| WORKSHOPS EASA 1997 "Advancing Architecture"
"the
NOMAD MONAD / moving isolation" "Do not eat this
soup" Description:Workshop about
the "Genius loci" of displacement, about the inside of travelling
and the outside being uncovered, unveiled, discovered. "Colour Inside Us"
"The Face of the
Place" Description: Face for the
place - process to decide what kind of space definition we can use and
then to define anyones face of (or for) the space in stone or glass, brick
or steel, paper or pure idea. A photographic workshop. "Doomsday Machine"
Description: To create a
phenomenologic machine which destroys itself during the two week process
of making it and at the same time affects the other workshops. (the idea
is not to blow up the train). "An Horisontal Tower
of Babel - an Inquiry on the State of Utopia" Description:To realise a
film investigating the print of Utopia in reality. As when winter leaves
a physical mark in summer in the form of prints and traces, forms and elements.
Our cities are funded on dreams of the city that once was not there, the
aim is to find these traces and to find traces of Utopia in the reality
of today, to record these prints, develop a story and tell it in a short
film. "EASA on the air
" Description: Radio EASA on
air, having speakers in each compartment of the train working together
with umbrella, telling people the "hottest news" about the event,
making anouncements, play music, make interviews with the cities, etc. "Envelope" Description: Our memory plays
an important role in defining our identity. It connects us to people, to
a place, a culture and our language. It enables us to establish relationships,
to feel at home in one place, and to feel foreign in another. It is our
"luggage" while travelling, and through its eyes we will see
the places to visit. On our journey through Scandinavia we will work with
our experiences and memories. In the workshop we will create an object
- a container or a shell - suitable for gathering and transporting our
äcollectionô. We can carry it with us or wear it on our bodc.
We will support you to choose materials and constructions, that are appropriate
to become folded and stowed away as well as unfolded and extended to carry
your collections. Our "objects" will become a representation
of our experiences. Those personal readings lead to the development of
a collective map: our envelope. Structure: 1. We visit places the and collect
our "material". 2. Simultaneously we build our object. 3. We
work together on a common "envelope". Discussions and working
in groups will be part of the workshop. "Changable and Controlled
Environment"/ "Mobile Live Exhibitions" Description:The workshop
will take place in a space that will be determinated and structured by
pannels of an L-shape. The pannels will be set beside the train in a different
way each time, so they will form different spaces at each station. The
pannels can be placed in horisontal or in vertical manner forming an exhibition
and working surfaces. At each stop - on the basis of certain key-words
from the tutors - the work-teams will choose to construct something on
a pannel. For example: -to create a story based on what impressed them
on thier way there or in the city that we stop. -to design a city (model-sketches)
-to design something that this town needs -to create a collage of items
to this town or area. At the next stop the working teams will change item
of work. One team will continue the work of another tam so we can create
links between the idas and between the stations. What we have to the place
behind us is a amemory of a live exhibition. Nothing stable. What we take
is the inspiration, tha starting points, the dialogue that lead us to creation.
"The Train Twilight
Zone" Description:this workshop will consist out of a theoretical and a practical part. 1. Theoretical part: about the realtion between movement & architecture, on the one hand there is a architectural environment, which is strongly realted to other things in motion, a rail, a station, for e.g. But most of the time these elements remain quite useless and without a further sense, than just to be there. On the other hand there lays a big quality in these spaces, as, being part of the moving element (e.g. watching out of a running train), you have the unique chance to watch the environment in a motion relative to yours. And it is just this psecific motion, that puts a sense into its surrounding, and makes the special environment considerable. We will try to deal with this phenomena, looking for a way to determine it in an architectural manner. (theoretical background:..meaning-access-legibility-deformation-deterritoriality-juxtaposition... In a time where quality in architecture is connected to legible form concept, the speed of the train, disconnected from the site it's crossing, destroyes and tries to mix the surrounding of the railway. The city as an accumulation of networks, is deformed by one of them, and more, by on that should be a tool for communication, circulation of informations. The other great physical circulation of informations is the road network. The workshop proposes a parallell reflexion on those two networks, trying to propose an antinomic analysis of both (starting from K.Lynch's proposal for highway design) A look to the utopic design of American highways and cars could also help the reflexion about a new interior design of the train cars for a new aprehension of the surrounding deterritorialised space of the moving train, if a new design seems to be needed. The definition of this deterritorialised and immaterial space is also a main question. Question: Can you connect this unexisting space to the lack of personality and intimacy of space as a train car, and is this lack of personality and intimacy of the space because of high functional caracter of the space in train cars or something else? The last reflection of the workshop would be about the sign left of the passing train: the railway itself, which is also so strongly connected to its function that it cannot have any other meaning, and for that is turning completely absurd, for example as a city form.) 2. Practical part: We architects
(specifically) are generally planning and building spaces, which are required
for specific purposes of human being, according to the request of functionality...
