environments OF ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION
an element can have two completely different sides, because form does not always follow function after all, or then again from the observation that an entire cosmos is formed between the divine narrative of a ceiling painting and political debate events in the auditorium, thus reflecting the space as an empathetic structure.5 Designing means taking a stand. It requires critical examination and the capacity of interpretation, and the Academy is the perfect example for practicing just that.
You work with students in their first semester. The topics you explore give a first insight into essential fields of knowledge in architecture, such as analogue and digital production, construction, material and technology, geography, landscapes and cities, history, theory, criticism, and ecology, sustainability and cultural heritage. Can you explain, as concretely as possible, how you proceed? How do you teach architecture? Where do you start with students in their first semester, and what are your methods? Christina Condak, Daniela Herold We started with containers — glass bottles, plastic containers, cleaning agent containers, scent diffusers, watercolour paint boxes and ventilation grates. The starting point was to replicate an object in paper and then begin a journey of exploring the translations of the object into something else through its change of size and then material.6 As the objects become more abstract, they begin to resemble spaces, interiors or landscapes. We can imagine scale, inhabitation and the passage of a human being. We kept things open to chance encounters. Accidental discoveries are effective lessons for design as a process. And here, without having a programme, or any particular purpose, we could free ourselves to talk about things purely in terms of composition, lines, material properties, or how carefully something was made and how that in itself can become a catalyst in design. Translation by Judith Wolfframm
Design studio EMBODIMENT OF A HYPERCONTEXT, project by Cenk Güzelis
5 EMBODIMENT OF A HYPERCONTEXT, design studio, Master’s programme Platform Geography | Landscapes | Cities Faculty: Kathrin Aste Students: Clemens Aniser, Alexander Egebjerg, Michael Glechner, Pia Grobner, Cenk Güzelis, Thomas Huck, Blerim Kurtishi, Linda Lackner, Samy Omar, Dominik Schwab, Rumena Trendafilova
Casting mould and plaster model, Maximilian Pertl, design studio INTUITIVE TRAJECTORIES. Photo: Maximilian Pertl
6 INTUITIVE TRAJECTORIES, design studio, first semester, Bachelor’s programme Faculty: Christina Condak, Daniela Herold Students: Philipp Behawy, Marcella Brunner, Marie Eham, Christina Maria Ehrmann, Anna Gleich, Felix Kofler, Nathaniel Loretz, Maria-Teodora Marta, Prima Mathawabhan, Madina Mussayeva, Nils Frederick Neuböck, Maximilian Pertl, Sophie Publig, Ruben Stadler, Inga Anna-Maria Strasser, Patricia-Andreea Tibu, Ivan Todorov, Lukas Zeilbauer
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