Terrain vague
The module will kick off by applying the situationist technique of dèrive, performing with the whole group of participants an exploration of Cittadellarte’s urban surroundings. The aim – to realize, by the end of the week, 1:1 built objects – needs to be taken into account since the very beginning of this process, in order to speed up the exploration. During the first day’s walks, the group will recognize, attracted trough their particular spatial-social situations and phenomena, a range of sites to work on. Using a set of simple recording tools, the characteristics of the sites will be captured. During the second day, we’ll focus on the evaluation and reflection of the founded and mapped spatial situations and phenomena.
The participants, divided in small teams, will then design and build specific objects for specific urban situations.
As portable prostheses for the public space or fixed spatial corrections, these objects will reflect needs, wishes, character of the sites and the citizens who experience them in their everyday life. The material utilised will be standard timber with screws connections. At the end of the week we want to carry out a series of small architectural interventions in the city, with the aim to create atmospheres of communication and exchange or intrusions into a situation of settled habits.
A final public walk along the different spots will provide the opportunity to test and reflect the realized objects.
SCHEDULE
September 28th
morning
Guided tour to Cittadellarte, including the Pistoletto, Arte Povera collections and temporary exhibitions (curated by Luca Furlan)
Group presentation
afternoon
Introduction to the workshop’s core topics
Walk/Mapping
September 29th
Evaluation/Team-building
Design/Presentation
Discussion/Definition of aims
September 30th
Building workshop at Cittadellarte
October 1st
Building workshop at Cittadellarte
Test on site
Adjustments
October 2nd
Public walk along the sites/Reflection
REFERENCES
The mentor will prepare a reader for participants with key texts, some of which will be discussed during the week.
MONUMENTS, 2013
Nantes
http://raumlabor.net/28062013-monuments/
cantiere barca 2011-13
Torino
http://raumlabor.net/cantiere-barca/
officina roma 2011-12
MAXXI, Museo nazionale della arti des XXI secolo, Rome
RE-cycle. Strategies for Architecture, City and Planet
http://raumlabor.net/officina-roma/
the generator / sedia veneziana 2010
Venice, Biennale di Architettura
http://raumlabor.net/the-generator/
odyssee europa 2009/2010
Ruhrgebiet, a joint project organised by the Schauspielhaus Bochum, Schauspiel Dortmund, Schauspiel Essen, Schlosstheater Moers, Theater an der Ruhr, Theater Oberhausen, raumlaborberlin and the European Capital of Culture RUHR.2010
http://raumlabor.net/odyssee-europa/
BIOGRAPHY AND STATEMENT
raumlaborberlin is a Berlin based group of 8 architects, founded in 1999, working at the intersections between architecture, city planning and art by means of performative, temporary interventions.
raumlaborberlin’s works focus on urban transformations and the relationships between private and public space. Urban situations that are leftover and difficult to handle attract us. Artistic and architectural interventions serve us as tools of communication and open up new perspectives for alternative uses, collective ideals, urban diversity as well as difference. We explore and use what we find, the condition of the place and consolidate alliances between local actors and external specialists. The goal is an architecture that succeeds in merging space with subjective experiences, that allows people to discover new qualities and leads to an alternative understanding of the city.
Our view of architecture doesn’t only connect to the built environment but rather to an experimental building laboratory for a participatory practice within the public realm. Architecture becomes the tool for finding and inventing a city of possibilities.
download the full documentation about the module and the mentor in PDF format
