‘CAN SUBJECTIVE MICROCOSMOS REWRITE A CITY?’ / Kana Arioka
Dealing with: urban strategies/critical architecture/(g)local cities
Semester 2: Constructing urban cultures
Language: English
Campus: Brussels
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Image: Ljubljana under a Common Roof / Marjetica Potrč
In 1944 Jože Plečnik approached the city of Ljubljana with a proposal called “Under a Common Roof”, in which the city would build a roof to provide shelter and infrastructure under which citizens could build their own houses. It was a precursor to Yona Friedman’s large scale modernist utopias, but Plečnik’s project proposed a different kind of modernism.
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INTRODUCTION
This brief outlines the Master Design Studio ‘CAN SUBJECTIVE MICROCOSMOS REWRITE A CITY?’, which explores the relationship between human, architecture and environmental behaviour through the understanding of perceptual world UMWELT.
The German biologist Jakob von Uexküll observed that animals live in species-distinct perceptual worlds, which he termed ‘umwelten’ – subjective microcosmos -, carved out of the objective and measurable environment. However, umwelt encompasses more than just the notion of immediate surroundings. Uexküll understood that the perceptual characteristics of living things can even redefine the larger environment – city -.
In this studio, we all act as behaviourists. The behaviourists set their sights on actions, picking up on attitudes, indications and other faint signals from everyday life. The subjective microcosmos is depicted through behaviour. The analysis of this behaviour in terms of the actions and attitudes of humans and architecture is brought together to form a new perspective.
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STUDIO
The studio will run under the same title for the whole year with different focuses and engagements.
In the first semester, the studio, under the engagement with ‘Exploring Craftsmanship’, sets up a boundaryless relationship between house and city through the lens of human behaviour and rituals. Subjective microcosmos are drawn through careful observation of human behaviour, and a cityscape made up of the assemblage of such microcosmos is visualised.
During the second semester, the focus will be on ‘Constructing Urban Cultures’, and we will work on time frame by introducing the idea of a pre-planning stage with operational openness. We will explore how the subjective microcosmos can be incorporated into a pre-planning system while allowing for a certain degree of freedom of expression.
The principals of these scenarios stand in simplicity, adaptability and intelligent cooperation among individual contributing elements.
The studio dares to plan the unplanned, starting from subjective microcosmos, and challenges us to capture space at a particular time in a particular place. We observe architecture and urban cultures as a matter of continuous evolution and we, as architects, dare to contribute by making the open and adaptable operational system performatively visible.
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TIMEFRAME
Architecture and City are seen as adaptable overtime, embracing growth, decay and transformation. In this studio, we work on 3 timeframes based on the passage of time:
- Actual (+ Historical)
- Pre-Planning Stage
- Particular Place at Particular Time
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METHOD
Chapter 1: Site Survey and Analysis
Firstly, groups of two or three students will conduct a site survey and analysis relating to Timeframe 1: Actual (+ Historical). In this studio, we consider the human, architecture and environment to be the protagonists that form the city. Throughout the survey, students will be asked to capture and visualise the behaviour of these three protagonists.
Chapter 2: Proposal for an Open and Adaptable Operational System
Based on Timeframe 2: Pre-planning stage of the project, students will then work on a design concept demonstrating an open and adaptable operational system. This proposal should illustrate an understanding of human, architectural and environmental behaviour. Students are encouraged to reinvent construction methods, connect environmental elements to wider-scale infrastructure and design spaces around human behaviour and rituals.
Alongside the design assignment, we will develop a shared design language as a team. This is so called the ‘morning research sessions’. During these sessions, we will learn how to design an open and adaptable operational system by studying reference projects and books. In the afternoon, there will be individual desk crits and common pin-ups.
Chapter 3: Project as a reflection on the question ‘Can a subjective microcosmos rewrite a city?’
Building on what we learnt in Chapter 1 and 2, we will consequently move on to the main individual project of the studio.
It’s time to reconnect with the site and re-evaluate the understanding of Chapter 2. The project is a design proposal for a particular place at a particular time – Timeframe 3 -. It must capture a specific moment in the life of the city, its architecture, and its people.
