ADATO #1 2021 Re-Edited by Point Nemo Publishing

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SS RE CK s G O RE lle PR IPW i Pa n RS SH Ele TE ES E AT M TS TH M O I r, T R EC AB de f N TE B L H ne ho VE AT ION NA ohe Im ham IN a M E RAT TIO t H bar ing SO AL AC O N rau ar nn U SP XPL VE alt k, B Cu O N W e er E ,Y E CO rs: vic nif IP AC G ho cla en SH SP IN ut a r:J E R NK A é W ito TH d n TE I T U TH Re E N O RE VE EN OR F EL IN

ARCHÄO-LOGIK DER SCHICHTEN: Nicolaus Steno und die Chronologie der Tiefe Jerome Becker im Austausch mit Kristian Faschingeder

ISSN 2658-9974 •

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POINT NEMO. PUBLISHING •

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#1 Re-Edited

ALLEYS IN WONDERLAND HONG KONG’S BACK ALLEYS AS CELEBRATED CINEMATIC SPACES Nikolas Ettel in conversation with Gray Kochhar-Lindgren

NEXT ISSUE 2_21

A DAT O PREVIEW

Intro Amphibienklagen, Grillenzirpen Der begehbare Museumskasten, die Savanne. Die Vormenschen-Sippe harrt in der Höhle aus.

Architecture & Wa r a n d P e a c e

The dawn of Man - Again. Dann setzt der Chor ein. Es stehen geschichtet am Himmel: Sonne, dann Halbmond über dem schwarzen Monolithen. Also Sprach Zarathustra: Das Werkzeug und die Tötung des Rivalen Stille, außer Wind, verfolgt den Flug des Knochens - das Schiff.1

Erster und letzter Akt Eine ganze Reihe kultureller Reminiszenzen […], die altägyptischen Gräber, die etruskischen Gräber, die Bauten der Azteken. […] Etwa so, wie in bestimmten Science-Fiction-Romanen, in denen ein mitten auf der Straße gelandetes Raumfahrzeug den Krieg der Welten, die Konfrontation mit nichtmenschlichen Gattungen ankündigt, so verliehen diese, in den Lücken der urbanen Freiräume, neben der Schule oder dem Bistrot des Wohnviertels errichteten, massiven Sockel, der Befragung der Gegenwart einen neuen Sinn.2 Abspann Filmstill aus Planet der Affen (1968) 1 Bild- & Tonbeschreibung, 1. Szene aus Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: Odyssee im Weltraum (1968) 2 Virilio, Paul: Bunker-Archäologie. München 1992. 3 Bildbeschreibung: Letzte Szene aus Franklin J. Schaffner’s Planet der Affen (1968)

Der Reiter aus dem All am Strand. Hinter ihm, ein Affenmensch - seine Gefährtin. Vor ihm kragt die Frauenstatue deproportioniert aus dem Sand. In meiner Erinnerung ist es ein Torso ab Brusthöhe und darüber nur mehr die Krone - Kupfer, das Ganze. Ich habs’ geahnt. Ich bin Zuhause. Ich bin wieder auf der Erde. Die ganze Zeit, war ich auf der Erde.3

YOU CAN FIND US ON

www.adato.lu | www.point-nemo.lu

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_EDITORIAL _PROGRESS when you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck Eleni Palles

I N H A LT

CONTENT

_ S PA C E M AT T E R M AT T E R S when outer space exploration becomes a role-model for rethinking conventional habits A u t h o r s : Wa l t r a u t H o h e n e d e r, R e n é Wa c l av i c e k , B a r b a r a I m h o f Editor:Jennifer Cunningham

_ALLEYS IN WONDERLAND Hong Kong’s back alleys as celebrated cinematic spaces Nikolas Ettel in conversation with Gray Kochhar-Lindgren

_ARCHÄO-LOGIK DER SCHICHTEN: Nicolaus Steno und die Chronologie der Tiefe Jerome Becker i m Au s t a u s c h m i t K r i s t i a n Fa s c h i n ge d e r

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DE_ Seit ADATO’s Re-Design im Jahr 2017 ist viel passiert. Mit unserem ersten Heft #2_17 Mobilität und den darauffolgenden Schwerpunkten #1_18 Zirkus, #2_18 Projektion, #3_18 Archäologie, #1_19 Malerei, #2_19 Reise und #1_2020 Medizin, sind auf durchschnittlich rund 84 Seiten eigenständige Kosmen entstanden. Vergleichbar mit einer Ausstellung im musealen Kontext, schlugen wir für jede neue Ausgabe einen breiten und inklusiven Übertitel vor, in dessen Kontext ein Themengebiet besprochen wurde. Frei nach Hans Holleins Leitsatz „Alles ist Architektur“ laden wir seit der ersten Ausgabe unsere Leserschaft zu Ausflügen in eine Welt ein, wo die Grenzen der Disziplinen verschwimmen. Triebfeder war seit dem Beginn unserer Zusammenarbeit als Redaktionsteam, die Neugierde auf die Erschließung ungeahnter und kreativer Zusammenhänge zwischen Kunst, Architektur, Gesellschaft und Kultur.

EDITORIAL

ADATO

Who we are & what we do? Learn more about the editorial board of ADATO

lu/about

ed it (b oo re ks VE -e , n RB di ew ( t sp tran ap si er tiv s, e) fil m s, et c) ag ai n

R E-E DI T E D # 1

https://www.adato.

EN_ A lot has happened since ADATO's redesign in 2017. With our first issue #2_17 Mobility and the following focal points #1_18 Circus, #2_18 Projection, #3_18 Archaeology, #1_19 Painting, #2_19 Voyage and #1_2020 Medicine, independent cosms have emerged on an average of 84 pages. Comparable to an exhibition in a museum, we proposed a broad and inclusive headline for each new issue, in the context of which a topic was discussed. True to Hans Hollein's famous quote "Alles ist Architektur.", we have been inviting our readers since the first issue to excursions into a world where the boundaries of disciplines blur. Since the beginning of our collaboration as an editorial team, our driving force has been the curiosity to open up unexpected and creative connections between art, architecture, society and culture.

Wir sind gespannt auf Ihre Gedanken und Kommentare auf Point Nemo Studio! Schauen Sie auf www.point-nemo.lu vorbei und diskutieren Sie mit uns!

Bei unseren literarischen Diskussionspartnern Barbara Imhof, Gray Kochhar-Lindgren und Kristian Faschingeder möchten wir uns sehr herzlich für ihre wertvolle Beteiligung an diesem Prozess bedanken.

This first issue of ADATO Re-Edited is at the same time the first issue for 2021. This special edition is much more than a very personal best of contributions from the members of the editorial team: in Re-Edited we subject our texts to a public editing process, a commentary by external, invited guests. It is a deep concern of ours not to see our interviews and essays as finished products, but always as a work in progress that experiences a snapshot in print. Seen in this light, the idea of Re-Edited might partially emerge from the desire to revisit a beloved topic and develop it further.

