EPFL Emerging cultural phenomena

APPLICATION École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne ENAC Doctoral Position in History and Theories of Architecture, Technology and Media

Emerging cultural phenomena in relation to technological advancement and its influence on people and built environment in borderline conditions Stanimira Getova

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. CV 2. Research outline Abstract Case Studies

Mater’s thesis research on techno culture and urban islands in Berlin

Olivetti and his ‘‘Human city’’ Research Methods 3. Cover letter 4. Contact details and academic references

3 4 5 6 7/8 9 10

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EXPERIENCE

Professional

Feb. 2020 up to now

Author at STROIINFO Writing articles on the topics of architecture, city development, national and international events with the purpose of raising awareness of different problems and initiatives

Feb. 2022 up to now

Intern at Studio HO_RA Collaborative

Stanimira Getova Architect

Nationality: Bulgarian Birth date: 25/10/1998 Email: stanimiragetova@gmail.com +359889250491

ACADEMIC

Competition culture in Europe (International event)

Aug. 2021

Tutor at an EASA workshop

Sep. 2021 Oct. 2021

Torinostratosferica, Turin, Italy A workshop that aimed to reimagine the city. There I explored the city by bike in search of potential voids that could be transformed into attractor points by minimal architectual interventions

COMPETITIONS 2019

FlorenceCall architecture competiton (participated)

2022

NORMAN FOSTER SCHOLARSHIP (participated)

2023

FILM MOSAIC Copenhagen Architecture Festival’s global short film competition focusing on the UN’s ‘Leave No One Behind’

SOFTWARES

Sep. 2012 June 2017

High school diploma "Ekzarh Yosif I" Foreign Languages High school | Lovech, Bulgaria

Sep. 2017 Jan. 2023

Bachelor and Master of Architecture University of Architecture and Civil Engeneering | Sofia, Bulgaria

Sep. 2020 Jul. 2021

International study exchange Università degli Studi di Genova | Genoa, Italy

LANGUAGES

June 2020

Bulgarian: Mother language English:

Advanced Cambridge certificate C1

Italian:

B1 University course at UNIGE

German:

A2 learnt at school

SKILLS and HOBBIES

videomaking, photography, sketching, visual storytelling creative writing, yoga and meditation, swimming, learning new languages, mountain hiking, reading books on psychology, history and theory of architecture sociology, architecture and urban development, exploring new places

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OUTLINE OF RESEARCH Topic

The ways we think - or better, those assumptions we take for granted - are pre-established by superstructural ideologies.

Emerging cultural phenomena in relation to technological advancement and its influence on people and built environment in borderline conditions Abstract The proposed topic derives from my master’s thesis research that explored the sociopolitical and urban conditions of post-war Berlin, which resulted in the outburst of the techno culture movement and its specific relation to architectural spaces and identity. The phenomenon is a consequence of the industrial revolution and its use to create a pioneer music style that unifies people despite their affiliations.

Borderline conditions and marginalized groups bring within enough charge to bring an existing system to its limits and imprint the act onto the physical environment.

Introducing postmodernism - A graphic guide

The research aims to strengthen a theory and challenge popular beliefs by going beyond the borders of Berlin in search of new forms of cultural phenomena. It questions the loss of identity and sense of self in times of informational overload and rapid change and how the individual finds a group or place to belong concerning time, space, and social and political conditions.

Questions 1. What cultural phenomena occur due to the informational overload, and what is their symbolic and/or architectual manifestation?

2. Is it possible to find solid grounds in transitional places and in times of constant fluctuation?

“The view contains the viewer.”

Introducing postmodernism - A graphic guide

-Cézanne

3. Has the individual reached a complete loss of sense of self and meaning? What architectural spaces does it refer to identify?

4. Has the digital revolution reached a liminal state, and what is its spatial expression?

5. Where is the individual positioned? Does it have freedom of choice, or is he orchestrated into thinking so?

“Mankind always takes up only such problems as it can solve...we will always find that the problem itself arises only when the material conditions for its solution already exist or are at least in the process of formation.”

Karl Marx, preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (1859 )

6. Is there a possible utopia?

Personal contribution As a person who grew up in a former Soviet country in democratic times but yet on transitional grounds, I have always felt the collision between different ideologies. That’s why I am fond of exploring borderlines, the intersection of opposite systems, and their reflection in the surroundings in the form of symbolic places, acts, and meanings.

