Christian Mayer - Portfolio (selected works 2022-2024)
CHRISTIAN MAYER - PORTFOLIO
Art & Architecture
selected works 2022-2024
Christian Mayer is a 26 years old spatial designer and visual artist from Germany. He graduated from the Master‘s program in spatial design at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen in 2024. His recent projects lie at the intersection of design and art and have a strong social focus.
EDUCATION
09/2022 - 07/2024
10/2018 - 06/2022
PROFESSIONAL
Royal Danish Academy of fine Arts, Studies: Spatial Design (M.A.)
Technical University Stuttgart Studies: Architecture & Urban Planning
08/2024 Inter.public - KADK M.A. runway show set design assistant
01/2024 - ongoing tactual.rec visual identity and creative direction
12/2023 Serena Coelho x Superji JordanPhotography
06/2023 K41 - “Impossible objects“ exhibition exhibition of “more than decoration“
Arts, Copenhagen
Planning
modelling and vizualisation
Arzfeld“
Bittburg“
Autocad: advanced level
Indesign: advanced level
Spanish: B1
(CPHW - SS24)
show (CPHW - SS24)
Capsule Collection
exhibition decoration“
TABLE OF CONTENT
1. ARCHITECTURE AND AGENCY ( ARCH ) 05
2. OBJECTS OF MEDIATION ( ART ) 15
3. UP VOICES ( ARCH ) 21
4. MORE THEN DECORATION ( ART ) 30
4.1 A HOME TO SOME 35
5. NON ACADEMC INTERESTS
6. PROJECT OVERVIEW (UNDERGRAD)
This portfolio displays academic and nonacademic works of mine that were created over the course of my two years long master studies in spatial design at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen. The selection showcases my interdisciplinary approach to the spatial practice, while giving additional insights in my engagement in the fields of photography and graphic design.
) 05 - 14
) 15 - 20 ) 21 - 29 ) 30 - 34
- 37 38 - 42 43
INTRODUCTION
The 90 pages are structured in 4 chapters. They depict the place as it was in the beginning of the observations, the people and the process of getting to know them, the actual days of the eviction and the days after that, when the building was already abandoned.
SITE: URBENPLANEN, DK ART
SITE: URBENPLANEN, DK ARCH
The academic projects revolve around a working method I intended to develop throughout my master studies. I explore the application of the fine arts in the context of spatial design. The two artistic projects in the first and third semester explore and activate a site-specific context. The gathered knowledge made the foundation for the development of two firmely situated architectural structures.
SEM.1
SEM.2
SEM.3
SITE: HEDEHUSENE, DK ART
SEM.4 SITE: HEDEHUSENE, DK ARCH
1. ARCHITECTURE AND AGENCY
4. Semester Ma. (thesis project)
spatial design
Prof. Peter Thule Kristensen
Royal danish academy of arts
Site: Hedehusene (DK)
Hedehusene is being extended with a newly constructed district called Naerheden to attract new, “affluent” residnets. It was built next to a socially vulnerable district named Charlotte Kvartier.
As part of Naerheden‘s masterplan a community center is planned to be built. It is supposed to be used by residents of the Charlotte Kvarteret and Naerheden alike.
This thesis project makes a design proposal for this facility. WIt builds upon the Charlotte community’s strong interest in urban gardening by proposing a greenhouse at the heart of the community center. The project taps into Naerhedens masterplan subversively and anchors the community center’s program directly in the needs and efforts of the Charlotte community. Doing so, the proposal gives agency to the Charlotte Kavrtier in the ongoing development process of Hedehusene.
The resulting structure seeks to protect Charlotte Kvartier’s integrity from profit driven gentrification, fosters civic engagement and opens a space that promotes the exchange between members of both of the two socially contrasting communities.
This project builds on the site specific knowledge gained during the creation of “objects of mediation“.
The nearly 2000 inhabitants of the Charlotte Kvarteret live largely in so cial housing units. The buildings are
Throughout the last 15 years major social progress was made due to a strong engagement of local initiatives. The presented graphs show a positi ve development in all relevant areas. The development is in line with the overall social development strategy called Heledsplan
The inhabitants of the Charlotte Kvarteret live largely in social housing units. The buildings are part of the Danish Federation of the apartment goes in to the national fund and is redistributed into the development of the buildings and their communities.
Hedehusene Culturehouse
Sisters Hope Home
sportshall
collective housing for elders primary and secondary school
elderly home
communal space
Charlotte School Turkish culture house
community garden proposed structure
Distribution of generally perceived security: charged at least once
SAMVAERSHAVER - CHARLOTTE KVARTERET‘S DIY GARDEN
The Garden was initiated by social workers together with the local community. It is fully sustained by its group of users. It’s a direct representation of the local civic engagement. By proposing a greenhouse in direct proximity to the garden, this projects intents to foster and facilitate the community’s activist potential.
