SKIN

winter 2021

assignment Our skin shapes our experience of the world around us. Its folds, creases and contours define the physical limits of our identities, whilst its structure regulates our internal environment and enables us to feel. It unifies us as a species, revealing our age, ancestry, emotional depth, physical comfort and discomfort, insecurities and past traumas. Yet, the subtle differences that make us all unique have also inspired the worst treatment of one another. Our skin is saturated with feelings of love and (self) loathing, but most importantly it keeps us alive. We have learnt to care for the skin

náplast

Simona Horáková Markéta Kanyzová Matěj Ševela

1_ If their envelopes are not in order, the inside of the buildings suffer. It is necessary to accept reality and strive for healing. Acknowledge your wounds and don‘t be ashamed of your desire to recover. It‘s a common way for people to feel. 2_ If their envelopes are not in good shape, the inside of the buildings suffer. It is necessary to accept reality and strive for healing. Acknowledge your wounds and don‘t be ashamed of your desire to recover. It‘s a common way for people to feel.

3_ They hide their wounds under a patch, which they leave for the world to admire. But how are they healing the building? We‘ve learned to take care of our skin, but at the same time, we accept additional layers of skin with added value. 4_ The BAND-AID project provides buildings with a new temporary look to be proud of, even if their true skin is suffering. We are using scaffolding that looks unaesthetic on the building and only hinders the public.

27 m2 127 m2

we live in and to wrap ourselves in new skins, whether make-up, clothing or facades, each with their own symbolic meaning and added layers of comfort. We would like to use this competition as a vehicle to question the nature of facades. With seismic and potentially catastrophic changes to our environment, there are sustained calls to reuse and reinsulate our existing building stock to minimise energy loss and our carbon footprint. We will take these urgent and prosaic imperatives as the departure point for formulating an alternative approach to architecture. We would like you to explore the potential of wrapping existing buildings in new skins, creating buildings within buildings. Start by identifying an existing building whose façade is failing to perform. We have deliberately left this open to interpretation however, this could be because the building is poorly maintained, its façade is environmentally damaging, or because the building has become a contested symbol of political, cultural or religious power. We would then like you to wrap the building in a new skin. You may want to peel away parts of the existing façade, to offset the new façade encasing the building in a new layer of programme, or to play with ambiguous definitions of interiority, exteriority and climatic comfort. In all instances, we would like you to explore the poetic potential of a second skin, not just its environmental performance. In doing so, we hope to create a space for more diverse forms of representation to coexist.

6_ Let‘s use the scaffolding for temporary entertainment. An installation that on the one hand fulfils its primary function and on the other hand brings benefits to the public? YES! Efficiency. One of the key factors in any job these days. We use scaffolding that is going to be erected on the building anyway. So please put just a little more of it up there.

8_ Let‘s take advantage of it! Would you like to go to the cinema, swim in the pool, have a good cup of coffee or go on a slide? 7_ Our BAND-AID takes up only a little more space than conventional scaffolding. So we can offer a crowded city another space where people can live. Everyone knows the feeling when you arrive on a trip to a new city and the buildings are covered with a shell that only makes them look ugly and you get nothing out of it but disappointment.

9_ And all this with a view from a completely different perspective, which the BANDAID construction offers us? YES!

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