For each task there are to fulfil particular parameters. The needs of human
being is reduced to Modulors (Corbusier) or to determined ammounts of squaremeters
per person (Neufert) All these Modulors and parameters have one disadvantageous
attitude in common; For the purpose of practicability, they are treating
human being as still lifes or furniturelike objects. Instead of calculating
with a request of 1.2 cbm we would like to experience the effective space
in use according to real human being in motion. The task of this workshop
will be the development of a modulor in motion. We will build up a model
of a human in motion, like a walking e.g. to experience the space required
by a person moving. We plan on building a 1/1 model of the outer shape
of a movement out of wire. The result will be kind of a tunnel which you
can walk through, repeating the origin move and have an impression of the
act remaining in space. This could lead to space-requirements and architectural
surrounding taking this visible movement in consideration. "Blue Hour"
Description: Since two years we explore the nightly, hidden identity of places by way of workshops and lightexperiments. And endless voyage through the nightlifeof space. When the night has fallen over the city and enlightment chases the dark, it is not the same world we see. The dusk leads us into another reality. A reality with other possibilities and laws. The metamorphosis of the city by day to the city by night is our fascination. At night it appears in a new manifestation, looses its heaviness and becomes elusive. The blue hour of dusk is not simply a part of the day-night cycle, of appearing and disappearing, but it gives the city a new identity. The colors of dusk are the initiation into the magic of the night. The dark recreates the city. The balance of the day disappears and the world regenerates itself in an elusive way. The city changes from a touchable result of human effort into a fantasma. The workshops are large-scale experiments with the imaginative power of light to get known with space. Each space, each place has an identity that is unique, in platonic sense, and reveals itself differently dependant on the circumstances. Darkness gives us the oportunity to reanimate surroundings, to free those of their heaviness and show a lighter version of their identity. Theaterlights and slides projectors are the most important elements in this process of sublimation. Making our own slides is the first step in the process of awareness of the identity of a location. The slides give the opportunity to fold fotographed textures and images around existing objects, to add new layers to surfaces. In this way a weaving of meanings develops, representations of the surroundings are projected on the surroundings. Interpretations of a place are presented at the place. Together with the slides, theaterlights make it possible to edit texture, structure color and transparancy of materials. And to create reflection, shadow and silhouette. We start with as less as possible formal concepts and try to be guided by the magic and energy of a site. With light, unknown facets and appearances of a situation are made visible to penetrate to the essence of a place. Materials: theatrelights and slide-projectors "Mark" Description / Program "Absolutely Nomads
- Aren't We All?" Description: How can a multicultural,
multilingual and multiethnical tribe present itself? What message can we
bring to the worlds we'll encounter on our trip to nowhere? To move: a
journey just for the sake of it, a research in progress, a process of acquiring
knowledge by constant contact with the outside world. We belong to everywhere
and to nowhere; we don't believe in an exclusive tradition. Contamination
is our goal, the exchange of our cultures is enriching our life journey.
