Studio Johannes Berry
Sem2, NL / ENG, Brussel, Mediating Tactics
Description of the studio:
In this studio, the question of what a building is, is approached through the question of what building is. Building or its action not as a quantifiable material truth but building or its action as an expression of intention and meaning.
Over the past 15 years, there has been a shift in how we perceive archi-tecture, moving towards the materialization of our actions (building). While in the 1970s, the focus was on architecture that could not be built, and in the 1980s, it was on architecture that was built, today it is about how architecture is built.
It is unsurprising that with this shift, new materialist approaches in architecture and construction manuals have gained popularity. However, most of these manuals emphasize the constructed outcome—often referred to as the permanent works — which pertains to the materials, processes, and their application in forming building elements, components, and structures. This approach to construction tends to reduce the act of building to a quantifiable truth.
This studio proposes a different approach: understanding building as intention and meaning. In doing so it shifts attention to the actions enabling permanent works, often called the temporary works, which are mostly seen as a means to an end and as such marginalized in construction manuals.
The studio focuses on these essential actions of building and understand them as intentions. In other words, it asks how actions such as excavating, reinforcing, lifting, supporting, forming, or moving can become design, and give a building its meaning.
Read the full studio description here. (pdf)