Alternative Architecture
Tuesday 3 May at 1-8 p.m.
Alternative Architecture
- Four conversations and two lectures
During an afternoon and an evening 14 international architectural practices will participate in a series of conversations and presentations, on a discipline in transformation.
Free admission
Participants: Bruit du Frigo (FR), Cityfoerster (DE/NL), Celine Condorelli (UK), Economy (SE), Exyzt (FR), FAT (UK), IFAU (DE), Modulorbeat (DE), Raumlaborberlin (DE), Meike Schalk & Apolonija Sustersic (SE/NL), Stealth (RS/ NL)
Studio Basar (RO), Testbedstudio (SE), Uglycute (SE)
Moderators: Kim Einarsson, Konsthall C; Magnus Ericson, Arkitekturmuseet; Helena Mattsson, KTH; Malin Zimm, Arkitekturmuseet.
New types of architectural practice has recently been recognized internationally. They represent an approach that sets the participatory processes and public space in the center, with projects that are often temporary, critical and subtle. It is an activity in formation and change, and therefore interesting to examine and discuss. How does it and in what context? What is its importance to overall development in architecture and design? Is it appropriate to call it "alternative"?
The event is the third in a series with the purpose to showcase and discuss new forms of practice in architecture and design. Previous events were At Work With (Venice Biennale 2010) and 48 hours, the art of keeping open (Arkitekturmuseet, February 2011).
Alternative architecture? is produced in collaboration with Economy, Raumlaborberlin and Testbedstudio with the support of the Royal Institute of Technology School of Architecture, The Goethe-Institut Schweden and Stockholms Arkitektförening.
Programme:
Tuesday 3 May 2011
1:00 pm Introduction
1:30 pm Conversation 1 and 2 (in parallel):
1. Apolonija Sustersic och Meike Schalk, Cityförster,
Economy.
2. Studio Basar, IFAU, Uglycute
3:00 pm Intermission
3:30 pm Conversation 3 and 4 (in parallel):
3. Modulorbeat, Raumlaborberlin, Bruit de Frigo
4. FAT, Stealth, Testbedstudio
5:00 pm Break (food for sale)
6:00 pm Futuristic low-tech, Lecture by Nicolas Henninger and
Alexander Lacombe, Exyzt
7:00 pm Sorting things out, lecture by Céline Condorelli,
Support Structure
8:00 pm Drink
Participants:
Bruit you Frigo (FR) is a group of architects based in Bordeaux. They work with different methods to show how a city's public spaces can develop and change. The group create new situations and new opportunities through building temporary environments in collaboration with local actors. This is a recurrent method that permeates many of its projects.
www.bruitdufrigo.com
Cityfoerster (DE/NL) is a network consisting of eleven people. They are based in Germany and the Netherlands but is also active in the UK, Norway and Italy. They actively participate in the debate on urban planning and they have produced a large amount of projects dealing with new forms of urban development, both focusing on new development and re-interpretation of existing environments.
www.cityfoerster.de
Celine Condorelli (UK) is a British architect/artist who, together with Gavin Wade, developed the project Support Structure. It investigates architecture's supportive role in the cross point between the social and institutional space. The project culminated last year in the acclaimed and almost encyclopedic guide Support Structures.
www.celinecondorelli.eu
Economy (SE) is a Swedish-Australian platform working in architecture, arts, education and management. Economy was founded in 2010 by Jessica Watson-Galbraith and Tor Lindstrand. Tor is an architect and lecturer in design processes at KTH School of Architecture. Jessica is a trained choreographer with a background in the global financial community. Economy created with Testbedstudio the project At Work With, for the Nordic Pavilion at the Architecture Biennale in Venice 2010.
www.this-is-economy.com
Exyzt (FR) is a French architecture collective, started in 2003 by five architects. Today, they consist of about twenty architects, photographers, botanists, designers, filmmakers, musicians and designers who work with temporary structures at specific locations. They have worked with scaffolding, which in their projects turned into places filled with clubs and life. An example of this is the Metavilla that transformed the French Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2006 to a nest site, workshop and disco.
www.exyzt.org
FAT (UK) began their operations in mid-1990's and has since established itself as a unique interpreter of contemporary British architecture. The office works in a playful way with aesthetic ideals and inspired by the decorative and non-functional elements that many of its contemporary peers regard as taboo. It is precisely in this quest and inclusive approach that office stands out.
www.fashionarchitecturetaste.com
IFAU (DE) is an architectural collective from Berlin who runs interdisciplinary projects with architecture and urban design. IFAU has mainly worked with various cultural institutions, often in collaboration with the architect Jesko Fezer. They investigate how small physical intervention can alter the specific social situations, and thereby articulate problems and create rooms that are open to different interpretations and uses.
www.ifau.berlin.heimat.de
Modulorbeat (DE) are based in Münster and practice interdisciplinary with architecture, design and urban planning. They often work with projects that marks a clear extension. An example of this approach is light installation Kubik, which was mounted in Lisbon, Berlin and Barcelona as well as in the gold glittering temporary kunsthalle Switch in Muenster.
www.modulorbeat.de
Raumlaborberlin (DE) is a group of architects from Berlin which started operations in 1999 to meet the rapid, uncontrolled changes that went through Berlin after the wall came down. Their so-called urban prototypes, are changing urban landscape by highlighting the problems rather than solving them, and engaging local stakeholders and residents to participate in such projects.
www.raumlabor-berlin.de
Meike Schalk & Apolonija Sustersic (SE / NL) are, in their common practice, studying conflicts in the public domain. They combine research with collectively committed projects and the creation of specific spatial stagings. Through their different backgrounds in architecture and landscape architecture (Schalk), art and architecture (Sustersic), they have developed methods that go beyond the professional divisions and thus managed to produce very sharp and well-developed areas of interest.
www.apartma.org
Stealth (RS / NL) is an practice based between Rotterdam and Belgrade, set up in 2000 by Ana Dzokic and Marc Neelen. As the name implies, their interest lies in the unseen potential of the modern urban landscape. By investigating the city based on methods such as visual arts, activism and spatial installations, urban space can be developed and changed with the help of common interpretations and whims.
www.stealth.ultd.net
StudioBASAR (RO) is an architectural practice that was started in Bucharest in 2006 by Cristi Borcan and Alex Axinte. They work with a method they call Search and Rescue, where active investigations of sites leads to ideas for new projects in the contemporary urban landscape. They are not afraid to work with improvisation or trivial issues, while they at the same time, as an office, are working with various types of residential and public buildings.
www.studiobasar.ro
Testbedstudio (SE) is a Swedish architectural firms operating in the urban area. Testbedstudio has, among other things, created a social worm, a people pyramid and an environment in the form of Gotland, a book of 100 ideas, a house with 100 rooms and a series of urban interventions for 100 SEK. With Economy they created the exhibition At Work With for the Nordic Pavilion at the Architecture Biennale in Venice 2010.
www.testbedstudio.com
Uglycute (SE) was founded in 2000 and currently consists of Fredrik Stenberg, Markus Degerman and Jonas Nobel. They appear in the intersection of art, architecture and design and their projects are taking shape as interiors as well as installations. The office is actively working with education and has produced a long series of workshops, which often focus on building full-scale experimental environments.
www.uglycute.com