Architecture and Agency
Many of the community members started to build small scale huts next to their garden. The structures are not alloved to surpass a height of 2 meters. The huts are self built out of commonly availabe construction materials, and range from simple shelters, to insulated cabins, equipped with small kitchens.
Along the treeline the vegetation has been carved out, opening space for minimal seating areas Benches and chairs have been placed on provisory floorings made out of pallets. The trees and bushes form a natural roof providing shae an limited protection.
The first architectural structures added to the garden consist out of containers, used for storage A roof mounted between the containers opened an initial space for gathering
The garden compartments are all in similar size of roughly 16 sqm. They are used to cultivate vagetables for the purpose of self-consumption. The crops are not sold but often shared with the community. Gardening / farming becomes a practice of wellbeing, self-sufficiency and maintaining cultural traditions
CONCEPTUAL OVERVIEW
REDIRECTING THE SPIRAL OF PROFIT DRIVEN
BUILDINGS
AS POLITICAL
AGENTS
A TROJAN HORSE?
PRESERVING THE
MIXING PROGRAMS +
GATHERING AROUND A SHARED PRACTICE
BRIDGING COMMUNITIES
The project is built the conceptual understanding of architecture as a materialization sociopolitical power structures. It seeks to frame power through space If buildings opening of spaces dedicated to marginalized communities gives agency to peo excluded from the civic and political discourse.
Architecture and Agency
CHARLOTTE KVARTERETS INTEGRITY
ARCHITECTURE AS A PREFORMATIVE, COMMUNITY REINFORCING PRACTICE
FOSTERING CO-CREATION
TAPPING INTO LOCAL POTENTIALS and reinforcement of hold political power, the people who are generally 02.2024-06.2024
An insulated greenhouse/ community-space sits at the center of the structure. Its users are invited to gather around a shared practice. The space promotes social engagement without enforcing social interaction.
Architecture and Agency
GREENHOUSE/ GATHERING INDOOR (INTERIOR VIEW)
The greenhouse enables the cultivation of vegetable of a longer timespan throughout the year. The direct connection to the communal area, which is equipped with a kitchen allows for the collective processing and consumption of the harvested vegetables. The space is supposed to foster the exchange of knowledge around the practice of gardening and can be used by local schools for educative purposes.
Architecture and Agency
FORUM / GATHERING OUTDOOR (1:50) WOODWORKSHOP
The forum allows for local stakeholders to hold workshops and gatherings I accordance with the structures program. The wood-workshop provides the buildings users with the tools to modify the structure and therefore promotes its appropriation. It fosters a culture of urban co-creation.
02.2024-06.2024
STRUCTURAL EXTENSION I.
STRUCTURAL EXTENSION II.
The wooden structure is designed to be extendable. It is based on a simple constructive method that allows for the collective erection and extension of the structure.
Architecture and Agency
VIEW)
All units of the structure are connected through a ramp, that creates a direct connection between the frequently visited local mosque and the community garden. This purposing as a infrastructural element creates frequent traffic along the ramp and promotes engagement with the structure.
Architecture and Agency
2. OBJECTS OF MEDIATION
3. Semester Ma.
spatial design
Prof. Peter Thule Kristensen
Royal danish academy of arts
Site: Hedehusene (DK)
This project attempts to mediate between the contrasting social & cultural realities in Hedehusene’s Charlotte Kvarteret. An experimental performance art group moved into the socially vulnerable, and culturally diverse area. The world of the fine arts collides with the various realities on site. Through artistic interventions “Objects of Mediation” intents foster exchange between the parties, while raising questions about the exclusiveness of the cultural sector, the necessity for grass roots interventionism and the application of arts & design in social changemaking.
This project provided the site specific knowledge needed for the creation of “Architecture And Agency“
A FOCUS ON FIELDWORK
Throughout the process of this semester, I followed my increasing interest in fieldwork, which lead me to sincerely explore the diverse social and cultural context of the site I was working on. I had to build solid relationships with all stakeholders and collaborators, which took a major part of this project’s
View of Roskilde Vej
Kvarteret I Byen - Office interior youth
eco workshop II.
garden user
Faroukh interview
center - prayer room lngrid & Beyza
eco-workshop I.
mosque interior I, mosque interior II.
AN INTRODUCTION TO SISTERS HOPE
There is a noticeable segregation between the local population and the Sisters Hope Home a. A lack of communication created a general suspicion within the surrounding population and the arts collective.
Sisters Hope - the practice
00:02:19 SPK_1 Yeah, they spawned!