Diese erste Ausgabe ADATO Re-Edited ist gleichsam das erste Heft für 2021. Bei dieser Sonderedition handelt es sich um weit mehr als eine ganz persönliche Auswahl an Beiträgen der Redaktionsmitglieder: In Re-Edited unterziehen wir unsere Texte einem öffentlichen Lektorat, einem Kommentar durch externe, geladene Gäste. Es ist uns ein tiefes Anliegen unsere Interviews und Essais nicht als abgeschlossene Produkte zu begreifen, sondern immer auch als Work in Progress, der eine Momentaufnahme im Druck erfährt. So gesehen ist die Idee von Re-Edited vielleicht auch dem Wunsch nach der Wiederaufnahme eines geliebten Themas und seiner Weiterentwicklung geschuldet.

* EN_The issue you are holding in your hands can be read from one cover as ADATO and from the other as Point Nemo Publishing’s catalogue. Here you will find more information on the announced publications for the season autumn 2021 - spring 2022.

* DE_Das Heft, das Sie in den Händen halten, ist von einem Cover aus als ADATO und von der anderen Seite aus als Katalog von Point Nemo Publishing zu lesen. Hier finden Sie weitere Informationen zu den angekündigten Neuerscheinungen für die Saison Herbst 2021 - Frühjahr 2022.

Jérôme Becker, Eleni Palles, Nikolas Ettel & Anna Valentiny Das Redaktionsteam | The editorial team of ADATO

Wir wünschen eine gute Lektüre und neue Ausblicke. We wish you a good read and new perspectives.

We look forward to your thoughts and comments on Point Nemo Studio! Drop by www.point-nemo.lu and discuss with us!

We would like to thank our literary discussion partners Barbara Imhof, Gray Kochhar-Lindgren and Kristian Faschingeder for their valuable participation in this process.

In March 2020, the publishing house Point Nemo Publishing was founded, which from that time on publishes ADATO.* This was an important step. It has strengthened and inspired us to explore new ways with ADATO, and so it is with great pleasure that we announce the series ADATO Re-Edited today.

Im März 2020 wurde dann der Verlag Point Nemo Publishing gegründet, der fortan ADATO herausgibt.* Dies war ein wichtiger Schritt. Er hat uns darin gestärkt und inspiriert neue Wege mit ADATO zu begehen und so ist es uns heute eine große Freude, die Schriftenreihe ADATO Re-Edited anzukündigen.

Wjat else? >> https://vimeo.com/503540178

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Progress when you invent the ship, you also invent the shipwreck

Eleni Palles

This text was first written in 2016 as part of a project for the Master's programme Art&Science at die Angewandte in Vienna. Inspired by the side effects of our dependence on technology and 'progress' I focused on the creative potential of debris. How does it form our surrounding? What is its economic, cultural and political value? How can this latent matter be transformed into 'new nature'? Can its formations be considered monuments or its fragments be kept as souvenirs? Especially the last question was the starting point for a video installation conceived and realized by Anna Lerchbaumer and me in 2018 for the Natural History Museum in Vienna and the exhibition Our Place in Space in June 2018.

Hubble's primary Mirror as space debris_ still from the film Welcome Home Hubble, Lerchbaumer, Palles, 2018.

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....From the year 3018 The accumulation of relics of the past had been manipulated to create a new type of land(scape), a hypertopos, there, where for centuries had been nothing but mystery and inspiration for storytellers. [...] The visionary brains behind the engineering of this much debated project were proud to present his lifetime achievement. He was finally hosting the conference, announced over a decade ago, to present the outcome of his once utopian proposal. At his keynote speech, he didn’t miss the chance to quote yet again this German artist, whose words had caught his attention years ago on some recycling advertisement: ‘Ruins for me are the beginning. With the debris, you can construct new ideas. They are symbols of a beginning.’ (Anselm Kiefer) The island was now ready to become test ground for new experiments. Scientists, architects, developers, investors, politicians and artists had arrived from every corner of the man-occupied space to decide on a future wise appropriation of the landfill, trying to avoid erroneous endeavours of the past, that had by now rendered two thirds of planet Earth inhabitable. [...] They received a set of knowledge plug-ins with information about the project, scientific details, biohistory and a long list of thought-provoking ideas to keep their mind active in critical thinking. The fleet of vessels carrying the visitors was hovering above the area and every three quarters of an hour one would land on solid ground encouraging the physical exploration of how once polluting and disturbing trash had been transformed into a potential valuable treasure. Ruins of their own collective making covered up with flowers were offering the possibility to revive something long gone in favour of missions for the making of new and better worlds. But now a new promising future based on literally and physically recreating the past could make everything alright again. What an irony wanting so bad to achieve a better future and when everything goes wrong retrieving to the safe predictability of the past. Monument, museum, new habitat, theme park, retreat resort for the elite or ongoing in-situ experiment? If extended and multiplied, could it form new continents and allow man to inhabit the Earth again? Could the future resemble the long-lost past once again?

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01 In the layers: A electrodynamic space tethers Long conducting wires1 were missioned around the second half of the 21st century to collect and remove spent or dysfunctional spacecraft from Low Earth Orbit. When retrieved back to the atmosphere, they were disposed, as so many objects before them, into the oceanic pole of inaccessibility. Their infallible construction allowed them to remain unburnt during re-entry and their size and durability in time was the element that triggered the idea of using them as a solid core for new habitable formations. B archaic space debris from the protospace period (1971-2030) From the beginning of man’s endeavours in space, numerous objects had been retrieved postmission, set into orbital decay and finally disposed into the area. Spaces stations, early stages, rockets’ secondary payloads, spy satellites, fuel tanks, cargo ships, mostly parts of unrecognised scrap metal, that accumulated excessively over the years2. As planet Earth became more and more uninhabitable anyway, this proved to be the best solution for the disposal of expired spacecrafts, since storage orbits3 were a setback for intergalactic traffic. C tiangong fragments In 2011, Wang Wenbao, the director of the China Manned Space Engineering Office, asked the public to submit suggestions for names and symbols to adorn the space station and its cargo ship. He stated that ‘the crewed space program should have a more vivid symbol and that the future space station should carry a resounding and encouraging name’, insisting that ‘the public should be involved in the names and symbols as this major project will enhance national prestige, and strengthen the national sense of cohesion and pride’.4 Tiangong, Chinese for ‘heavenly palace’, China’s first space station module, launched after long anticipation in 2030 but was retrieved only five years later after the multi-docking berthing mechanism failed due to defect radial ports of the core module. A major setback at the time for the Chinese space station program that it hasn’t managed to recover to this day. D ISS-1 The Intergalactic Space Station in the Sun–Earth L35, whose assembly started in 2073 and whose purpose was to serve as a main control station for the space colonies, exceeded by far its predicted life time before being de-orbited and replaced by ISS-2.0. E ecologically engineered ecosystem Vegetation and soil analyses of the insanitary landfill were conducted over many years to investigate the colonisation potential of plant communities, and to suggest new modified alternatives. The vegetation of the landfill was surveyed by using 10x10 m quadrats. The soils were analysed for pH, electrical conductivity, organic matter content, Total-N, P, K, Ca, Mg, sand, silt, and clay6. Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was performed by using the extent of cover for all the recorded species, and the physical and chemical variables of soil. This study made it possible for the newly acquired piece of solid ground to host and support what could be described as succession to typical and natural earth forest, by now long extinct7.

