Out of Practice

Teachers: Marcelo Rovira Torres, Mikael Bergquist

The Palimpsest of Continuity In today's complex society, the need for contextual architecture is increasingly becoming important. In an age with an ever increasing exchange of information, the built environment becomes obsolete at an ever accelerating pace. Yet because of the urgent context of climate change and economic instability, preservation is moving from the fringe of architectural culture to its core. How else could society progress whilst taking into account the existing economy of means? Architecture of today has to accommodate for new identities, functional within new constraints posed by economic demands and societal challenges. To preserve means to equally acknowledge the past and the present, looking beyond temporal definitions of style and fashion – "to return to those elements which define its specificity that is to go back to architecture as a practical activity and cultural specialization"

Methodology RE-Studio will investigate possible architectural methods of responding to the contemporary condition, by equally surveying the existing and the past. In order to highlight different characteristics we will use different forms of representation to disclose otherwise hidden information in the existing, surveyed and the projected architecture. Methods of research will primarily be introduced during the different workshop's of the studio with the intention of properly implementing them in the students' own projects. For more information please see the studio publications RE/01RE06: www.remasterstudio.com www.issu.com/kth-arkitekturskolan Project 1 RE- Archive The project is divided into a set of workshops that will explore and examine palimpsestuous projects in central Stockholm. The workshops will form the studio's documentary archive and working material.

Project 2 RE-Act Act is the development of a project based on the findings in the workshops. Focusing on permanence, change, decorum and novelty projects should be developed from the architectural detail to the urban scale.

Project 3 RE-Claim We locate a set of projects outside Stockholm in different urban and local conditions and settings. Through a set of workshops and archival studies we develop a set of projects from site and program to different building scales.

Project 4 RE-Public A collaborative exhibition showing and making public the studios material and findings

Mikael Bergquist MB is an architect and writer, educated at KTH and the Academy of Fine Arts, Copenhagen. Through his own office he has executed projects and restorations on canonical modern buildings. His latest published book is Josef Frank: Villa Carlsten, (Park Books, 2019) He participated in the Alternative Histories exhibition in London 2019. Marcelo Rovira Torres MRT is a practicing architect and researcher within the fields of architecture history and theory. He studied architecture at the KTH, ETH-Zürich, with a Master’s degree from EPF-Lausanne. He is currently a guest researcher at ArkDes and has previously written for Cogitiatio Press, San Rocco and Art & Theory.

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1. City of composite presence. Hans Kollhoff, David Griffin, Collage City, Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, 1978 2. Archive: Friederike Mayröcker’s study 3. Outtake from 3d scan of Stockholm Public Library, Student work Oliver Cassidy 4. Model photo. Interior Tysta Marie gången, Stockholm. Student work Kamil Kowalski 5. Kvarteret Cephalus, Kanslihusannexet, 1945, Arthur von Schmalensee 2.

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Teachers: Karin Matz, Nina Taghavi

Studio Theme & Methodology

…//During a manic episode, an individual will experience rapidly changing emotions and moods, highly influenced by surrounding stimuli. …///… euphoric, irritable, hyperactivity [and hyperfocus].." wikipedia, MANIA

In a variety of ways, Studio Stockholm Mania will use this “state of mind” (mania*) in relation to the architectural design process in order to crawl out of our skins, i.e, to pass the door man, to shake off the mundane and predictable nature of architecture process and outcome. Let's call it the gray, black, and white that is created by the anxiety and rigidness which we struggle to shake off when designing. The door man [the ego] patrols the boundary between the self and the world. The task is to evade the guard, tricking yourself into opening doors and walking down paths you otherwise wouldn't. Dare! Jump! Challenge yourself! Individually, we will look at your (imagined) limits–your does, don'ts, and go-to’s–in order to move away from the architecture of Prêt à Porter (ready to wear) towards an architecture of haute-couture. To reach something that previously was not. Who is your guard and how can we sneak around him? We will roam freely, without judgment, only afterwards contemplating the outcome and evaluating the result together.

