China, Hongkong, Singapore and Taiwan have the same roots in common, but experienced different histories in the last century. China has undergone tumultous year, transforming from an ancient Empire to a communist People's Republic with a planned state-run economy to a superpower with global economic influence. Shenzhen has been a fishing village 30 years ago and is now a +10 Million city with a vibrant economy. Both British crown colonies, but with vastly different experiences: In contrast to the predominantely sino-british Hongkong, Singapore has always been a melting pot of a wide array of south-east Asian cultures. Taiwan, at the border of the Chinese Empire had been visited by the Dutch and the Spanish before being colonized by the Japanese, and while being home of the Republik of China, is today a vibrant democracy.
These turbluent histories naturally also influenced building culture and makes this region one of the most interesting and vibrant in terms of architectural development. China ist known for its breathtaking speed of development - seen in its numerous mega cities and giant construction sites of prestige buildings - a playing ground fro architects all over the world. Hongkong is one of the densest agglomeration of humankind, where topography meets development demands, while Singapore is known for its tropical vegetation and openess for innovation. 23 Millionen people are living on an island barely half as big as Austria, alongside mountain ranges with more than 200 three-thousand-meter-peaks.
Our built environment is an expression of societal aspirations: How we want to live, how we want to work, how we want to organise our communities, our cities. This is also reflected in the structure of stake-holder in the building process, in the design methods, materials and construction methods used.
All these manifold factors together constitute building culture. An excursion will allow a deeper research and understanding of these questions and allow a glimpse of the underlying principles of soceity to gain a sharper understanding of our own building culture in Europe.
This design studio will be accompanied by a mandatory excursion (253.397 EX Exkursion HB2) to China, Singapore, Hongkong and Taiwan. There are about 100 planned sights, so the schedule is tight. Cost: 2150.- including flights, busses, trains and accomodation, excluding food and metro.
There will be an intensive analytical preperation phase. We will analyze fundamental topics as well as look at case studies of european and asian buildings and try to apply and expand our current knowledge to these topics in a comporative way. We will also prepare research, which will be carried out on-site.
The design topic will not be typological determined, but based on content-analytical examination. Thus there will be a written, scientific part of the submisson material, additonally to building design itself. The design topic will be determinred together with the studio teacher, submission will include floor plans, sections, elevations, perspectives, detailed sections as weill as details.