1) Carmen Pardini, Toshiya Hanada, Paula H. Krisko ‘Benefits and risks of using electrodynamic tethers to de-orbit spacecraft’, IAC06-B6.2.10, 2006. 2) Klinkrad, H. ‘Space debris: models and risk analysis’, Springer Praxis, Chichester, UK, 2006. 3) J.-C. Liou, N.L. Johnson, N.M. Hill, ‘Controlling the growth of future LEO debris populations with active debris removal’, Acta Astronautica magazine Vol.66, Elsevier, March 2010. 4)’Countdown begins for space station program’, Beijing: China Daily, 28 April 2011. 5) George Bosworth Burch, ‘The Counter-Earth’, Osiris magazine Vol.11, The University of Chicago Press, 1954. 6) Kim, K.D., Lee, E.J. & Cho, KH, ‘The Plant Community of Nanjido, a Representative Nonsanitary Landfill in South Korea: Implications for Restoration Alternatives’, Water, Air, & Soil Pollution magazine Vol.154, Springer May 2004. 7) Scott D Bergen, Susan M Bolton, James L. Fridley, ‘Design principles for ecological engineering’, Ecological Engineering magazine Vol.18, Elsevier December 2001.

A landfill soil P < 0.05

high P, Ca and Mg in landfill soils

salix babylonica

Indigofera pseudo-tinctoria

platanus orientalis

rosa multiflora

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C D

B 48° 52’ 36” S 123° 23’ 36” W

01_W. Benjamin, Ge-

sammelten Schriften I:2. Suhrkamp

Verlag. Frankfurt am Main, 1974. 02_ According to Benjamin, the concept of progress is to be grounded in the idea of catastrophe. That things just go on is the catastrophe. Walter Benjamin ‘Central Park’, New German Critique, Issue no. 34, Winter 1985, p. 50. 03_Louis Marin ‘The Frontiers of Utopia’, from the book 13, edited by Krishan Kumar and Stephen Bann, Reaktion Books, 1993, p.10-11. 04_The word ‘aeon’ originally meant ‘life’, ‘vital force’ or ‘being’, ‘generation’ or ‘a period of time’, though it tended to be translated as ‘age’ in the sense of ‘ages’, ‘forever’, ‘timeless’ or ‘for eternity’. It is a Latin transliteration from the Greek word ὁ αἰών. In Homer it typically refers to life or lifespan. Its latest meaning is more or less similar to the Sanskrit word kalpa and Hebrew word olam. A cognate Latin word aevum or aeuum for ‘age’ is present in words such as ‘longevity’ and ‘mediaeval’. 05_William Gibson as quoted from an interview on Fresh Air, NPR , 31 August 1993. 06_WAI Architecture Think Tank, ‘The Palace of Failed Optimism’, What About It? Magazine, Issue 3, Beijing, September 2014, p.10. 07_Quoting Rachel Cooper from the public lecture at LSE ‘The Future City: cruel or consoling utopia?’, hosted by Richard Sennett, February 2016. Rachel Cooper is professor

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There is a painting by Klee called Angelus Novus. An angel is depicted there who looks as though he were about to distance himself from something which he is staring at. His eyes are opened wide, his mouth stands open and his wings are outstretched. The Angel of History must look just so. His face is turned towards the past. Where we see the appearance of a chain of events, he sees one single catastrophe, which unceasingly piles rubble on top of rubble and hurls it before his feet. He would like to pause for a moment so fair [verweilen: a reference to Goethe’s Faust], to awaken the dead and to piece together what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing from Paradise, it has caught itself up in his wings and is so strong that the Angel can no longer close them. The storm drives him irresistibly into the future, to which his back is turned, while the rubble-heap before him grows sky-high. That which we call progress, is this storm.1 How does one define the future, how to care for it? How much do we participate in the making of our future or to which extend do we just let things happen? Letting things happen is, according to Benjamin, the definition of catastrophe2. However, a ‘catastrophe’ does not necessarily mean the end, as Louis Marin writes, ‘catastrophe is the sublime way to open a neutral space, one that is absolutely different.’3 If we accept the perception of history as cyclical, as a sequence of aeons4, whose notion itself contains repetitive rises and falls, ascendances and decadences, upturns and downturns, where do we stand now? We are indisputably living in an era where Benjamin’s progress has arrived, utopic visions of the past in many fields have become reality, ‘the future is already here, it is just not evenly distributed’5 and who is included in this progress and who is excluded is basically the difference between utopia and dystopia. Conquering space, imitating nature, control of unconceivable amount of data and tools for creation on the one side, debris, destruction of ecosystems, tools for power and manipulation on the other. Projects that promise ultimate solutions and better futures. But for every ideal project another ideal project has to be destroyed6, so then further projects are required to cover up for the consequences of this destruction. These subsequently prohibit the visions and potential of the first ones, that do not seem that ideal anymore... and so it goes on. All connected to each other producing a vicious circle. While investing resources on a possible better future in outer space, side-effects lessen the quality of life in the one future given to humans by default, this of life on planet Earth. Programmes to establish more and more man-made objects in outer space and parallel programmes to clean up their side-effects. Ongoing wars, profitable for the few, that create tons of morbid debris, which is then upcycled by covering it up with genetically engineered flora. And how does one keep an optimistic approach when the buzzwords that come with every proposal are ‘smart’, ‘resilient’, ‘sustainable’? All this makes the future sound like something that we have to with-

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stand rather than something we can create.7 It all resembles Schopenhauer’s conception of walking as arrested falling down. If we assume that mankind is already on a path leading to decline, if we imagine that all the eschatological scenarios as presented in both science and in dystopian science fiction occur, what will the earth look like and what could trigger a new beginning? Will it be as neutral as Marin suggests?

