EVERYTHING THAT’S OF ANY USE* (BA-2) – Introduction

Studio Svobodová Blaha

We dive into the world of a commercial, mixed areas aware of all its layers, users, inhabitants, typologies – little stories and conglomerates, too. Within these we picked a few built objects that we are curious about examining further, primarily from an architectural and structural point of view but also in a way of fictitious exercises and a short investigation on the basis of real conditions and needs of the buildings owners. Encountering the reality of the plot, users, their business cases etc., we even listen to user’s needs, dreams and problems and take them seriously, translating these into eventual scenarios and programme as a motivation for any intervention/conversion/extension/.. yet not simply as a straightforward and naïve basis of the assignment. We hope to remain critical, collage a hyperreality of the existing, of what we found and raise it into a project of another responsibility and complexity. (Not leaving out our own obsessions!) 

The architecture of this testing ground is as random as it is tightly determined by building regulations and trade supervisory authorities. Corporate identity blends with DIY. Within these incidental conditions, we build upon, demolish, adapt, optimize. Considering limitations as potential assets. Finding the plot beautiful and ugly at the same time – ripe for experimentation yet still facing the complexity (and contradiction) of reality. Can we achieve a more coherent ensemble through fragmentary adaptation/do we even want to achieve any dialogue? What is (the) context?

Starting with no warm up. Intuition is OK. Intuition carries information. Intuition can be examined later (but not too late). Being aware of one’s goal, but ready to accept accidents, too. Love freedom, yet deny „Anything goes!“ 

Video

„To arrange everything with the same care (and the same trembling) betrays the beginner“, writes the Berlin filmmaker, author and lecturer Christoph Hochhäusler in his 2004 text „Lebendiger Zusammenhang von Blicken“ just as he himself had finished his graduation film. With this in mind, we would like to draft the most amazing beginner‘s projects – full of trembling and euphoria!

*Einstürzende Neubauten, „Alles“, 2000

Datum
03.11.2020

Zeit
10:00 – 12:00 Uhr