Lecture Series/Events

The title and theme of the research project, and consequently of the lecture series, derive from the idea of “tacit knowledge”, which was introduced by Michael Polanyi and Gilbert Ryle starting in the 1950s. They addressed the fact that there is a whole range of forms of knowledge that we learn and apply implicitly, mainly through immediate physical implementation, without being able to explain them precisely. For Polanyi, this meant that, “we know more than we can say”. Architecture, and especially the architectural design process, fits well into this thesis. For although many architects make great efforts to explain and (post-) rationalise their design approaches, the actual process remains unknown, even when working in a team. The physical activity of sketching, drawing, building working models, etc. is individual and collective at the same time, since in addition to the subjective choice of forms and structures, there is also recourse to the familiar, because it is easy to communicate: processes, images and jargon, which in turn also promote habitual prejudices. LECTURE SERIES WINTER 2021/ SUMMER 2022

The annual lecture series at IKA in the academic year 2021/2022 will be organised in partnership with the EU research project Communities of Tacit Knowledge (TACK): Architecture and its Ways of Knowing, in which we are involved as one of ten academic partners.1

COMMUNITIES OF TACIT KNOWLEDGE:

ARCHITECTURE AND ITS WAYS OF KNOWING

1 The research project is an Innovative Training Network for doctoral students, as part of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions of the European Framework Programme Horizon 2020. The research project has received funding since March 2020 and will run for three years. The project involves ten doctoral students at ten European universities, along with nine architecture firms, three cultural institutions, and an advisory board consisting of six renowned academics in the fields of architecture and urbanism.

21 MARCH 2022, 7PM

Christoph Grafe, Bergische Universität Wuppertal Peg Rawes, Bartlett, UC London

9 MAY 2022, 7PM

Margitta Buchert, Leibniz Universität Hannover Gennaro Postiglione, Politecnico Milano Gaia Caramellino, Politecnico Milano

TBA

Tim Anstey, Oslo School of Architecture Helena Mattsson, KTH Stockholm Jennifer Mack, KTH Stockholm The lectures will be organised as “TACK talks”, as discussions between the partners in a hybrid format, and streamed via YouTube.

www.tacit-knowledge-architecture.com

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No 860413.

EVENTS tba 19.00 Atelierhouse of the Academy (Semperdepot) EG Nord Lehárgasse 8, 1060 Vienna

CONSERVATION ARCHITECT AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO THE ACADEMY OF FINE ARTS VIENNA

When Carl Pruscha left the mountains of Tyrol, found his way to Vienna, and continued his education in the United States, he had long left the beaten path and embarked on an unsettled life. It is fully out of the ordinary when, on top of that, dreams and long-held plans are called into question overnight, for instance by an offer to take up a career representing the exact opposite of one’s own perspective. Usually, people will find good reasons to decline such a proposal, regardless of its singular appeal, to forego adventure and stay on the safe and narrow path. Not Carl Pruscha. Having set up shop fairly successfully in cosmopolitan New York and cultivating the image of a dandy, he decided on the spur of the moment to relocate to Kathmandu as an architect on assignment by the United Nations. Kathmandu? The contrast to New York could not have been greater—the same goes for the challenges the young architect had to overcome.

Life at the foot of the Himalayas meant freedom and a curse, the city was both a Moloch and a hippie paradise. Pruscha found his way around, explored, inventoried, drew up development plans for the valley and brought architecture in the form of a distinctive type of building that wedded tradition with Modernism. After ten years, Pruscha settled down in Vienna again. Not so much as a homecomer, more as a repeat newcomer. His unusual experience gave him the perfect background to become a teacher who shakes up conventions, shows young people the world as well as their options, and exerts influence on academic institutions. At the same time, it gave him the ability to see the potential in existing conditions or structures and realize remarkable architectural projects in a historical context. Pruscha enriches the species of architects with his opinionated personality and encourages them to deviate from seemingly preordained career paths.