, RE-VENTURE. Depending on the explored context, each practice will answer with a coherent program. It is an opportunity to look critically and responsibly at urges of time to LIVE TOGETHER. As well as the technical aspects of the NORMS, and how they are applied to the gathered knowledge of everything that was learnt through different actions of LIVING last semester, and the existing POTENTIAL of the space and urban fabric.

Content

MOVEMENT 3 - PUBLIC FOLLY - Individual work 3,33% Whilst still working on the 33%, the 3,33% will be established on the street connected to the ever changing adaptive re - use, a folly will be designed, showcasing the potential of the street and more. A public folly will be designed as a small satellite, projected in the public realm. It shares the same DNA as the house but is different. The ongoing coherent project from Movement 2 will infiltrate the concept of the SATELLITE, becoming a PAVILLON and concluding into a FOLLY. Thoughts, material, program, ideas and more can be RE-USED from the collective house. Therefore, the given sites widen up. The Folly project no longer is situated within the borders of the given plot, but explores the PUBLIC, taking the streets as a loose but concrete guidance for this spatial exploration. Where the house is collective, the Folly is public but still touching and influencing the question on HOW WE LIVE TOGETHER?

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