| Master studio 22-23, sem 1 | Shipyard: no grid_BRU |
| Tutor(s) | Jasmien Wouters |
| Campus | Brussels |
| Language | EN |
Video: Open air swimming in Brussels, POOL IS COOL
Description of the studio:
– Two studios – Brussels (ENG) and Ghent (NL)
– Working together and yet separate
– Working on two boats/FLOW pool/… as a condition for thinking
– Thinking about dynamic and nomadic architecture that dares to exist between the meshes of the existing: NO-GRID.
– Working together with POOL IS COOL on the need for an ‘open air swimming pool’ in Brussels.
– The swimming pool as a symbol for societal infrastructure and a natural ‘lynchpin’ in the center of a metropolis.
– Analysis (and design) of water as a leverage for the city.
– (Analysis and) design of temporary NO-GRID infrastructure and/or ‘event’ as generator for urbanity.
Studio ‘Shipyard’ has a tradition of reflecting on nomadic and dynamic architecture.
These concepts seem to be the opposite of the static nature that (usually) characterises architecture. Our desire to be sedentary has translated into petrified cities and communities. However, the adventurous nomadic urge to move and be on the move is present in all of us.
Three years of studio ‘Shipyard’ taught us that architecture in its essence needs less than we sometimes think. It’s not (only) about ‘our comfort’ or ‘building sustainable cities and buildings’ but that the real ecology of architecture starts from the fundamental consideration of our place of ‘being’ in (an emancipating) relation to everything (man, animal, plant, thing…) that surrounds us today.
Our role as designer mainly consists of (re)discovering places. And if such a place is ‘good’, we may call it successful architecture, regardless of any ‘design’ that may or may not have been necessary for this. And if it is not (yet) good, we should look for the minimum intervention necessary to make it happen.
This thought led to the following theme on which the Shipyard studio will work for the next three years: NO-GRID.
We are all familiar with the concept of the ‘off-grid’, a movement in which existence is disconnected from the (electricity) grid, usually in idyllic scenic locations where the omnipresence of nature can ensure an autarchic life.
NO-GRID wants to navigate even further from all the frameworks and networks that anchor our lives to existing systems. Not out of resistance, but out of an unstoppable urge to explore: a voyage of discovery into uncharted territory, between the meshes of the net.
This exploration does not want to remain a simple philosophy. We want to explore it really hands-on.
We will be working simultaneously on two campuses, Brussels and Ghent.
Read the full studio description in pdf and Miro.