SELECTED WORKS OF STUDENTS

Lecturers:
Univ.Ass. Dott.Mag. Riccardo Villa
Univ.-Prof. Dr. phil. Vera Bühlmann

Europe as a Project?

Architecture Theory Seminar, Summer Semester 2019

From the early Greek myth of Atlantis and Plato’s theory of the Republic, to the Christian image of the ‘Heavenly Jerusalem’, until the properly ‘utopian’ projects of the Renaissance, European thought has never really been contempt with (and within) the limits of an immanent ground, but always projected itself beyond any here-and-now.

Yet, with the arise of nihilism and after the “death of God”, not only the place, but also the time in which such a transcendent projection might find its realisation seemed to disappear from the horizon of thought, casting it to the domain of the ‘untimely’, or ‘u-chronic’—something which can never possibly be realised.

What implications does such a history have for Europe today? How can architecture—as the techne more than any other able to ‘project’, to ‘cast a form in advance’—help in the understanding of the problem? In other words: can we conceive of Europe as project?

Exhibition at Chateau Chambord: May 26th – September 1st 2019

International architectural competition ‘chambord inachevÉ’

In September 1519 the first stone was laid of what would become, under the leadership of François I, the most amazing construction of the Renaissance: the castle of Chambord. 500 years later, the national estate of Chambord intends to celebrate this anniversary by offering to the public an exhibition both retrospective and prospective, tying yesterday and tomorrow under the auspices of Utopia. 

Lecturers:
Univ.Ass. Dott.Mag. Riccardo Villa
Univ.-Prof. Dr. phil. Vera Bühlmann

ORDER[S] IN ARCHITECTURE, THE COSMIC PLAY OF CONSTITUTIONS AND FOUNDATIONS

SEMINAR ARCHITECTURE THEORY, Summer Semester 2018

The image that comes to our mind today when faced with the idea of cosmos is indeed one related to the outer space, of planets, stars and galaxies – what we might also call by the name of « universe ». Yet, the cosmos has much rather “earthly” roots, as the etymology of the word binds it with the concepts of order and ornament: it is not by chance that we often refer to the latter as something “cosmetic”. These two terms, opposed to the idea of chaos and of the chaotic, can be seen as closely interwoven with architecture, as a practice that at the same time orders and adornates the space. Tracing a line in the earth (nemein), cutting an enclosure (temenos) out of an undefined space and materializing it through a set of codified signs (the orders): these are the fundamental operations of erecting one of the epitomes of all architecture, the temple. Rising order out of chaos is an act shared both by the human and the divine, to such an extent that, in the creational moment of the cosmogony, God himself is often referred to as « architect » of the universe.

Guest lecturer: Martin burr

MY PRECIOUS MONTAGE.

EXERCISE / THEORY OF FILM, Winter semester 2017

In the course of the Exercise / Theory of Film ‘My Precious Montage’ during winter semester 2017, according to the research project ‘set.tableau’, we are looking for a reinterpretation of Platons most important dialogue which gave the banquet in the academic discourse its name: the feast / symposium. An overflowing banquet of source material serves us to this purpose: image, text and sound out of ‘Histoire(s) du cinéma’, selected speeches as well as Platon’ symposion and Michel Serres’ ‘The Parasite’.

Lecturers: Univ.-Prof. Dr. phil. Vera Bühlmann,
Univ.Ass. Dott.Mag. Riccardo Villa

REM KOOLHAAS’ THEOREMS AND MICHEL FOUCAULT’S METHOD: BIGNESS, JUNK SPACE, GENERIC CITY, AND THE LABYRINTHINE PATHS ACROSS THE ORDER(S) OF THINGS

SEMINAR ARCHITECTURE THEORY, Winter Semester 2017

In this Seminar we want to engage with Rem Koolhaas' somewhat hermetic concepts of Bigness, Junk Space, Generic City. We want to engage with them speculatively, by taking them as "Theorems". Yet while we are used to think that a theorem finds its place within an axiomatic-deductive theory, this is dierent with Koolhaas use of them: here we have postulated theorems, but they appear to yet lack a proper theory that would accommodate them. We have theorems that present themselves on a stage of rhetorical cunning.

DIE GEFÄHRLICHKEIT DER GROSSEN EBENE ODER WIE ARTIKULIERT MAN EINE HALTUNG IN DER ARCHITEKTUR

SEMINAR ARCHITECTURE THEORY, Summer Semester 2017

In this seminar we chose a literary text as material to work with: Ror Wolf, The Dangers of the Great Flat Plane (in German only: Die Gefahr der grossen Ebene, 1976). We will exercise ourselves in articulating what it means to take a theoretical stance. Our interest is to explore what it means to acquire a kind of knowledge which is, first of all, an active ability. We mean by this a kind of knowledge that does not define itself through an "object", which one knows passively, but through actively knowing how to master whatever factors-in the articulation of an "object".

Guest Lectureres:
Valle Medina
Benjamin Reynolds

no ghost. from mass to building.

DESIGN STUDIO, SUMMER SEMESTER 2017

The question of history is no longer. It demands no speculation as it is now perfectly reproducible and accessible in real-time. Words that used to die are kept indefinitely. ‘No Ghost’ operates by selecting sources from a never-dying world of ideas to crystallize languages of "made realms". We momentarily interrupt this streaming present by introducing ideas as differentiations/reorganizations.

Since to bring a project into existence does not require it to have presence, "No Ghost" strives for realm-making that is critical of the emergence of projects burdened by the false weight to produce contemporary reflections, and as such are abjectly haunted by history, the same is for the future. ‘No Ghost’ identifies natures of today.

Instructors: Valle Medina and Benjamin Reynolds, Prof. Vera Bühlmann

External advisors are Prof. Ludger Hovestadt (Chair of Computer Architecture Aided Design at ETH Zurich) and Matthew Cowan (artist)

lixil international student competition contribution - spa in the nature

We are proud to have won the Award of Excellence in the 2017 LIXIL International Student Competition with the topic ‘Spa in the Nature’.

Jury: Kengo KUMA, Tomonari YASHIRO, Kundo KOYAMA, Dana Buntrock, Yoshiharu TSUKAMOTO