For two weeks, a nomadic tribe will move around Scandinavia, through different
landscapes and different environments. We will take this wonderful opportunity
to reflect upon the idea of our life in which moving has become essential:
are we the new nomads?We will try to find a way, each time anew, to bring
our message, we'll decide what kind of message it is going to be. The goal
of our experience won't necessarily leave a permanent mark on the land
we'll visit, but to create a subtle interchange between us and them. "The Possibilities
of Technological Solutions of Architectural Element" Description: According to
the theme of the mobile society of EASA 1997, I propose a workshop based
on different possibilities of technological solutions of architectural
elements related to the places where they are situated. I'd like to discover
how simple elements like pluvials, fixtures, etc... change for different
reasons or for tradition. For these reason it's necessary to identify the
elemnts that should be studied by small groups of approximately 3 persons
each, in order to understand their evolution over the years and form some
hypothesis for their restoration. This work should be done through drawings,
photos, some written texts. Cooperation with a workshop of photography
would be interesting or, if that's not possible, I would take some photos
on my own. "No Title" /
Fifth corner group Description:"Travelling
was a way to be on another place or to be nowhere today it is theonly way
to experience the feeling that man is really somewhere. At homesurrounded
by all the informations from all the screens, I am nowhere, and I am in
all the world in the same time, I am in the world banality. It is the same
in all the countries. To land in new town, in some foreign language it
means suddenly to be found here and nowhere else. The body meets its own
case. Free of all the pictures it finds imagination. (Jean Baudrillard)
"Fragmentation, Deconstruction
and the Disintegration of the Image of the City" Description: A discussion
on the principal phenomena that generated the breakdown of the traditional
unity that characterised the art forms the pre-industrial era. The lecture
traces the predilection for the fragment in sculpture and architecture
from Michelangelos "Torso del belvedere" through to the works
of Rodin, to the concept of abstraction in modern painting. The idea of
the "ruin" is at the base of the fragmentation of the town in
the postindustrial era, and its representation in the works of the Futurists
and the german Expressionists. The experience of the modern town as descibed
by 19th and 20th century novellists is translated into contemporary architectural
movements, including deconstruction, which characterize the built fabric
today. "Teamwork and basic
values" Learning, development and values has a much stronger effect on people in groups than signal individuals In today’s fast developing and complex society are difficult tasks not solved by one person alone. Our time require cooperation with people from the same and from different back ground as our self. In this cooperation the demand to advance working processes, god communication and the ability to work in a team strongly increasing. The goal will be; (Even Stormyhr is currently studying body oriented therapy at the Danish Bodynamic Institute, and has tutored groups in the pedagogic field.) "Diamoving"
Description: Remember EASA'95
in Zamosc. Sure you have to remember the Multivision workshop. This time
we have something special for you. "Traincording" Description: Record the unrecordable,
save the unsaveable. We will try to record everything that is going on
in the train filled with people and travelling for two weeks across beautiful
countries. To catch all the moods and climates which are the exact thing
that is remebered by people. We will not concentrate on facts, but rather
how can we feel them. Through subject point of view things can look in
many differnt ways. So the global goal is to record that subject point
of view. "Inner Landscapes" Description: This workshops
is aiming at getting conscious about our inner biases that influences the
designing process. So we will take a project, and do it in our normal way,
and afterwards with the help of a deck of Tarot (not the traditional one,
but an adapted one) cards we will try to see how we feel about it and what
is in the basement of this process, and then we'll do the same project
again. LONGER DESCRIPTION: I know this thing sounds kind of weird. But
let me tell you the whole story. My father brought me one day a deck of
Tarot cards (till then I didn't know what it was all about). The best thing
was that it was not an ordinary one, but one which was adapted to the idea
of Zen philosophy (yeah, another weird thing also!). So instead of concentrating
on the "pragmatic" part it was more abstract and it had as a
purpose to help you find what you have in mind "here and now"
one of the precepts of Zen. So every card have names like "The Fool",
"Change", "The Dream", "Laziness", "Go
with the flow" and you can find some explanation about this but also
in the Zen way (when someone ask something to a Zen master the answer is
not the answer but half an answer so the whole answer you must find it
for yourself). So THE POINT IS: that using this card-reading technique
you can reveal some of the problems and the mindsets that are running in
the background of your mind and thinking, and which are very often the
barriers to be broken in order to achieve progress. This workshop is an
experiment trying to see if the use of these cards can really solve some
real problems, or if they can give you some insights to what's happening
in the inner side of us. It is more like a Roucherski test (I don't know
if I spelled the name right) in which you look at the abstract drawing
and tell what you think it is, and usually what you say it's what's on
your mind. HOW DOES THIS RELATE TO THE THEME? In the ever-changing of the
landscape which we were passing through and into the ever-changing landscape
of life (which is changing faster and faster) there are no more rational
rules or methods on which we rely to navigate. So what we can rely on is
only what our intuitive part can say and this deck of cards is one of the
methods of tuning in and listen to ourselves. And having a better understanding
of ourselves we can have a better understanding of what is going on, and
of things that are going on faster than usual. Thanx a lot for reading
and please send me feed back! "Paysage" Description: see the work
of the "Haute couture"- workshop, Poland 1995 "The power of form?"