The project should explore how we live in the city by presenting concrete proposals and visuals. It explores attitudes towards architecture and urban cultures.
The individual contributing elements of ‘DESIRE’ – subjective microcosmos – will become visible and form a new cityscape.
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REFERENCES
Books and Exhibitions
- Space and Place: The Perspective of Experience, Yi-Fu Tuan, University of Minnesota Press, 1977
- Made in Tokyo, Atelier Bow-Wow, Kajima Institute, 2001
- Windowscape 1-3, Atelier Bow-Wow, Film Art, 2010
- Commonalities: Production of Behaviours, Atelier Bow-Wow, LIXIL, 2014
- City with a Hidden Past, Fumihiko Maki, Kajima Institute, 2018
- Ilka & Andrea Ruby, Re-inventing Construction, Ruby Press 2010
- Urban Design in the 20th Century: A History, Tom Avermaete and Janina Gosseye, ETH Zürich & gta Verlag, 2021
- Exhibition ‘Capital Agricole’, SOA architects / Yann Kebbi, Pavillon de l’Arsenal, 2018
- Exhibition at Archizoom ‘Beyond High Tech Low Tech’, EPFL Lausanne, 2024
Projects
- Ville Spatiale, Yona Friedman (1958-62)
- Fun Palace, Cedric Price (1964)
- PREVI competition, James Stirling (Lima, 1969)
- Houses Generated by Patterns, Christopher Alexander (Lima, 1969)
- La Mémé, Lucien Kroll (Brussels, 1969-70)
- Non-Stop City, Archizoom (1970)
- The City in the City – Berlin as a Green Archipelago, Oswald Mathias Ungers (Berlin, 1977)
- Parc de la Villette, OMA and Bernard Tschumi (Paris, 1982-87)
- House K3, Peter Thomann (Zurich, 1990)
- Agronica, Andrea Branzi (1995)
- House Inside a House, Oswald Matthias Ungers (1980)
- Eco-House, Frei Otto (Berlin, 1987-1991)
- Setagaya Village, Osamu Ishiyama (Tokyo, 1996-)
- Quinta Monroy, Elemental (Chile, 2003)
- Ljubljana under a Common Roof / Marjetica Potrč (Ljubljana, 2005-2008)
- Allotment House, BeL Sozietät für Architektur (Hamburg, 2013)
- PLUS project in La Chesnaie, Lacaton and Vassal (Saint-Nazaire, 2014-2016)
- Flexible Structure, Truwant + Rodet + (Basel, 2020-2021)
- Basel “reuse” pavilion, Kosmos (Basel, 2021)
- Hardware/Software in architecture, Kosmos (Zurich, 2022)
- PHI contemporary, TEN, Bruther, Truwant + Rodet + (Montreal, 2024)
And more…
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DELIVERABLES
Conceptual diagrams to show the vision, Project proposals in transversal scale (at least three), Analogue drawings are encouraged as the main medium alongside well-crafted models, One critical poster drawing as a main representative drawing, A booklet that contains the whole process of the exercise.
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ASSESSMENT
Assessment will take into account regular attendance at the studio, with the design process being presented to the teacher on a weekly basis. Each assessment will take into account the content (60%), the graphic elaboration (25%) and the oral presentation (15%).
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AGENDA
WEEK 1 _ Introduction Studio & Chapter 1 + Site visit
WEEK 2 _ Chapter 1
WEEK 3 _ <PIN UP> Chapter 1 & Introduction Chapter 2
WEEK 4 _ Chapter 2
WEEK 5 _ Chapter 2
WEEK 6 _ Chapter 2
WEEK 7 _ <MID-TERM REVIEW> Chapter 1 and 2 & Introduction Chapter 3
WEEK 8 _ Chapter 3
Atelier week _ (program to be seen)
WEEK 9 _ <PIN UP> Chapter 3
WEEK 10 _ Chapter 3
WEEK 11 _ <PIN UP> Chapter 3
WEEK 12 _ Chapter 3
WEEK 13 _ Chapter 3
WEEK 14 _ <FINAL REVIEW>
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View the studio brief here (pdf)