When one wants to deal with the future, one has to start with the past. What did the future look like some decades ago? Analysing futuristic dreams of the past can be incredibly expanding in order to see certain aspects in a bigger context and draw essential conclusions for the present. Architecture as the vehicle for building a better society hand in hand with the advances of technology, produced radical imagery of the future during the post-war and Space Age era. Utopian landscapes, futuristic megastructures, blueprints for plug-in cities and lunar colonies. Great expos demonstrating the advances of technology and cybernetics and their impact on everyday life. So, what is now the intellectual and physical legacy of this period? What happens to obsolete spacecraft, machinery and architectural debris? Could these solid non-decaying materials serve as substructures and foundations that will carry the future? Interestingly, David Gissen in his book Subnature: Architecture’s other environments gives an interpretation for the term debris that differentiates it from rubble. Whereas rubble suggests something potentially salvageable and local, debris describes the dispersed remains of structures levelled by cataclysmic events typically by war or natural disasters. Debris refers more to a collection of unrecognisable matter; debris is about taking in the total spatial transformation brought by violence and disaster; and debris speaks of the ways former structures transform the nature of their surroundings. Because it is often unrecognisable in its original form and because it often refers to social disasters, debris signifies not only the return of society to nature, but it exists as a type of latent hybrid nature in its own right.8 Architectural debris Ever since the massive destruction and flattening of cities as aftermath of the WWII, a lot of post-war architectural thinkers perceived debris as a type of authentic nature on which a new architecture would be grounded, one that would reflect the past and come to dialogue with it. A good example of this are the Smithsons9, whose commitment to debris as late-modern nature, produced many controversial projects. One of their most famous projects is the Robin Hood Gardens housing complex in London ,for which the remnants of the demolished houses that previously occupied the site were formed into the terra-firma of a new type of collective landscape. Rather than removing the image of debris from the city and its physical manifestation, they give it a significant role in urbanisation.10

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Reconstructing nature on debris Highly debatable projects are launched all over the world to rework the grey urban or industrial sites into green non-polluted areas. Projects like the trash island Nanjido in Seoul (South Korea 1978-1993) and Fresh Kills Landfill11 on Staten Island (New York 2005-) aim to transform urban trash heaps into monumental topographic shapes covered with plantings12. What does the ability to reconstruct nature resembling pre-industrial forms entail? Modifying the insanitary soil to host the plantings or modify the plantings to adjust and survive in the nonsanitary soil? Space debris

Space debris_ still from the film Gravity, directed by Alfonso Cuarón 2013.

of Design Management and Policy at Lancaster University and director of Imagination Lancaster. 08_David Gissen,

Subnature: Architecture’s other environments,

Princeton Architectural Press, 2009, p.132.

09_James Taylor-Foster, ‘What can be learned from the Smithsons’ New Brutalism in 2014 ? ’, ArchDaily, June 2014, http:// www.archdaily.com/51902/ what-can-be-learnt-fromthe-smithsons-new-brutalism-in-2014. 10_Ironically, the complex will be demolished and replaced with new ‘sustainable’ housing over the next decade and there is no intention of reusing or keeping any part of the lot’s past. 11_ The ‘land-fill method’ of disposing of unburnable waste was developed in 1939 and is structured like a layer cake, with a layer of garbage covered by a layer of ash – the remains of burnable trash from the city’s incinerators – another layer of garbage, and then a layer of dirt to contain the smell. At the end of the landfill’s usable life, new real estate would be created.

12_ The landfill in Staten Island opened in 1947 and closed in 2001. After the September 11, 2001 attacks, Fresh Kills was temporarily re-opened to be used as a sorting ground for roughly one third of the rubble from Ground Zero. Thousands of detectives and forensic evidence specialists worked for over 1.7 million hours at Fresh Kills Landfill to try to recover remnants of the people killed in the attacks. In 2008, reclamation of the site began on a multi-phase, 30-year site development for reuse as Fresh Kills Park. The Fresh Kills site is to be transformed into reclaimed wetlands, recreational facilities and landscaped public parkland and of course a memorial to honor those who were not able to be identified from the debris. Source: https://www.nycgovparks. org/park-features/freshkills-park.

The acquaintance with Dr. Alice Gorman in Vienna where she was visiting as guest speaker at the round table Propulsion: On Changing Futures13 led me to look closer into that problematic by-product of ‘progress’. She is an archaeologist specialising on space debris (she humorously calls herself Dr. Spacejunk). Her lecture led me to go further on researching the programs launched to deal with this problem. The junk lingering in space is constantly multiplying and constitutes a threat to space missions, so there are numerous proposals of how these masses could either be sent further away in space or collected with nets or magnetic tethers in order to be de-orbited and return back to Earth to sink into the Pacific Pole of Inaccessibility, widely known as point Nemo14. Would it be possible for these non-functional but durable materials as their overall volume increases to form solid entities within or outside the Earth’s atmosphere? Throughout my research, I was very soon caught in the trap of trying to find answers, but in the process, it became obvious that it was about posing better and more to-the-point questions. Depiction of the future is usually an exaggeration of contemporary conditions, which can be the sharpest of criticisms on current situations, so this seemed to be the right tool. Focusing mainly on the fields related to the production of physical space, I collected as much information, facts and literature as possible about the future (any future), to see if it would then be possible to compose them together into a hypothetical, both visual and verbal, narrative that would provoke the right questions.

13_ Site-specific Art, Vienna, 20-22.10.2016. 14_ The oceanic pole of inaccessibility is the place in the ocean that is farthest from land. It lies in the South Pacific Ocean and is also referred to as Point Nemo, Latin for ‘no one’. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Pole_of_inaccessibility.

Hubble's primary Mirror as space debris_ still from the film Welcome Home Hubble, Lerchbaumer, Palles, 2018.

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LAVAHIVE August 2015 Competition – NASA 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge – 2015 World Maker Faire New York, NY Third Prize LavaHive is a modular 3D-printed Mars habitat using a novel construction technique called lava-casting. The habitat is made from the readily available surface material found on Mars called regolith and uses the abundant energy resource of the sun to power the construction of the building elements used for the habitats. This process is called In Situ Resource Utilisation (ISRU) and can allow the next stage of human exploration once construction is virtually freed from the constraints imposed by the current approach where all necessary materials are launched from earth. LavaHive is a multifunctional facility comprised of a main habitation unit, airlock module, maintenance workshop, docking port, laboratory and greenhouse.

Space Matter Matters when outer space exploration becomes a role-model for rethinking conventional habits Authors, Waltraut Hoheneder, René Waclavicek, Barbara Imhof Editor, Jennifer Cunningham

Outer space is a rich source of inspiration for a wide range of scenarios. Fuelled by its extreme nature these scenarios tend to take us to an optimistic utopia or somewhere within the depths of dystopia. As our imagination guides us to these places there are two celestial bodies that prevail across human culture as symbol, guide and narrator. The sun and the moon represent powerful references and vivid areas of projection for human cultures across time. As we think into space with these binaries, literally reaching for the stars, the innate human desire to challenge frontiers that no one has crossed before reflects back towards Earth. Humankind has successfully ventured into outer space, with numerous spacecrafts, crewed and robotic and the thousands of satellites currently orbiting the planet Earth. The bold endeavour of exploring outer space can be read as an inspiring story of success, but it leaves out potential side effects for future opportunities. Space debris represents a prominent example of unintended technological impacts which are being associated with the far-reaching aspirations of space exploration. Space debris stems from dysfunctional human-made objects that orbit Earth at a speed of several kilometres per second making them hazardous beyond general discussions regarding waste.

