After successful completion of the course, students are able to work on complex design tasks in the field of architecture and urban planning independently, systematically and with an original, contemporary design approach based on a precise architectural language. They have the competence to recognise fields of action in an urban context and to develop appropriate urban planning solutions. Students will be able to conduct their own research and to establish topic-related fundamentals. They will be able to create design concepts and present them comprehensively in the form of draft and detailed plans.
Building of Buildings
The character of European cities has little to do with monumental presences, but is determined above all by the repetition of buildings along the street or within the block, by the fine grain of singular facts and by their subtle variations.
The city, especially the nineteenth-century metropolis, is an opus at different scales, as Hermann Czech writes: that of the block, that of the house and that of inner individual use. Mostly, architectural operations encompass the two last dimensions.
But there are some special buildings that have instead the ability to hold together the two first scales: the urban dimension related to repetition, and that of the individual piece, forged by contingencies and adapted to specific circumstances.
Such buildings can be the result of a construction of different elements over time, or can be the result of a synthetic design operation. But in both cases, each of them can be described as a building of buildings.
A building of buildings is the quintessence of urbanity as it stands at the intersection between the dimension of the single house and that of the collective construction; especially, because it has the capacity, due to its special articulation and good manners, to be formed by two or multiple elements, but at the same time to have a single figure, a unitary presence.
Its complexity is the opposite of the iconic solitary object, indifferent to these diverse urban dimensions, being abstract compared to the morphological and expressive richness claimed by this special type of building.
A building of buildings reacts consistently to the different times of the city, combining formal specificity, together with functional genericity, providing a durable urban response and, at the same time, the utmost adaptability of uses.
We could try to recognize different types of such special buildings, in relation to how their inner parts subtly or radically differ: some of them are formed by a blurring tension between two pieces, producing a kind of symmetrical overall figure, such as the Monadnoch in Chicago; some others programmatically ecompass different roles and expressions, such as the Casa-Torre Rasini in Milan or Otto Wagner’s pieces in Linken Wienzeile; other cases they produce a multiple tonal sequence, such as Asnago Vender’s block in via Albricci in Milan, or, differently, they provide diverse articulations resembling the historical variety, such as Aldo Rossi’s Berlin block in Schutzentsraße.
In this taxonomy, we will analyze some Viennese pieces and others more distant cases. In particular, we will analyze some special buildings in Milan, a paradigmatic anti-monumental city in which modern and ancient architectures are able to coexist in a natural way within a great “environmental” unity.
These buildings are beautiful for many reasons, in the assemblage and subtle variation of their façades, in the relationship between the repetition of the single element and the typological variation, in the richness of uses and in the generousity of their interior spaces. Through their intrinsic variety, they already provide a sequence or an articulation, offering a continuous background to the vibrant life of the city but at the same time stating their singular expression and elegance.
Teaching will be alternating 2-days intensive workshops scheduled every two weeks together with weekly online lessons and group revisions.
Learning moments will encompass specific lectures on the workshop theme and on the project site, group discussions on the common objectives and individual revisions focused on the improvement of each project.
https://tube1.it.tuwien.ac.at/w/qcqjvzG8EhpPibmBdq77WG
Kick off meeting will be on March 3 from 11 to 17 and March 4 from 9 to 15 (Wien excursion)
Workshop Agenda
1.A – Catalogue
(March 2022 – Kick-off meeting March 3-4)
A set of different selected cases that meaningfully convey different interpretations of the idea related to building of buildings will be assigned. The cases analyzed will be divided into four categories that attempt to construct a taxonomy of these special buildings: conspirators, pairs, continuity, assemblage. Each student will analyze her or his own case study focusing on the specific circumstances in which the building took shape, the way in which it is articulated in distinct pieces within a general unity, its ability to engage with a context. This atlas will constitute a common thesaurus of selected solutions shared by the workshop.
Assignment 1: Catalogue (singular assignment)
1.B. – Describing the city: monumental and ordinary
(April 2022)
A set of different interpretative layers will be selected to describe the city. The aim is to generate maps of a different nature through which to describe the multiple characters of this place throughout ist development, combining historical analyses with more extemporaneous readings based on the search for circumstantial elements, or simply sensing the atmospheres of places. The aim is to feel at ease with the site, recognizing the richness of reality, the sequences of the façades, the tones of public spaces, the block densities, the unexpected transformations and contemporary uses. The projects, in different ways, will resonate with these found characters.
Assignment 2: Photographs and maps (group assignment)
2. Urban Form
(Maj 2022)
Each group of two students is assigned an area of intervention: an urban void, a replacement, in strategic locations, in abandoned or underused corners. The aim of the phase is based on the central formal question of the workshop: to define an overall figure, a strategy of articulation of the volume in different portions, associating a program that virtuously holds together generic functions of the city - housing and work spaces - with more public and specific uses. The exercise will attempt to define a complex architecture capable of combining the central formal theme, that of the building of buildings, together with the specific circumstances of each site.
Assignment 3: Volume definition (group assignment)
MID-TERM CRITICS (Maj 5th-6th)
3. Construction and details
(June 2022)
The final phase will consist of the architectural definition of the building, its internal variations, the materiality of its façades, the ability to resonate with the site through its construction. Drawings, details and large maquettes will be produced by each group.
Assignment 4: Specification (group assignment)
FINAL CRITICS (June 30th)