Description: The workshop
would be dedicated to the investigation of power and weakness of forms
(visual, audio, perceptual, material, rational, spiritual,...) which man
through history has discovered. The accent would be on the mobile society
and possibility of formatting or non-formatting such a way of living. Is
the formative way of living and the formative way of thinking the main
reason we became conscious of our smallness? Is that the main cause of
all our frustrations? If our lives are so well-formed in advance, isnt
the sense of living reduced to some sort of machine-rules? Braking the
form apart might be a big step forward. This is the step we have done in
the post-modern era. And where are we now? Is it possible to live in the
non-formatted world? Or is our reduction to simple forms too abstarct and
too rough? Maybe it is the time now to learn from the nature? The nature
is much more complex. If we always focus ourselves to particular object,
being, event,... the diversity of form is immense. It is very difficult
to separate all sorts of forms without ver high level of abstraction. Could
we try to reduce our abstract way of thinking and percieving to the basic
level, trying to look on the world as the whole (as one) in wich there
are just slight variations in the forms when moving through (whatever "moving"
means; through space and time, but also: perceptually, rationally, spiritually,
mentally,...) The nature is not static. It is mobile too. It changes all
the time. But some changes we can percieve and some of them are outside
of our limits. The changes in nature are usually veru slow, mild, smooth,
gradual (of course in the situations that are not catastrophic). Could
we build our mobile society in which connectivity, gradually, cintinuity,
smoothness,... instead of dissolution, decomposition, division, dissociation,
... would take place? Which form, or forms, could be the most appropriate
for the mobile society? Formless forms moving on some formless curv? The
forms that can be easily transformed into another shape? Soft forms? Forms
that can be lengthened and extended as much as we wish? The forms easy
to build, move and remove? These are some of the questions on which the
investigation in the proposed workshop would be focused. "Experience topography" Description: modern tourism
has become means of consumption of place. Captured by illusion industry
we travel to places of our desire robbing and using up everything what
made them to object of this desire, leaving there the rubbish of our mediamade
expectations. As a result of ever accelerating speed of travelling we return
before leaving, thus spending our future experiences even before they happen.
How can a mobile temporary community on its journey towards periphery reverse
this process? Can there be a fullscale timetrue notation of experiences
of such a group of individuals created? This workshop will try to find
a strategy of de-consumption of place by scanning the five different places
we will get individual frameworks consisting of our own points of interest,
noticed surfaces, possible events and spontaneous moments, stratification
of which will give us an experience map with our representations of places,
directions, ruptures, penetrations, voids as examinated in the real place.
This will be a notation of place both in space and time, recorded currently
throughout the five surroundings. In each of these locations a place will
be chosen, in wich a temporary intervention, based on the interpretation
of a fragment from the created map, will be performed by the group, in
order to retransform the experience back to the original space and time.
During the journey we will explore five various places and create a plan
with our notations of all of them. This could be something like the map
of a continous place. Regarding the notion of mobility, continous place
could be a place of nomadic community. We will work both in pairs and team. "On the way from
techno-tecture to architecture" Description: ...An ettempt
to transcend travel without by the journey within... On nomadism, mobility
and the essence of architecture. I.About the form The workshop, wich, wich
we would rather call a "work-shock", will try to evolve into
a collective creative journey through space and time (a metaphor/symbol
of the life-journey itself). We will observe, discuss, draw, analyse, meditate,
experiment, project, build(?) and present... it all depends upon the process
itself that will generate the contents and the forms of our communication
(between us and with the others as well - we will try to collaborate with
other groups as well...) based on a clear structuring of an inner foundation
for a common/and personal experiences. II.About the contents In the context
of this years' theme (with its travelling experiment) we will try to structure
the "workshock" (which always spans universal human and global
themes with specific cultural and regional ones) as a study of a: -globally
mobile but rootless -globally efficient but desacrilised -globally virtual
but spaceless -globally designed but homeless -globally technical but essenceless
-globally consumers but empty... ...etc. Society and culture of the end
of the XXth century world. And we will surely try to search, find and show
the ways out of the ethical, professional and global crisis an individual,
architecture and the world are deeply into nowwadays. We will try to look
for the origins of nomadism (through old greek "només"
and old egyptian "nomá") and the ways modern culture has
perverted its authentic meaning. The tensions between dynamic and static
principles, virtual and real worlds, utopos and topos will be some major
themes through which we will try to explore the essentials of "archi-tecture"
(again trying to transport and transform it's original meaning into the
context of informatic, post-industrial society. We will try to look for
examples of architecture that succeeds to combine/balance the challanges
of an universal civilisation with the ones of autonomous cultures we will
travel through... (and discuss the examples of Utzon, Vandkunsten, Asplund,
Lewerentz, Erskine, Fehn, Aalto, Pietilla, etc). Since we always try to
be in "here and now" (present) during our workshops we will also
try to integrate the readings of a direct spatial, cultural context "by
the road" into a "key-experience" that any architect can
apply anywhere in it's surrounding. We will actually offer the basics of
reading an elementary architectural language... (and the ways of how to
search for one's owns centre by travelling around...) The results (drawings,
writings, buildings(?),...) mostly depend upon the concrete circumstances
of travel and upon the atmosphere of the common process we will share all
together. (we will also prepare a lecture and show some projects of ours')
"Listening to the
course of time" Description: We will try
to translate the spirit of the places we travel through into images and
sounds. To figure out a way of sharing and communicating to others the
feeling of being in transition from one place to the next following "the
course of time" in Wim Wenders own words. We, architects, are so many
times enclosed in our small, slefsufficient own world. We will use the
experience of travelling together to learn what it is difficult to say
with words. Nature, culture and human interaction will give us the clues.
