(22-23) AS-SA(E)MP(B)LING

This design studio starts from the disconnection of form and function, in order to explore the architectural scope of spatial figures in plan, section and façade. Existing fragments and typologies will be recollected, studied and assembled in analogue collages. In this way the (analogue) collage forms a method and an outcome since it will deliver new samples, or building components. 

In this third edition of the studio as-s(e)amp(b)ling we open up a direct dialogue with the city fabric of Ghent by working on actual sites. These sites allow the elaboration of the samples in close connection with a specific context.

As a student, you will work in duo. 

The studio course is gradually build up in time. Each movement involves a clear, precise and coordinated output.

1. samples

In the first movement existing typologies will be explored in connection to use, tradition and context in order to build up a catalogue of existing typologies that will be studied in plan, section, model and projection. Certain samples will be distilled from these typologies to work further with in the second phase.

2. sampling

In the second movement, fragments will be re-collected, assembled and sampled in (analogue) collages. The collage literally offers a new perspective on existing types and typologies and will deliver in that sense newly developed building components, or samples that allow each duo to build up a clever structure – or a so-called “intelligent casco”. The reflection of the content of the sampling becomes the input for the translation towards a contemporary sustainable architectural project.

3. (re)assembling

In the third movement you start as a duo the dialogue with a specific site in Ghent and you translate your projects “in situ”. The focus goes to the under-used interior of city blocks in Ghent. With your own developed building components you will work on the restructuration of the built as well as the open spaces of an inner city block in order to reintroduce new public facilities for the neighborhood. 

4. as-sampled

In the fourth and last movement you will elaborate your project while mediating the context. In a final movement you extract precisely framed details of your project in the context to zoom in on these fragments in precise drawings and models.

Context

We work in the context of https://stad.gent/nl/wonen-bouwen/stadsvernieuwing/toekomstvisie-voor-stadsvernieuwing/bouwblokvisie-voor-vergroenen-en-verweven to start a collective and continuous debate within the studio and the stakeholders of the city.

Aiming at alternative realities

By rethinking forms, spaces and structures without function, we enable the occurrence of new and possible uses in close relation to architectural forms, figures and motives. In that way we don’t look for alternative uses to existing typologies. We search for new architectural and urban realities that originate the analogue collage, as a tool.

Building new spatial possibilities

So what about function? We will focus on the integration of public facilities but rather than focusing on a predetermined program, we rethink function as a matter of enabling possibilities and opening new opportunities. This approach includes the close reading of the spatial construct in relation to use – with a precise notion of public, collective or private, common, in-between, open and closed, (in-)formal, autonomy, interior and exterior space in mind.

Collage city as a framework

The studio takes the urban condition in Flanders as a given. The fragmented built condition as a mixture of designed and non-designed spaces forms an inspiration as well as a framework in our approach. In the reassembling phase, this urban condition becomes the context to operate within on a precise architectural level.

Outro

The studio is part of the “craftmanship” engagement and operates between research and practice: conceiving through making as well as making through conceiving. The drawing and the model will be the mayor tools throughout the semester. The theme “fremdkörper” is imbedded in the studio approach. The sampling phase brings different typologies together as a starting point to build a narrative, like a “cadavre exquis”, which could be defined as the ultimate fremdkörper. The inspiration by the welcome mistakes of the Flemish context or collage city can be read as fremdkörper on an urban scale. In the “as-sampled phase” the architectural translation to contemporary sustainable structures/materials/characters/details will be explored.

Team

Karen Kesteloot (S T U D I O B O N T), Christopher Paesbrugghe (Collectief Noord architecten)