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S PA C E M AT T E R M AT T E R S B Y L I Q U I F E R A S A C O M M E N T O N " P R O G R E S S " B Y E L E N I PA L L E S

Space debris has become a serious problem for space travel. Since the beginning of spaceflight its mass has been increasing exponentially and is currently around 8000 tonnes. Collisions have a cascading effect, creating smaller and smaller pieces of debris, which could make low-Earth orbit unusable within the next 100 years. The hazards of space debris already require space manoeuvres for major obstacle avoidance and generate elevated insurance costs. Like the classic adage from Mary Douglas where she writes that dirt is matter out of place1, the waste and debris of space are matter out of place. Approaching them not as hazards but as material that can be repurposed, we can think differently with this matter. As Donna Haraway says, it matters what matters we use to think other matters with.2 With an excess of debris in space, expensive transportation to zero gravity environments from Earth and current considerations of settlements on other celestial bodies we are able to think about matters of production and recycling with matter already in orbit. Space debris invokes collective awareness and consideration. This invitation of care applies to any global hazards caused by human-induced waste generation and unsustainable resource management. It activates latent concerns and unease about potential damaging effects of human activities getting out of control. LIQUIFER, an enterprise whose work is deeply rooted in space exploration research, with international partners in collaborative projects, was invited to comment on the article of Eleni Palles “Progress - when you invent the ship, you also invent the ship wreck”. Palles’ work draws up artistic scenarios driven by the topics of space debris and worldwide impacts of pollution. LIQUIFER addresses the potentials of human space exploration as valuable test beds or role models for efficient resource management and avoidance of waste generation. The following article will offer reflections on the dynamics of waste generation in general followed by prominent contemporary concepts and current political measures on developing different approaches to waste before describing examples of LIQUIFER’s work in space research that is related to waste in space.

Future human activity on the lunar surface will use 3D-printing to build infrastructure from lunar soil (regolith) using the sun as the only source of energy. Today this technology is considered disruptive, tomorrow it will be standard. The RegoLight project investigates the sintering process of lunar regolith simulants by means of concentrated sunlight in order to prepare for future lunar missions for building infrastructure (levelled terrain, dust shelters, launch pads etc.) and structural components for lunar habitats.

The aspiration to enable human life in outer space challenges conventional terrestrial approaches that used to rely on unlimited resource availability. It is necessary to develop and implement new approaches as the most basic resources that humans need for survival are not readily available in outer space and transporting matter to space is exorbitant. Current strategies include reuse and recycling, in-situ resource utilisation, 3D-printing of hardware, and the establishment of closed loop systems. All of these approaches indirectly address the topic of waste management. Human presence in space involves the establishment of small-scale habitable biospheres. Corresponding design developments hold high potentials for sustainable resource management on a global scale. TRADITIONAL WASTE MANAGEMENT Waste is generated when products lose their functionality or become outdated. It is understood to be the end state of a product life cycle and was commonly resolved by disposal. Substantial waste volumes accrue during current production and distribution processes,

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EDEN ISS Ground Demonstration of Plant Cultivation Technologies and Operation in Space for Safe Food Production on-board the International Space Station (ISS) and Future Human Space Exploration Vehicles and Planetary Outposts March 2015 – February 2019 European Union – Horizon 2020 (EU-H2020) project, topic of Space exploration / Life support A sustained human presence in space requires the development of new technologies to maintain environmental control, manage waste, provide water, oxygen and food, and to keep astronauts healthy and psychologically fit. Innovative food cultivation technologies in closed-loop life support systems must be developed as an integral part of future space systems. The goal of the EDEN ISS project is to advance controlled environment agriculture technologies beyond the state-of-theart. It focuses on ground demonstration of plant cultivation technologies and their application in space. EDEN ISS develops a Mobile Test Facility with integrated nutrient delivery system, high-performance LED lighting, bio-detection and decontamination system, imaging systems for monitoring plant health, and robust thermal, power and air management systems. The facility was tested during the EDEN ISS analogue mission in Antarctica (February – November 2018), providing 270 kilos of fresh, edible produce for the crew at the Neumayer III Antarctic station, operated by the Alfred-Wegener-Institute. Today it continues to serve as an analogue environment for testing plant cultivation under extreme environmental and logistical conditions with extended operation until 2021.

as the result of industrial as well as biological metabolisms. Waste, by definition, is not necessarily harmful if the impacts can be compensated by natural and technological systems. Driven by the desire to create goods and services beneficial and convenient for humankind, negative side effects of technological advances were initially widely ignored. Contemporary industrial production generates waste to an unprecedented extent resulting in environmental deterioration that is increasingly viewed as a substantial risk for future life on the planet. Removal of waste has been ever considered essential to maintain attractive environments. Since epidemic plagues were associated with hygienic deficiencies, uncontrolled accumulation of waste is also considered a hazard to health. During the past century, extended service networks have been established to collect and channel waste streams. However, the efforts to make waste invisible result in general ignorance towards its volume and destination. Historical and ongoing efforts to get waste under control include burying waste in landfills, incineration, or using special containers and deposits for hazardous waste. Nonetheless, reports on contamination of soil, air, and water bodies, greenhouse effect, loss of wildlife and species diversity as well as extensive depletion of natural resources contribute to raising public awareness. With negative impacts becoming apparent, the pressure for sustainable production, distribution, and waste management is increasing. REDEFINING WASTE Numerous institutions and individuals worldwide contribute to data acquisition on waste streams, and develop responsible waste management plans. The Waste Framework Directive 2008/98/EC of the European Commission defines binding targets for the waste legislation and policy of the EU-Member States. Avoidance of waste and preparing for reuse is rated highest priority followed by recycling and recovery, with disposal to be avoided. “Directive 2008/98/EC sets the basic concepts and definitions related to waste management, such as definitions of waste, recycling, recovery. It explains when waste ceases to be waste and becomes a secondary raw material (so called end-ofwaste criteria), and how to distinguish between waste and by-products. The Directive lays down some basic waste management principles: it requires that waste be managed without endangering human health and harming the environment, and in particular without risk to water, air, soil, plants or animals, without causing a nuisance through noise or odours, and without adversely affecting the countryside or places of special interest.”3

1 Douglas, M. Purity and Danger: An analysiss of concepts of Pollution and Taboo. 2001 (1966) 3rd Ed. Routledge, New York and London. 2 Haraway, D. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, 2016, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, United States 3 https://ec.europa. eu/environment/waste/framework/

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For decades critical voices question the linear character of overall economic activities, starting with the extraction of natural resources, followed by material processing, manufacturing, distribution, consumption, and finally disposal. The famous ‘Cradle to Cradle’ concept challenges the traditional ways of product design by demanding responsible material inputs at all stages of production and distribution.