Cinema, literature and Music will be our guides. Wim Wenders' movies, Kavafis
poetry or Paul Winters' music will help us to discuss along the way, how
we can let inspired by nature and communicate our feelings. We will apply
ourselves in learning from their experiences trying to understand our town.
The outcome will be a mixture of our own experiences being an international,
multicultural group of people with a common destiny: Narvik. Our vision
for architecture will only improve by letting us be wide open to the external
stiumuli first, and by finding ways of communicating to the rest then.
We will work on both aspects. In each place we will sketch, photograph
and record sounds. We will try to get people involved from the differnt
places we go through by exposing them to our own views of their habitat
after mixing them with our favourite sounds and images brought from abroad.
Projections and slide shows in the streets (like in "cinema Paradiso")
together with other performances according to the group (concerts, performings
or installations). We will collect the material to prepare a final presentation
showing the spirit of the trip. (DO you remember the tape Pablo Neruda
recieves from his friend in "Il Postino?") "Priscilla queen
of perception" 1. Short description: based
on perception, reflexion, translation into abstarctions and, if possible,
personal interpretations of the world surrounding us. 2. Longer description:we
are born with some skills for seeing, smelling, hearing, touching and feeling.
With these skills we start exploring our world and we also grow. We learn
not only in our lessons. There we learn to develop certain skills and we
learn to organize our experiences. In this way we develop a view of the
world. When we store our experiences a smemories we select those which
have meaning for us. We relocate what we learnt and choose what fits our
needs... Perception is more than what eyes can see. It is highly connected
with the development of our skills, thoughts and reasoning. "Mobile Hom(m)e"
Description: Two scenarios.
"Passagen - To breathe
or not to breathe" "Crossing-Mobility" Description: "Virtual city; transportation:
transformation" A short description: transportation
- the body or other equivalent with perception transformation - giving
different meaning to the existing space "No Title" Description: Problem of interactive
functional zones - problem of borders researching of zones interactions
- borders between cooperating zones - problem of bufferzones... "Films Without Cameras" Material needed: Portable Light Boxes, 35mm Viewer, Decor Glass Paints, Paint Brushes, OHP Pens & Refills, Scissors, Scalpels, 35mm Splicer Materials: Other info: Would like access to a 35mm Steenbeck to view completed film & edit it, near the end of the journey (Stockholm or Copenhagen probably). These are available in most film studios (they are big!). Gaining sponsorship for tutors and materials from this end, but it would be good to know if smaller items (scissors, scalpels) will be availbale anyway. "dying young"
This project is fascinated
by the way that we tell stories through architecture, and how architecture
can be used to tell stories. (for more theoretical background read the
article by Shaheed Salem) IMPLICATIONS: It is anticipated
that the following points will be investigated through the project: the
relationship between : a memorial as a permanent physical object / a memorial
as an 'essence', a fluid or temporary experience. the official / the unofficial.
the institution / the public. individual heroism / obligation to the state,
to a crew or to humanity. interpretation of: the text - as a source of
programme the text - as the creation of a myth and how these are explored
and expressed through form and drawing making. "Lys" Workshop Proposal: LYS (To
build a device to acknowledge & measure the changing light as we journey
from Västkusten to Narvik and back to Stockholm) "The Architectural
Souvenir" Description:" The Architectural
Souvenir is an object carefully made; something for the tourist to take
back home. It represents a specific place, not exactly as this place appeared
phenomenologically, but transformed, displaced. Because of its representational
characteristics the souvenir is able to serve as a key to memory as well
as a point of departure. When we need it to, it can send us travelling
back in time, but its staus as simulacrum also forces it to give away new
relations, to point out possible ways of re-thinking what is site-specific.
The workshop introduces a working method; a universal system(s) of annotation/registartion
exposed to Genius Loci. |