RESEARCH APPROACH
Theoretical and design explorations to multiply aesthetic attachments in architecture
We are interested in other dispositions in the act of designing and experiencing architecture—those ones in which preassumptions are not invited. Realism reminds us the discrepancies between reality
and how it is perceived—something that entails a regime of autonomous entities.
In our field, that suggests that the architectural project (abbreviated AP) is
an object in-itself independent of whoever creates it (architect) or cognised
it (observer). Meaning, when any of the two encounters the AP in direct and
literal manners (perceptually or conceptually), there is always another
something of that AP that is missed: an excess or surplus. If knowledge is
understood as the literality in the registration of cognizable phenomena,
meaning it is partial in regards to the entirety of something, we can rely on
that only up to a certain point. Thus, is there of any interest unfolding the
AP’s hidden surplus? This unknown excess contains multiple representations of
the same AP. It is a space of abundance. It is a productive material that
allows unveiling a priori ungraspable manifestations of the AP’s reality, both
in the act of creation and experience. Excess comprises new capacities innate to the AP. Thus, the unknown excess appears as the tension between the
architect or observer’s ignorance (lack of knowledge and limited cognitive
apparatus) and the withdrawn reality of the AP at issue. With these
circumstances, architecture is tackled as a problem of cognition. Designing is
then the identification of AP’s unknown representations to be materialised in
particular architectural phenomena. But novelty is not enough. In order to keep
the cycle rotating, meaning for maintaining a constant curiosity and surprise
about the AP, the new unfolds must offer an always-present level of unknowability—something
that speaks beyond its sensual manifestation, something that is ineffable,
unspeakable. For that, the architect's role consists in transporting the AP’s
unknown excess to the architectural audience. In this scheme, at least two
significant issues appear to the architect: (1) how to ask the elusive reality
and identify the unknown of the project, and (2) how to notate and formalise it
in particular ineffable and excessive architecture.
Our investigations raises the question of what are the consequences of placing the architectural specificity in the ontological domain for proposing design strategies and formal languages in which the intrinsic features that we do not know about the architectural object we are designing are, precisely, the primary material for designing it. This should generate a multiplicity of dispositions towards what cannot be exhaustively characterised.
Aesthetics is the field that allows us to explore architecture and design as a problem of cognition. Aesthetics is the very first way in which the world becomes sensitive and sensible. Paradoxically, how can we get rid of the ethical, moral and social impositions that limit our understanding of what architecture is and what we can do with it to establish aesthetic regimes from which to act socially, politically, technologically and environmentally? It is our hypothesis that departing from the formal abstract, meaning from those qualities to which we have no prior relationship, those cultural determinants that historically have constrained our dispositions can be overcome more radically. Once that happens, the multiplicity of the designed object cracks unveiling a spectrum of possibilities that must be accommodated.
Our investigations raises the question of what are the consequences of placing the architectural specificity in the ontological domain for proposing design strategies and formal languages in which the intrinsic features that we do not know about the architectural object we are designing are, precisely, the primary material for designing it. This should generate a multiplicity of dispositions towards what cannot be exhaustively characterised.
Aesthetics is the field that allows us to explore architecture and design as a problem of cognition. Aesthetics is the very first way in which the world becomes sensitive and sensible. Paradoxically, how can we get rid of the ethical, moral and social impositions that limit our understanding of what architecture is and what we can do with it to establish aesthetic regimes from which to act socially, politically, technologically and environmentally? It is our hypothesis that departing from the formal abstract, meaning from those qualities to which we have no prior relationship, those cultural determinants that historically have constrained our dispositions can be overcome more radically. Once that happens, the multiplicity of the designed object cracks unveiling a spectrum of possibilities that must be accommodated.