4 Braungart M. & McDonough W., “The Upcycle. Beyond sustainability – designing for abundance”, 2013, Melcher Media, New York, United States 5 Braungart M. & McDonough W., “Cradle to Cradle – Remaking the way we make things”, 2002, North Point Press, United States 6 https://ec.europa. eu/environment/strategy/circular-economy-action-plan_en

Beyond the obligatory usage of non-hazardous materials and processes, this new conception of product design is made to embrace reversibility, upcycling capacities and focuses on keeping technical and biological material flows separate in order to enable successful recycling on a large scale. In actual product compositions a multitude of materials are merged in a way that inhibit feasible disintegration for sustainable recycling. Braungart and McDonough, the authors of ‘Cradle to Cradle’, draw up scenarios that allow for abundance with a variety of answers that contrast ubiquitous claims for austerity measures in consumption. New design approaches shall enable easy ways of deconstruction and disassembly. 4,5 The concepts of circular economies are increasingly acknowledged but implementation on a large scale requires fundamental changes within contemporary economies. Existing investments are binding capital for extended periods of time. They delay transformation, holding short-term competitive advantages in comparison to alternative investments. As the shift towards sustainable economies has not gathered momentum, many industrial stakeholders proceed with business as usual.

"The European Commission adopted the new circular economy action plan (CEAP) in March 2020. It is one of the main building blocks of the European Green Deal, Europe’s new agenda for sustainable growth. The EU’s transition to a circular economy will reduce pressure on natural resources and will create sustainable growth and jobs. It is also a prerequisite to achieve the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality target and to halt biodiversity loss. The new action plan announces initiatives along the entire life cycle of products. It targets how products are designed, promotes circular economy processes, encourages sustainable consumption, and aims to ensure that waste is prevented and the resources used are kept in the EU economy for as long as possible.”6

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THE POTENTIALS OF SPACE RESEARCH What can space research contribute to global terrestrial challenges? The following text will cover state-of-the-art approaches as well as current developments in space research which are addressing the issues of sustainable resource and waste management. The respective topics have been investigated for decades in the development of human space flight technology and can serve as valuable contributions when attempting to meet present and potential terrestrial challenges. SPACE EXPLORATION The drive for exploration of areas that have not been accessed before originates from the search for resources. Acquisition of resources is the natural driver for any life form, resulting in exploration, expansion and the establishment of territories. Exploration is largely triggered by competition for resources, nonetheless numerous cooperative relationships have emerged in natural systems that enable success and build interdependencies. Space exploration is competitive, with a rising number of countries investing in space, a frontier often driven by national prestige and the potentials of commercial revenue. On the other hand, space exploration stands for exceptional cooperative endeavours that unite nations on a supranational level, such as the space exploration program of the International Space Station ISS, the GATEWAY program for orbiting the moon, as well as many other international space research programs. Supranational cooperation is considered crucial to address any global challenges that are characterised by economic, social and ecological interdependencies worldwide. HUMAN PRESENCE IN SPACE Human space exploration comprises a fraction of global space budgets, a large share being dedicated to Earth observation and communication. Environmental conditions in outer space are extremely hostile to humans. To satisfy the basic human needs for fresh air and water, shelter and food, Life Support Systems (LSS) have been developed that cannot rely on constant resupply - as terrestrial systems generally do - but need to build on recycling and reuse. The high costs of space logistics put substantial pressure on the development of regenerative systems. Independence from resupply is considered mandatory for the success of extended space travel that reaches out further than the Earth orbit, to the moon, Mars or beyond. The requirements of human space flight make us very conscious of what humans depend on in both short-term and long-term considerations. Understanding these needs is often eye-opening. We consider them as valuable role models for a responsible handling of resources on and around the planet Earth.

REUSE OF SPACE HARDWARE Extended human space missions face a wide range of technological, medical, and logistic challenges. Scenario developments are broadened by competitions to access a large range of ideas as potential scenario inputs. NASA launched the 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge in 2015, an international competition to find new ideas of using in-situ resources to 3D-print habitats on Mars. LIQUIFER proposed the reuse of space hardware such as the re-entry shield and other parts used for landing on Mars which are normally abandoned right after they have served their initial purpose. In the LAVA HIVE project the re-entry shield is repurposed and used as the hard top of the main habitat where the Life Support Systems can be installed. The Martian base was suggested to be printed from molten Mars regolith generating adequate shelters for human habitation. LAVA HIVE was awarded with the 3rd prize of the NASA challenge. Reuse of logistics hardware represented the core concept of the US Space Shuttle Program and fuels current developments of reusable rockets by SpaceX. Satellite technologies commonly relied on the approach that non-functional hardware can be disposed of through de-orbiting, generating the hazards of space debris as addressed above. This approach corresponds to traditional terrestrial patterns of waste incineration, disposal in landfills or toleration of infrastructural leaks. The reuse of debris and left-overs from previous exploration missions is increasingly valued in the context of efficient resource management. This approach embraces the common aspirations of space exploration towards in-situ resource utilization. ISRU – IN-SITU RESOURCE UTILIZATION IN SPACE In-situ resources represent all resources that are readily available onsite. They comprise energy, mainly gained from sunlight and material such as regolith, the lunar or Martian soil, and water. A core concept for the establishment of surface infrastructure for humans builds on in-situ fabrication of infrastructure using locally available energy and material. The lunar environment lacks atmosphere, therefore, adequate shelters against radiation and micrometeoroids are required to enable human presence for extended periods. Unless existing caves and lava tubes can be activated for shielding habitable spaces, adequate constructions are mandatory for long-term human settlements on the moon. 3D-printing of building blocks by exclusively using solar energy and lunar soil was investigated in the project RegoLight. With the aspiration to create shelters that do not require binding material between the building blocks, interlocking geometries were explored, as well as mobile 3D-printing technologies. The purpose of RegoLight was to assist in preparation for future lunar missions for building infrastructure (levelled terrain, dust shelters, launch pads etc.) and structural components for lunar habitats with resources available in space. By using concentrated sunlight as an energy source RegoLight investigated the sintering process of lunar regolith. A Finite Element Model was developed, enabling sustainable and realistic architectural scenarios and applications to be developed within the potential mechanics of sintering lunar regolith simulants. Image credit: DLR

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THE POTENTIALS OF 3D-PRINTING

Additive manufacturing technologies, such as 3D-printing hold high potentials for on-site construction and efficient material recycling due to the usage of mono-materials. 3D-printing technologies are envisioned to revolutionize production processes in general as key technologies for resource-efficient ways of production. Traditional product design commonly achieves multifunctionality with the use of composite materials. Layers of different materials are bonded to enable various functions. Traditionally high-performance bonds inhibit feasible material separation for recycling purposes. 3D-printing enables continuous change of physical properties within a mono-material block by its programmable configuration of material and voids. 3D-printing enables the fabrication of highly material efficient structures comparable to those in natural systems such as bones. Mono-materials can be readily recycled. Printing objects locally whenever and wherever needed avoids transport costs, but also allows rapid prototyping and production of spare parts therefore adding to overall system resilience. The project URBAN investigated the suitability of mission hardware for 3D-printing applications. URBAN identified hardware parts required for a human-tended lunar base and assessed the feasibility of 3D-printing them within the parameters of space. This led to an analysis of current innovations in additive layer manufacturing (ALM) technologies and their ability to 3D-print a number of different materials. Four of these ALM technologies were identified as recommended for further advancement for application in outer space. LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS Life Support Systems technologies target fully closed-loop systems to enable extended human presence in space. Air and water, the most vital substances, are in fact nearly fully recycled on the International Space station ISS, to enable continuous cycles of usage. Systems that aim at longterm independence from resupply build on the integration of various living organisms. This integration allows system loops to be achieved. The project EDEN ISS investigated bioregenerative life support systems for space exploration that include food production, water recycling, waste management, oxygen production and carbon dioxide reduction. A Mobile Test Facility is being successfully operated at the Neumayer Station III in the Antarctic, integrating a nutrient delivery system, high-performance LED lighting, bio-detection and a decontamination system, imaging systems for monitoring plant health, and robust thermal, power and air management systems, all of which provide the Neumayer Station crew with fresh produce all year round. Advances in information and communication technologies enable complex technological processes. Rapidly emerging sensor technologies, high levels of automation, and artificial intelligence applications are expected to finally enable self-organising systems of high resilience which are comparable to natural systems.