Sisters Hope is an experimental performance art group, that moved into a building in the center of the Charlotte district, which is now called SIsters Hope Home. Their esoteric appearance, a lack of communication with the local community and a tendency of some of the Charlotte inhabitants to superstition, created a confliction between the artists and the locals, who largely think of Sisters Hope to be a group of occultists.
objects of mediation
Sisters Hope Home - Exterior View
THE PRACTICE OF COMMUNICATION
The focus of the project lays on getting in conversation with representatives of the Charlotte community about Sisters Hope Home. This demanded a genuine effort in communication. I documented the process (and the discomfort) of reaching out to the locals, that ultimately lead to an active exchange between me and various locals about their perception of Sisters Hope Home.
objects of mediation
reaching out - collage I.
reaching out - collage II.
on read
Birgit - Interview
OBJECTS OF MEDIATION
The interviews (partly held with groups of people and partly with singular individuals) provided valuable insights into the reasons behind the the local‘s mistrust towards the performance group. The general inaccessibility of their artistic practice became evident once more through the conducted interviews. The interviews were transcribed word by word, and the resulting text was used as the foundation for the creation of two art-pieces that are primarily exploring the opinion on art by people who are generally foreign to the scene of the fine arts.
objects of mediation
video stills from group interview
Hicham - interview
object of mediation I.
The entire transcript of the interview was ultimately printed on film and hung in a wooden frame that replicates the dimensions of the window-frames of the Sisters Hope Home in 1:1. The text was initially meant to be installed in the windows of the sisters Hope home directly. The piece addresses the spatial seclusion of the art project as one of the core reasons for the confliction between the communities. The text faces towards the inside of the window. If the curtains would be opened, some of the information needed to integrate Sisters Hope closer into its social surrounding would be boldly readable.
objects of mediation
THE CONTEXT
SITE chosen area
This time the focus of the research lays on the southern end of Urban Planen. The Solvang Center used to be an important meeting point for many UP inhabitants up to its demolition in the early 2000s. As we noticed a lack of indoor gathering spaces we came up with the proposal for a new community centered building located on the site of the old Solvang Center.
Solvang Center, before demolition
Solvang Center,
design.
depict the place as it was in the bethe observations, the people and process of getting to know them, the days of the eviction and the days when the building was already abandoned.
They depict the place as it was in the beginning of the observations, the people and the process of getting to know them, the actual days of the eviction and the days after that, when the building was already abandoned.
deinstalled and extended according to the changing demands. We propose an errection of the structure in phases.
The structure evolves from the scale of an outdoor pavilion to an insulated building that can spread over the entire square throughout time.
The 90 pages are structured in 4 chapters. They depict the place as it was in the beginning of the observations, the people and the process of getting to know them, the actual days of the eviction and the days after that, when the building was already abandoned.
STAGES: STRUCTURES
MULTIPURPOSE OUTDOOR STRUCTURES
—MULTIPURPOSE OUTDOOR STRUCTURES
CONSTRUCTION MODELL (1:20)
FACILITATING DIALOGUE
PLAN GROUND-LEVEL
At the heart of the structure sits an interior space intended to be used by the social workers and active community members for their practices. The interior can accommodate to various situations of interaction, ranging from counselling to lectures and workshops.
The 90 pages are structured in 4 chapters. They depict the place as it was in the beginning of the observations, the people and the process of getting to know them, the actual days of the eviction and the days after that, when the building was already abandoned.
The 90 pages are structured in 4 chapters. They depict the place as it was in the beginning of the observations, the people and the process of getting to know them, the actual days of the eviction and the days after that, when the building was already abandoned.
PLAN FIRST-LEVEL
CONSTRUCTION MODELL (1:20)
A wooden model in the scale of 1:20 was used to explore the configuration of the structural system we were proposing. It became an integral tool for the mediation of the project.
The 90 pages are structured in 4 chapters. They depict the place as it was in the beginning of the observations, the people and the process of getting to know them, the actual days of the eviction and the days after that, when the building was already abandoned.
OUTDOOR STRUCTURAL MODULE
OUTDOOR STRUCTURAL MODULES
The 90 pages are structured in 4 chapters. They depict the place as it was in the beginning of the observations, the people and the process of getting to know them, the actual days of the eviction and the days after that, when the building was already abandoned.
The individual module of the structure can be creatively modified in various ways. We wanted to design a system that is elastic enough to be appropriated by its users.
V1: SWING
V2: SUNSHADE
V2: BOOKSHELF
V4: COMMON TABLE
V5: HAMMOCK
V6: ELEVATION PLATFORM
V1: SWING
V2: SUNSHADE
V4: COMMON TABLE
V5: HAMMOCK
V6: ELEVATION PLATFORM
V3: BOOKSHELF
4. MORE THAN DECORATION
1. Semester Ma.
spatial design
Prof. Peter Thule Kristensen
Royal danish academy of arts
Site: Urban Planen, Copenhagen (DK)
A banner designed to remind of the vibrant community of people who lived in Amagerbro’s Lykke tower before the building was forcefully evicted. The banner (2m x 12m) is made of old clothing, that the prior inhabitants contributed to the creation of this project. It was hung from the building facade facing the inner city.
