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. Together.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?

Objective

This studio will be organized in 3 MOVEMENTS. CONTEXT - CORNER - COMPLEXITY The time frame is as follows: CONTEXT 3 weeks CORNER 3 weeks COMPLEXITY 7 weeks Individual and group work is organised as follows: CORNER is individual work CONTEXT and COMPLEXITY are group work. Each practice of four will be assigned 1 out of 8 SITES along a street in a generic but specific neighborhood - the STEINACKERSTRASSE in Urdorf. A street that has many layers of time, program, speed, and attitude. OFFICE BUILDINGS, SPORTS BUILDINGS, INDUSTRIAL BUILDINGS, PARKING BUILDINGS, MIXED 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? The meaning of the words CONTEXT, CORNER and COMPLEXITY as exercises : MOVEMENT 1- CONTEXT - group work Each SITE is an existing building to be visited, analyzed, and drawn by the PRACTICE. Observing the SITE by MEASURING and DRAWING : the structural elements, the bricks of the facades, the tiles of the floors, the frames of the windows and many more. To FIND the things you were not searching for. RECONSTRUCT; DECONSTRUCT; UNDERSTAND; Based on your subjective observation, you will define a program, readjusting the existing construction with added housing typologies. MOVEMENT 2 – CORNER - individual work In close collaboration with BUK - we will look at the details of the exisiting, understanding their potential and framing it together with an action of LIVING. How do we bathe ? How do we cook ? How do we rest ? This individual movement will concentrate on 3.33% of the existing building. It can be a façade element, and entrance door, the connection between the slab and the column. Through this precise action, we prepare the ground for the next movement: COMPLEXITY, which will engage multiple aspects of living from distinct and personal perspectives. MOVEMENT 3 - COMPLEXITY The project will transform 33% of the existing m2 TO LIVE ; a multi-generational house, a youth-hostel, an orphanage, an elderly home, a collective housing,… This will be developped in relation to the remaining 66%. 66% will contain the existing ACTIVITIES ; an office, a club, a store, a sports hall, a dry cleaner, a garage, a wardrobe, a cafeteria, a recycling center etc... Based on the explored context, each practice will answer with a coherent PROGRAM and STRATEGY for intervening in the existing building. The strategy will propose how to combine LIVING with WORKING, LIVING with MAKING SPORTS, LIVING with RECYCLING, and so on. It is an opportunity to look critically and responsibly at urges of LIVE TOGETHER, as well as the technical aspects of the CONSTRUCTION and NORMS. To apply 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. The autumn and spring semesters together form a continous movement. In between, spatial concepts are explored: in material – the making – and in time – the telling. This is done by working TOGETHER, creating together and storytelling together. The idea of the ENTR’ACTE: ARCHITECTURE INITIATES. CONTEXT: the idea of MATERIALITY – RESOURCE – but also MOMENT – ENTR’ACTE must both be distinguished but also assessed together.

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