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CASE STUDIES ON THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGIES IN ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN FABRIC Master’s thesis research

Case study on borders

The reason why I started this research was my admiration of the music and a great desire to go beyond the negative connotation of this cultural movement. I perceived it as an explorer. I was surprised to descover that it all began in Detroit, USA, as it was a hub for electronics production, but at the same time place of extreme segregation and marginalization of Black people.

Berlin

The advent of my research coincided with the pandemic, and I landed on an article describing the importance of this music to the Berliners and how it resulted in a kiosk for streaming. search of individuality and expresion through music

Berlin, Germany

Belfast, Northern Ireland

good-bad

good-good

Factors that led to the techno culture outburst in Berlin

1. decadence (for example, segregation led to extreme and spatial separation) 2. existing material border - the Berlin wall that generated a powerful desire for runaway 3. opposition of ideologies where one of them is perceived as good and the other as bad 4. critical group of individuals in transition that want to construct their own ideology marginalized communities in search of identity

References

Nightlife, in popular culture, brings to mind leisure, debauchery, narcissism, excess. But when you talk to the people most involved in the scene, that is not at all how they describe it. They talk about transcendence, healing.

They speak of the soul.

- a quote from a magazine article

An island is any object lost in an endless extension of a uniform element.

As such, the island is isolated.

The island is by definition remote, separated, intimately alternative.

The island is elsewhere.

San Rocco Magazine: Islands

Characteristics of Tempelhof airport area

Cocepts appropriated by Gilles Deleuze”s Desert Islands

open-closed

fortress wall

continental island - a fragment, a remnant in the city’s urban fabric; could be explored and understood through its connection to the environment and history

illusional access

experimentations with models

O. M. Ungers’s “Berlin as Green Archipelago” the project consisted of approximately sixty isolated “urban islands” floating within the ocean of open spaces surrounded by the Berlin Wall

oceanic island - an autonomic system whose outer borders relate equally to the outer world in a defensive manner 5

CASE STUDIES ON THE IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGIES IN ARCHITECTURE AND URBAN FABRIC

Typewriter “Olivetti”

Olivetti and his ‘human city’ - industrial city measured by the human

Around the production of the typewriter, Adriano Olivetti built a whole community. He created his understanding of an utopian industrial city, with giant windows and the bright spaces.

Nearby the dwellings for the workers were located, and apartament design was caarefully conducted. Overall, this is a positive approach that evolved around technological mass production, but it reflected positively on assembling architectural spaces and narratives.

Dwellings in Ivrea, designed by the last detail

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RESEARCH METHOD Objective

WHEN

The research aims to explore cultural phenomena rising from the rapid technology development in the context of the 21st century and its influence on transcultural environments.

defining new forms of phenomena or inherited ones and their transformation

In addition, it questions freedom in the context of constant influences and the information overload directly related to creating a sense of self and belonging to space and communities.

If, in times of the Cold War, techno music is a way to free oneself and non-identify with an ideology, now the individual is challenged to seek unceasingly external self-association.

The research framework sets off from the example of the industrial revolution’s provision of new experimental tools that combined with human creativity, led to the invention of a unifying music style (techno music) Defining modern (contemporary) forms of commoning and the spaces they occupy.

Variety of tools

starting point observations and places brought through the master theis research

- interviews to gain a broader perspective through people’s personal experiences - onsite exploration and experiments

WHERE

- visual and audio archives Target group

- leaves room for discovering locations or entites in the process

Varies in terms of age, social identity, religion, etc., depending on the investigated context

-squated places -reference to practicies in my own country

References

-East and West Germany

The metodology will not depend solely on phenomenological approach but will use it to some extend.

Contrast as tool By developing his extensions, man has been able to improve various functions. The computer is an extension of part of the brain, the telephone extends the voice, the wheel extends the legs and feet. Language extends experience in time and space while writing extends language. Man has elaborated his extensions to such a degree that we are apt to forget that his humanness is rooted in his animal nature.

Man has shifted evolution from his body to his extensions and in so doing has tremendously accelerated the evolutionary process.

-The Hidden Dimension Book by Edward T. Hall

Perceived contrast is crucial for triggering change and is a quintessential part of human nature.

Buzludzha, Bulgaria

Architectural morphologies and their symbolic meaning will be questioned, interpreted, and documented.

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MASS MEDIA IN WRITTEN FORMS

- publications archives - architectual magazines - architectual zines

This part aims to investigate further the information blackout in the Cold War and compare how we relate to historical events 30 years later when we have further understanding.

It would focus on censorship and mass media as a tool to navigate popular beliefs.

It would further explore the role of propaganda through architectural design and how it enhances firming borders on a political and ideological level rather than developing peculiar styles.