The connection between architecture and mania opens architecture up to experimentation and discussion. It allows us to be nerds, digging deeper and deeper, and permitting ourselves to be hyperfocused at the cost of all of those “musts”: to be absorbed in the here and now. Individually, we learn about our imagined weaknesses, turning them into strengths. A maniac doesn't hesitate, they just do. We will look at the city of Stockholm, using this state of mind as a lens. Stockholm is where we stand, where we eat, where we sleep and shit. We will observe, categorize, analyze, and imagine the present, the past and the future, suggesting new future spatial interpretations in the process. We will look and dig without judgment, aiming to reach further and beyond and to read a place while keeping individual experience in focus. Most importantly, we will look to find joy in this year-long journey!

* Note: “Mania” has a long and troubled history as a term of diagnosis in medicine; whilst being aware of this history, we will employ the term as a trope, a metaphor to think with, and a way to open up a debate about architecture’s potential. Project 1 The Stockholm House The year will begin by sinking one's teeth, digging into the everyday villa carpets around our city. We will look at houses from 1970 and onwards where we will obsess on hemnet and perform prospective villa buyers in order to visit, measure and learn as much as we can about our chosen houses. Second phase will be to suggest an extension or major refurbishment of the chosen house, pushing or following the regulations of the site. Designing (and re-designing) in search of the house's dreams and desires.

Project 2 Stockholm-ness What makes a city THAT particular city? What is Stockholm in relation to the build environment? What is its identity? We will try to understand “Stockholm-ness” by walking up and down the city’s metro lines, in order to design and create Stockholm palettes. The palettes will work as generators and catalogs for designing space in the second phase. We will design an interior space mirroring the previous output.

Project 3 Made in Stockholm What is being manufactured in our local area, Stockholm? What talents does it host? Iron welder, fine carpenter, sheet metal worker etc. We will visit to take a closer look at producers and to get to know and study how they do things and what possibilities and obstacles there are with their particular technique and equipment. This time the design project will take its starting point in the craftsmanship and the expertise of the makers. How can we as architects work if we begin there and how does it affect and help our design process?

Project 4 ÅRSTADAL - writing new history We will finish the year by looking closer at the history of Årstadal, known as the first slum area of Stockholm, 1877. Plots were let and houses were built but sewage was never installed which resulted in typhus among other diseases. Here people were living for almost 100 years before the neighborhood was totally demolished and erased from history. How did this happen and why? Can we imagine life there and tell the story now? And if we start thinking of memories and storytelling, what would a monument for it be and look like?

Karin Matz KM is an architect (Edinburgh College of Art, the University of Queensland, and KTH (MSc. Arch)). She has designed a series of widely published smaller projects (Karin Matz Arkitekt), and has worked at Vera Arkitekter. Karin is a lecturer at Arkitekturskolan KTH and a cofounder of the architecture office SECRETARY. Nina Taghavi NT, architect (hons, 2008) and lecturer at KTH since 2014. Master Studies KTH and ETSAV (Spain). And post studies with FATALE (KTH) and LUCA (Belgium). Project manager in a Paris based office, later in Sthlm. Now she is running NTA, focusing on housing from city scale (area adaptation) to interior spaces.

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1. Manic syndrome, manic episode. Graphic of Bipolar disorder and Cyclothymia 2. Hemnet: Falkvägen 5A, Gamla Älvsjö, Byggår 1970 3. Stockholmsvit - NCS S0502-Y 4. Essingeleden, a motorway “ the busiest road in Sweden” Erik Claesson / RAÄ 5. Stockholm metro symbol - The T symbol, Aspuddens Subway 6. Powder Coating process, Photo: coatings.se 7. Basset 3, Westermalms Metallgjuteri, Photo: Westermalms Metallgjuteri 2.

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