| Tutor(s) | Prof. Pieterjan Ginckels, Manou Van den Eynde |
| Campus | BXL |
| Language | EN |
| Engagement | Mediating Tactics |
| Semester | 3 |
Description of the studio:
Architects are surface makers. Images are our products, inhabit our mental universes, represent our theoretical landscape. The rendered image, a catch-all term for computer images, virtual models, collages and other prefigurations, is architecture’s bottom-line product, and it is a slim, thin piece of paradox: we are ever better at creating these images, but in a visually overloaded world seem ever more easily fooled by the promises that such images entail. The result is a ‘TANTRIC URBANISM,’ an effortless implosion of interior, building and city, as planned, narrated and hyped by media, developers, architects and its users.
These images of our interiors, buildings and hoods shine so brightly that their realized versions always disappoint. We excel in consuming the rendered reality in such a way that the places in which we live seem only remnants of a lesser reality. When we collide with the limits of this delusion, face to face with drywall and concrete, we ask the question: is the realized render more real than its unrealized counterpart? Did our two-dimensional dreams really wash away our three-dimensional needs? Have we rendered or are we being rendered?
Participants to the studio will investigate the fuzzy relations between the rendering, as a visual translation of the imagined into the real, and the physical world. We will study the generic urban environments in which we end up living, by collecting worst cases and best practices in a published archive of projects, their images and their makers. Our cases will be both local and international. On a weekly basis we will assemble Belgian instances of the realized rendering by means of site visits and safaris, and in week 4 we will make a trip to Berlin where, guided by local specialists, we will carry out performative field research to crash-land in the realized rendering.
After the trip we will formulate a reaction: can we accelerate the destabilization of architectural dream images? Can we produce the perfect hyperreality and make digital waves in architecture media? Can we repair or fix existing situations by hacking into representational systems, and make the unrealizable rendering – or the unrenderable reality? As we develop different positions, we may experiment with taking up different roles such as creative director, project developer, visual effects designer, real estate agent, or ethical hacker.
Expected output:
- Collective: “Rendering magazine,” a visual-critical database of the rendered reality.
Students pair up to investigate both local (Brussels) and international (Berlin…) situations. Students execute field work following studio methods such as SoDoSoPa and Render-Bender, while also developing new collecting and ’piercing’ methods.
We will process and combine the registrations, souvenirs and reflections of these actions in a print publication.
- Individual: design project.
Your design work responds to the revelations and your experiences of the first phase of (action) research. These design-based reactions help deepen your understanding of the realized rendering, and explore potential critical, speculative, or provocative roles for architects in this context.
Depending on the positions and reactions you formulate, individual design projects can be executed by means of renderings, models, movies, interventions, websites, etc.
Excursion/study trip:
Our 3-day excursion to Berlin will be organized in week 4. Together with visual artist Bernd Trasberger and architect and educator Oana Stanescu we will take a deep dive into the city’s recently realized renderings, specifically focusing on the Europacity development. This trip concludes our ‘desk research’ phase, whereby self-designed action research will be carried out by the group.
Timing:
W1 – W3: SCAN THE SURFACE
Following an introductory seminar on the realized rendering, we will collect worst cases and best practices. We carry out prospective research on local and international projects, their representations, their makers and stakeholders. Introduction to “Calling Bullshit”, which will be tuned to fit our program.
Format: weekly safaris; visual studies; discussions; archive assembly.
W1: 24 Sept 2024
Studio: introductory seminar on the realized rendering
+ literature list; “Rendering Bingo!”
Study: literature review; SoDoSoPa tryout > dive in!
W2: 1 Oct 2024
Studio: literature presentations + 1st collective Brussels safari
Study: archive production; develop and test a piercing action > deeper dive!
W3: 8 Oct 2024
Studio: 2nd collective Brussels safari; Berlin intro + preparatory workshop.
Study: prepare Berlin: selected field reader; itineraries, maps, guide; methods, tasks.
W4: SCRATCH THE SURFACE
“Piercing Berlin,” performative field work, developed, produced and executed by the group with local hosts.
Format: travel; action research; documentation.
W5: REVEAL THE SURFACE
Studio: Post-Berlin presentations + editorial workshop
Study: Collective output = first part of Rendering Magazine
W6 – W12: PIERCE/PROVOKE THE SURFACE
You develop an individual design project by means of renderings, models, movies, interventions, websites, performances etc.
Modes: ACCELERATE the situation, HACK the (harmful) representations, RENDER the unrenderable reality, PERFORM the exposure.
Final output
- Rendering magazine
- Individual works
- Self-organized public presentation
References / Further reading:
Image: “Piercing Berlin, FW23”