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CHAMBER 09
CHAMBER 07
CHAMBER 06
CHAMBER 08
CHAMBER 04
CHAMBER 03
Chambers is an open-ended research project that explores room-scale xenoaesthetics. From the Greek xeno, “foreign,” the one-off spatial prototypes speculate on the commingling of biological, artificial, and algorithmic actants. Xenoaesthetics is a cognitive regime that through the crossbreeding of heterogeneous agents in diverse states of being—different formats, orders, and natures—blurs the rational categories of reception and their associated value system, informing, among other things, (bio)sociopolitical agendas of equality. Under this umbrella, Chambers seeks the here-called opaque-productive space. Opacity means something that resists full comprehension and thus, empowers curiosity. On the other hand, productivity means the unveiling of the intrinsic affordances of space, that is, the inherent uses, unplanned behaviors, and emotions. An aesthetic and empathetic relationship with space leads to its free occupation. The tools for this inquiry are the conjugation of seemingly insoluble systems. Their formalizations disclose in an abstract, multi-scale, fragmentary, and excessively high-dense syntax, devoid of semanticity and external precedents.
YEAR
2019-present
Exhibited at the CityXVenice Italian Virtual Pavilion 2021 Venice Biennale Architettura.
Link to the Virtual Pavilion︎︎︎
HALF FORMS
Material agency in spatial formations
Assuming sustainability as a prerequisite for a future building culture, the research project integrates separate approaches emerging in architectural discourse and related fields into a methodology for understanding the architectural potential of vulcanized fiber and developing a prototypical building system.
Vulcanized fiber is a little known, cellulose-based material, produced in sheets. Besides a good ecological balance, this material is durable, strong, and lightweight, offering significant potential for architectural application. Of special interest is the material’s natural deformation as a result of the drying process. It not only produces a distinct, natural form aesthetics, but also a potentially improved structural performance as well as an ambiguous functionality and spatial quality. In this context it is essential to examine the levels of control between form definition and a self-forming process. The project builds on developments in paper-based construction and aims at investigating the aesthetic, functional, spatial, and constructive potential of plant-based vulcanized fiber, used as building components in architecture. Understanding the distinct characteristics of parts and the emerging implication for potential correlations is the basis for a bottom-up method of designing spatial structures. Hereby, natural-physical phenomena are combined with a hybrid working method of digital and analog techniques – to formulate a contemporary articulation of sustainable architecture.
By following the dynamic properties of the distinct material to conceptualize architectural environments, this research aims at activating a new resource in architecture and expanding the aesthetic, functional and spatial norms of a sustainable building culture beyond utilitarianism.
Vulcanized fiber is a little known, cellulose-based material, produced in sheets. Besides a good ecological balance, this material is durable, strong, and lightweight, offering significant potential for architectural application. Of special interest is the material’s natural deformation as a result of the drying process. It not only produces a distinct, natural form aesthetics, but also a potentially improved structural performance as well as an ambiguous functionality and spatial quality. In this context it is essential to examine the levels of control between form definition and a self-forming process. The project builds on developments in paper-based construction and aims at investigating the aesthetic, functional, spatial, and constructive potential of plant-based vulcanized fiber, used as building components in architecture. Understanding the distinct characteristics of parts and the emerging implication for potential correlations is the basis for a bottom-up method of designing spatial structures. Hereby, natural-physical phenomena are combined with a hybrid working method of digital and analog techniques – to formulate a contemporary articulation of sustainable architecture.
By following the dynamic properties of the distinct material to conceptualize architectural environments, this research aims at activating a new resource in architecture and expanding the aesthetic, functional and spatial norms of a sustainable building culture beyond utilitarianism.
RESEARCH INSTITUTION
Universität Innsbruck
Department of Experimental Architecture
Building Design and Construction
YEAR
2023 - 2027
TEAM
Karolin Schmidbaur (project lead)
Lukas Allner (researcher)
Gonzalo Vaíllo (researcher)
FUNDING
Austrian Science Fund (FWF)
PEEK program (AR 808-GBL)
Project website︎︎︎
A series of experimental drawings that explore the compositional tension between abstract and familiar qualities in top view architectural representations for open apprehension. Within a formalist spirit, syntax appears as an introversive symbol of the composition itself. Familiar elements are meaningless and function as “anchor points” to ensure experience.