Possible outcome -Ground of further exploration of the topic; -Models or typologies that could benefit communities in transition.

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COVER LETTER

Dear Members of the Evaluation Committee,

My name is Stanimira Getova, and I am applying for the Doctoral Position in History and Theories of Architecture, Technology, and Media advertised on the website of École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

I am currently working in an architecture studio called Studio HO_ RA based in Sofia, Bulgaria. However, on January 30, 2023, I defended my master’s thesis project, “Island of Desire,” which examined the sociocultural conditions in Berlin that resulted in the outburst of techno culture and its influence on the built environment. Working on this challenging project allowed me to work on a subject that aligns with my interests and pursuits to positively influence people and their surroundings through noticing and consciously exploring contemporary problems.

My visit to Berlin enabled me experience the place and address problems that otherwise would have remained overlooked. Therefore I believe a personal approach is essential to comprehending the intricate combinations of conditions that led to a particular architectural and not only issue.

The project resulted in a proposal to reuse Tempelhof airport but keep its symbolic meaning and structural organization of the area, characterized by an opposition between the center and periphery and the appearance of the building as a giant protective fortress. I gained further knowledge of historical events, building techniques, and advanced engineering constructions such as the 40 meters span console.

During my Master’s degree I successfully further expanded my analytical and theoretical skills. That said, I would like to mention that I noticed repetitious themes in my projects that ended up being my field of interest and inquiry. I have concentrated on archetypal elements and forms in architecture, such as towers as the spiritual vertical axis, gateways, defining healing space for humans as an atmosphere, and gardens in their iconic sense. Furthermore, I have always been passionate about how architecture shapes a person’s perception and culture, poetical interpretations of space, and morphology.

My academic education includes a variety of theoretical courses, practical design projects, modelmaking and international internships. In the first year of my Master’s studies, I executed an Erasmus internship at the Università degli Studi di Genova, Italy, where I worked on group projects in multinational teams. During that experience, I molded my work ethic and conveyed personal opinions without being vigorously assertive or forceful. I think this quality is of utmost significance for any advancement to occur.

What’s more, I believe diverse experience and ideas.coming from people with different backgrounds is much more beneficial and would result in better project quality. Also, I have learned to manage my time efficiently since I accomplished projects on several topics with other international students, each having a different working routine and flow.

In addition to my teamwork background, together with a university colleague, we have conducted a workshop for the European Assembly of Architecture Students in 2021. It was named “Hidden existence” and consisted of the theoretical and experimental part focusing on experiencing different realities, in this case, the one of a blind person. We designed four different scenarios of home organizations and let the blindfolded participants explore them. We witnessed different results, but the most intriguing was that the most organized linear space provoked a contemplative effect and caused the people to feel as if they were part of the prosecution in a sacred space as we had placed the sofa, candles, and blankets at the end of the room. In contrast, the most chaotic one carried out the inner child of most of the participants, eliminated any inconvenience, and pushed them to explore childish curiousness in the space.

Due to the mentioned appeals and the proximity to my graduation, I am presently probing for new challenging prospects. Consequently, I would suggest a research idea in coherence with the publicized topic based on ‘‘Emerging cultural phenomena concerning technological advancement and its influence on people and the built environment in borderline conditions.’’ I notice it as an incredible opportunity to broaden my knowledge.

Moreover, I am confident that moving abroad and working in diverse research groups worldwide is an enriching experience for both partakers and contributes to the knowledge exchange and the ongoing research dialogue. Therefore, I see this opportunity as the possibility of earning a greater degree of maturity by reinforcing the skills I already have, and cultivating new skills in a multidisciplinary environment could consolidate my prospect as a researcher and my long-term career.

I am highly motivated to start a new career path and benefit the architecture research field. I trust that my resume, academic history, and personal interests will be relevant to you. Thank you for your time and your consideration of my application.

Yours faithfully ,Stanimira Getova

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CONTACT DETAILS Name:

Stanimira Emilova Getova

Address:

Bulgaria, Sofia, 1000 Bukston 4B

Email:

stanimiragetova@gmail.com +359889250491

ACADEMIC REFERENCES

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Arch. Panayot Savov Faculty of Architecture - Deputy dean for academic activities Faculty of Architecture, Public Buildings - Head of department Email: savov_far@uacg.bg

Prof. Manuel Gausa Navarro Professor of Urban Planning at the Department Architecture and Design, University of Genoa (dAD-UNIGE) and Coordinator of the ADD, Doctorate Course Email: gausa@coac.net

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