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Living Architecture metabolic apps for transforming our habitats from inert spaces into programmable sites April 2016 – June 2019 European Union – Horizon 2020 (EU-H2020) research project, FET-Open Living Architecture is a next-generation, selectively-programmable bioreactor. It is envisioned as an integral component of human dwelling in the future, capable of extracting valuable resources from light, wastewater and air and in turn, generating small amounts of electricity and oxygen, lots of biomass, and serves as a method for the recovery of valuable nutrients found in waste streams, such as phosphate. Furthermore, the system treats waste streams generated in buildings, reducing the amount of total waste that would need to be processed by municipal facilities. The freestanding partition composed of standardized bioreactor building blocks can be incorporated into common building construction methods. The bioreactor unit is prototyped based on the operational principles of Microbial Fuel Cell (MFC) technology, Photobioreactors, and Synthetic Microbial Consortia (SMC). The outcome consists of two building blocks: one, a programmed and configured MFC to produce electricity, and the other, an SMC to purify air and wastewater. With continuous improvements made to these very promising technologies, Living Architecture can, in the future, become a form of customizable, programmable micro-agriculture for building installation in domestic, public and office environments. The technology could potentially address global-scale challenges of urban sustainability and resource management.

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NATURAL ROLE MODELS

The terrestrial biosphere represents the global Life-Support-System for any life forms on Spaceship Earth and is characterised by continuous recycling of matter, which is primarily fuelled by solar energy. Natural organic systems complement each other, integrating production, consumption and decomposition in a cyclical manner. Natural role models can help to identify the gaps in technological developments. Natural metabolic processes build on two main types of processes, the synthesis of products and their degradation.

7 Black G.J.; Microbiology, Eighth Edition, International Student Version, 2013, John Wiley & Sons Singapore Pte.

Contemporary industrial systems commonly focus on the synthesis of different parts, namely production. They often lack the aspect of degradation and decomposition in the design concepts. Including this missing link for closing loops will help to enable a sustainable industrial metabolism.

8 Jonathan Amos, Rock mining with microbes may aid space explorers, BBC, 10 November 2020, https:// www.bbc.com/news/ science-environment-54895144, ac-

THE ROLE OF MICROBES

Ltd. p.714-716

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9 Haraway, D. Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene, 2016, Duke University Press, Durham, NC, United States

The extraordinary role of microbes on a global scale becomes apparent when looking at essential biochemical cycles, such as the carbon and the nitrogen cycle. Green plants and microorganisms can transform inorganic substances such as carbon dioxide and water into organic matter. This is done by using the energy of sunlight within photosynthesis. Plants and microbial producers generate the biomass that other lifeforms feed on, producing oxygen as a by-product that is essential for respiration. Decomposition of organic matter is mainly performed by microorganisms. In addition, microbes play an important role in making atmospheric nitrogen available to plants by transforming it into compounds that plants can metabolize. The project Living Architecture explored terrestrial building typologies in which structure and infrastructure merge and integrate complex biological processes. Traditionally inert building components evolve to habitats for microbial communities that complement each other, and take over substantial parts of building services. Digesting organic waste streams in-situ, microorganisms purify water, produce electricity and recover valuable resources such as phosphate that can be redirected to local greenhouse facilities. Both microbial and vegetal living systems increase the resilience of infrastructure networks and improve security of supply via the distributed generation of resources. Microorganisms hold a large potential for technological applications that integrate microbial consortia for production as well as degradation processes. They can be cultivated on a larger scale to support technological processes. Contemporary sewage treatment facilities benefit from the decomposing activities of microorganisms to reduce the share of organic matter. Microbes are also capable of breaking down toxins to harmless substances. They are used for the restoration of contaminated areas that are difficult to access with mechanical means of cleansing. Bioremediation uses microorganisms to transform harmful substances into harmless or less toxic compounds. Promoting

the growth of such microorganisms was used successfully to fight the impacts of oil spillage.7 Biotechnologies have the potential to close a gap between natural and technological processes and ongoing research is generating insights to understand functions in natural systems. Recently, the ESA experiment BioRock, coordinated by the UK Centre for Astrobiology at the University of Edinburgh was successfully conducted at the International Space Station (ISS). It could be demonstrated that microbes digested rock to release Rare-Earth Elements (REEs). Future space exploration could benefit from these novel findings and bio-mining could make a long-term human presence beyond the Earth more sustainable because useful elements from rocks could be extracted through microbial processes.8 Novel microbial applications can be envisioned as powerful tools to support the establishment of circular systems, allow for sustainable local resource utilisation and to improve human life. SPACE MATTER MATTERS To return to Haraway’s reflection, it matters what matters we use to think other matters with… it matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories.9 It also matters what matter we make worlds with. As we have outlined, there are many different ways in which debris or waste can be utilized, processed and reconsidered in outer space. What we consider a necessary mindset in space holds high potential for applications on Earth. Technological advances within the frame of the ‘Cradle to Cradle’ approach enable novel and sometimes quite simple approaches to habitability in this universe. Promoting the establishment of circular systems embraces multiple benefits that help to ensure future lives of humans and other species on the planet Earth and beyond.

