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Over the past weeks the the work that had been produced during the academic year has been reviewed and assessed by internally and externally.
External Examiner was Christine Hawley.
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We visited a few recently completed projects in London. Our itinerary as below:
In the set
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Unit 4 presented their preliminary results on Domestic Urbanism with proposals for new modes of urban living in the London City Fringe over a two days jury. Projects presented question the traditional housing typology which is traditionally conceived of as self-contained entity with little relationship to the public realm. Many of the work explore the potential of a looser boundary between the public and the private and more transient forms of residence. Special thanks to our jurors for their invaluable comments.
Guests include: Jurgen Patzak-Poor, Michael von Matuschka, Tom Verebes, Olaf Kneer, Madeleine Adams, Robert Thum, Laura Marr, Mark Boehme, Joann Tang, Kok Loong Wong and Christof Hadrys.
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We are delighted to have Jurgen Patzak-Poor and Michael von Matuschka of BAR Architects to deliver a Public Lecture for AVA, 19.04.07. BAR (www.barwork.de) is an architectural practice and research group from Berlin and Los Angeles . Its other core members include Antje Buchholz and Jack Burnett-Stuart. Jurgen Patzak-Poor and Michael von Matuschka presented a series of documentation and reinvention of the everyday and its implications for architecture. The scenario of the everyday is in itself banal. However, BAR demonstrate that through developing an understanding of its spatial practice, the everyday are indeed responsive to its environment. As Jurgen explained, this Situationist Urbanism forms a ‘reservoir’ of research which informs and reflects not only in their built work but also in the way they operate as architects.
BAR have recently completed a part-self built and self-financed apartment block in Berlin as part of the Social City program. A project described by Marianne Mueller as ‘like a medieval city’, its compactness and clever use of space reflects the needs of the everyday.
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Some images from our recent workshop.]]>
Well done to those who participated in the Open Jury last week.Juror: Vazio S/A , Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Topographical Amnesias + Anna Heringer, Eike Roswag of Schoolhandmade
+ Visiting Professor, Rodrigo Perez de Arce
09.11.1989 : the fall of the wall happens fast; most would agree too fast. Hardly any of it remains…its physical presence no longer visible. 09.01.2007 : being in the city was almost like visiting a sleepy rural town, a slow pace passes over the day into the night and the streets are partly occupied but never full until the spring.
Berlin is in a process of renewing itself and its image that is so inherently bound to its recent past. Its current struggle/opportunity for identity has confronted its inhabitants with new situations and ways of occupying the city. The lifestyles here are variegated as a result of this and people are adopting their own lifestyles without the ‘inspiration’ of capitalism, an experimentation ground and collective participation.
Here, Unit 4 continued its search for ‘domestic urbanism’. During the visit, we met, conversed, discussed, debated with emerging architects and academics - sectioning through different modes of urban living: from the introverted luxuries of the ‘Self Container’, to ‘Self Initiated Living’ exploring modes of building and living under one’s own terms, to “Extreme Living” concepts of the squatting scene or the appropriation of structures of war.
Unit 4 were the last group to visit “Sammlung Boros” before it closes its doors to the public - the much talked about conversion of an air raid bunker into an art collection and private residence by Realarchitektur, a young architectural practice from Berlin , “Body and Form” looked at tailor making spaces. The Erika Mann Elementary School, by Baupiloten, an education reform project, is a community participation scheme, designed collaboratively by students from TU Berlin with school children.
Meanwhile, projects by BAR (Base for Architecture and Research) and Deadline Architects provided alternative models of architectural practice, where projects are self-initiated, funded and built. Especially BAR’s self-built housing project became a valuable prototype for making and inhabiting; undergoing a permanent process of adaptation.
These case studies were intersected with guided walks through the model city Siemensstadt and Kreuzberg , site of the Squatter’s Riot during 1980s. Here, architect Elke Knöss revealed how the need for housing can become a primary driver for social and political change which still affecting the city today.
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