STADTUMBAU A SPACE FOR ART + ARCHITECTURE EXPERIMENTS IN BERLIN BEN WATERS - STUDIO OSK
In March 2014, Studio Osk designed a project that attempted what is often only spoken about in the abstract: transdisciplinary practice. We wanted to test how artists and architects could engage in the collaborative exchange of spatial ideas, as well as explore the transformative effects of art and architecture in the public realm. Ultimately the project took our studio – a small Melbournebased studio made up of two architects and an artist – to Berlin, where we built a temporary pavilion to house events, performances and installations and sought out the potentials of cross-disciplinary exchange in this rich and vital context. We called the work Stadtumbau. Roughly translated as ‘city-restructuring,’ this term is more commonly deployed in Germany during the bureaucratic processes of urban design. But we wanted to invoke the term literally; we wanted to question what it was that traditionally restructured a city. Our ambitions were strongly influenced by past collaborative projects between artists and architects within this context, namely the controversial Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, conceived by architect Peter Eisenman and sculptor Richard Serra.1 The project provided us with the opportunity to test the potential of art and architectural interventions in public space, particularly in the context of Berlin as a liberal space for experimentation and transgression. Two years on from the project’s completion, we have had the chance to reflect on the experience and consider some of the aspects that made this experiment both difficult and possible. This essay presents some of our musings on the process of devising and funding this transdisciplinary project, the importance of situated institutional support, and the critical nature of the socio-political space in which these projects are conducted.
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Inflection
Studio Osk, "Stadtumbau," pavilion, Stadtumbau art festival, Berlin, 2014. Photograph courtesy Studio Osk.
Stadtumbau