This project provided the site specific knowledge needed for the creation of “UP-Voices“
FLAGS - CLAIMING SPACE
signs of life I.
As a statement of communal identity and territorial appropriation, the flag became the chosen typology for the development of this project. It was intended to make use of the flag’s connotations of strength.
more than decoration
signs of life II.
banner viz I. composition test - aquarell on paper
ASSEMBLY METHOD
The shape of the individual pieces of clothing was preserved, to create a visible contrast in between the human scale and the buildings size.
more than decoration
The pieces of clothing were connected using an industrial stapler. Heavy textile (jeans etc.) was used where the banner would be under the strongest pressure. The banner was hung from the building facade facing the inner city.
installation view I.
installation view II.
4.1 A HOME TO SOME
1. Semester Ma.
spatial design
Prof. Peter Thule Kristensen
Royal danish academy of arts
Site: Urban Planen, Copenhagen (DK)
“A Home to Some“ is a photo book that was created in addition to the project “more than decoration”. It documents the eviction of the Lykke tower and the life of it‘s inhabitants over the course of 3 months. The book provides the necessary the socio-cultural context to the project “more than decoration”.
The 90 pages are structured in 4 chapters. They depict the place as it was in the beginning of the observations, the people and the process of getting to know them, the actual days of the eviction and the days after that, when the building was already abandoned.
objects of mediation
commons area - interior view
Pel - resident
absence post eviction - a statement of frustration
THE DESIGN OF THE BOOK
A sleeve covers the printed version of the book. It provides basic information about the content. The spine of the book is highlighted in bright yellow. The printed version serves as a sample, as there are efforts to find a publisher for this work.
objects of mediation
the sleeve
a home to some - product view I.
a home to some - product view II.
non academic
06.2023
Curated by K41& Pamp3000
The project was selected to be exhibited as part of the “impossible objects“ exhibition hosted by K41 in the center of Copenhagen. The exhibition presented the opportunity to raise awareness for the increasing housing crisis that Copenhagen is facing.
The project was selected to be exhibited as part of the impossible objects exhibition hosted by K41 in the center of Copenhagen. The exhibition presented the opportunity to raise awareness for the increasing housing crisis Copenhagen faces over the last years, as the Lykke tower‘s eviction is only one representative of a large number of recent resettlements.
inner city - installation view
inner city - installation detail
It was decided to hang the flag from the gallery’s outer façade. The central location allowed for great visibility of the project. The political criticism of the piece resonated in the gentrified surroundings of inner-city Copenhagen
-
de. The central location allowed for a great visibility of the project. The political criticism inherent in the piece inner Copenhagen.
This project attempts to mediate between the contrasting social & culture realities in Hedehusene’s Charlotte Kvarteret. An experimental performance art group moved into the socially vulnerable, and culturally diverse area. The elitist
I pursue projects in various fields besides my studies. Photography serves as a key tool for me in the communication of my projects. Throughout the last two years I started to professionalize my ambition as a photographer resulting in a series of collaborations with befriended designers and established Studios in the field of spatial design and
Through artistic interventions “objects of mediation” intents foster exchange between the parties, while raising questions about the exclusiveness of the cultural sector, the necessity for grass roots interventionism and the application of arts & design in social changemaking.
As a statement of communal identity and territorial apthe chosen typology for the development of this project. It was intended to make use strength.
In 2023 I worked for Archival Studies as a freelance photographer, shooting the interior of their office located in Valby and a custom kitchen plus overall interior makeover for a client in Aarhus
freelance photopgrapher for archival studies
archival studies - studio view
archival studies kitchen unit - installation view
5.2 GRAPHIC DESIGN
non academic
visual identity for tactual.rec
I blend analogue and digital techniques to provide the design with tangibility and to avoid the clinical appearance a fully digital working method can lead to.
tactual - visual identity
poster design - record releaseparty @ ikke aben
01.2024 - ongoing
6. PROJECT OVERVIEW - UNDERGRAD
academic “rocks“ - exercise in architectural formfinding @TU_Stuttgart
professional townhall Arzfeld - design assistance & vis. communication (competition 1.prize) @HIIIS architects
tactual - visual identity
masterplan for redevelopment
furniture design development design
redevelopment of Stuttgarts
academic design of drone port Stuttgart of 1:1000 to 1:5
@HIIIS architects
professional development for a highschool design & vis. communication