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Acknowledgements: LAVA HIVE was part of the NASA 3D-Printed Habitat Challenge Competition and was shown at the 2015 World Maker Faire in New York, NY. Consortium Partners: European Space Agency (ESA); European Astronaut Centre (EAC), Germany; LIQUIFER Systems Group, Austria REGOLIGHT received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement no 686202. Consortium Partners: German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Germany; Space Applications Services, Belgium; LIQUIFER Systems Group, Austria; COMEX, France ; Bollinger Grohmann Schneider, Austria URBAN was part of a European Space Agency (ESA) general study of how 3D-printing on the moon can make habitats feel more like home. Consortium partners: OHB System, Germany; COMEX, France; LIQUIFER Systems Group, Austria; SONACA Space, Germany THE EDEN ISS PROJECT received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Reseach and Innovation Programme Under Grant Agreement no 636501. Consortium Partners: German Aerospace Centre (DLR), Germany; LIQUIFER Systems Group, Austria; National Research Council, Italy; University of Guelph, Canada; Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany; Enginsoft, Italy; Airbus Defense and Space, Germany; Thales Alenia Space, Turin, Italy; Aero Sekur, Italy; Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands; Heliospectra, Sweden; Limerick Institute of Technology, Ireland; Telespazio, Italy; University of Florida, USA. LIVING ARCHITECTURE received funding from the European Union Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement no 686585. Consortium Partners: University of Newcastle Upon Tyne, School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape, Institute for Sustainability, United Kingdom; University of the West of England, Unconventional Computing Centre (UCG), BioEnergy Centre, Bristol Robotics Lab, United Kingdom; Spanish National Research Council, Agencia Estatal Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, Department of Environmental Biology, Spain; LIQUIFER Systems Group, Austria; EXPLORA BIOTECH, Italy; University of Trento (University Degli Studi di Trento), Centre for Integrative Biology, Italy Visualisation credit: Liquifer Systems Group

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Alleys in Wonderland

Hong Kong’s back alleys as celebrated cinematic spaces

Nikolas Ettel in conversation with Gray Kochhar-Lindgren

Nikolas Ettel is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Hong Kong. He holds a BArch from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, an ir.Arch, a Master of Arts (Architectural History) from The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. He is currently Dr.Techn. Candidate at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna interested in the interdisciplinarity of film, philosophy, and architecture. His work has been exhibited in London, Vienna and Hong Kong among other locations, and his latest exhibition Alleys in Wonderland (PMQ, 2019), a Design Trust Seed Grant awarded VR-project is displayed at the Hong Kong Pavilion for the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2021.

Professor Gray Kochhar-Lindgren has been Director of Common Core Curriculum since 2014. Prior to joining HKU, he served as Associate Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Learning and the inaugural Director of the First Year and Pre-Major Programs at the University of Washington Bothell. With a PhD in Interdisciplinary Studies, Gray’s current scholarship focuses on cross-disciplinary learning in the global university and how philosophy, literature, social theory, and the arts intersect with urban space. He spent 2009-10 as a Fulbright Scholar in General Education, based at HKU, and assisted in the development of the HKU Common Core Curriculum.

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Even so, ‘the street, he [Henri Lefebvre] notes, has the paradoxical character of having more importance than the places it connects, more living reality than the things it reflects. The street renders public.’9 https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=2uMNtOQOaLU

WATCH THE MOVIE TRAILER Film Still, Mamoru Oshii. 1995. Ghost in the Shell.

Film Still, Wong Kar-Wai. 2000. In the Mood for Love.

Film Still, Rupert Sanders. 2017. Ghost in the Shell.

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Gray Kochhar-Lindgren: This is the voice of the architectural one, governed by transnational capital that moves at its leisure, keeping its eyes open for prey. Cities, floating in prefabricated pieces from the soft-

ware of planners, will become gridded investment properties and dense nodes of surveillance. The center glistens with fintech and glass; the peripheries are a patchwork of mud and tin, cement blocks piled one on top of the other. What is an alley; what is a street? Nikolas Ettel: Alleys spark my imagination. They are unique and universal at the same time. Unique because each alley is the representation of its surrounding buildings - it can only exist through its surrounded buildings - while acting as a spatial mirror of its neighborhood. Universal, for the lack of a better word, because an alley is a vital urban connector for a habitable built environment. A place where freedom and restrictions, informality and rules, filth and tidiness exist parallel. This prism of coexistence, the urban necessity and spatial informality facilitates a paradise of public agencies - actions - on Hong Kong' grounds.

GKL: Leftovers, film-spaces: what cultural technologies and what forms of desire stitch these together?

‘Tin Hau – 8.30pm – projection of “Little Cheung” Film by Fruit Chan’ in Hong Kong In Between, Borio, Geraldine & Caroline Wüthrich, MCCM Creations and Park Books, 2015, p.163.

How does the “what” interweave with multiples of “who” as the city’s sensoria and spatialities emerge? Alleys in Hong Kong are stitching operations creating neighborhoods of mood, love, ghosts, and left-overs. Stimmungen drift invisibly along with the fluttering sensibilities of garbage, broken bicycles, hooded scooters, laundry, and the businesses-out-back. What is frontspace and backspace? Is there a sidespace? Alley-ways (dis)orient. NE: Alleys have been commonly discussed as in-between spaces. This provocation of side-spaces brings us rightly off the beaten track. Back alleys are legally required for ventilation outlets, trash disposal, and light wells, so to say, the side effects of buildings. Yet, thereby being a space necessary for another - often a more expensive (shopping) space - to exist. Here, hectically smoking staff can occupy these side-spaces, enjoying a moment of quietness and privacy in exchange for a harsh contrast of raw back façades. Recently, unevenly distributed spots of commissioned graffiti and flashy labelling are trying to raise attention to these instagram-worthy side streets. A resisting space against strict confinements for moments of rest, a smoke, eat, sleep, hide, and seek. GKL: Alleys crack the city open to difference, to invention along the edged fissures that crisscross the radiant urban plan. There are movements sideways as one thing becomes another: détournment. Turning toward the sinister side, step into the meandering straightness of the song-ways of the alleys. If the streets render public, the alleys render a scale and degree of the private that remains open to various publics. This is not a contradiction, but a paradox that opens space. Meeting places, places of ex-change. What happens in the alleyways when day becomes night becomes day? How does the weather of the alley shift its moods when love, money, sorrow, and grime comingle with our fascination about all of these? NE: Time is indeed an important aspect. Take, for example, the alley behind Ying Kee Noodles 英記麵家, a small restaurant on High Street in Sai Ying Pun. In the early morning, this alley is a kitchen, wet and steamy while preparing the soup-based dishes of the day; during lunch, it fills with hungry customers chatting underneath a small centered banyan tree, transforming the space into a narrowly shaped makeshift plaza. In the afternoon, it is a shadowed tin HaU–8.30PM–ProJeCtion “little FilM storage space for smokeoFbreaks, butCHeUng” at night, it becomes a sink again, wet and steamy, while bY FrUit CHan

someone cleans oversized metal pots and wooden cutting blocks. Observing this flexibility in 天后晚上8時半陳果導演的《細路祥》放映會 one single space, we may find aspects, patterns, traces of daily routines, see them break off, re-arranged together while try to see them as a whole.

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1_ Murray, Christine, The Architectural Review: On ‘Notopia,’ The Scourge Destroying Our Cities Worldwide [online]. https://www.archdaily. com/789475/ar-issues-on-notopia-the-scourge-destroying-our-cities-worldwide (Accessed 25 January 2018).

2_ https://www.brandhk.gov.hk/html/en/

3_ Bordwell David, Planet Hong Kong; Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, 2000.

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‘By the end of the century our world will consist of isolated oases of glassy monuments surrounded by a limbo of shacks and beige constructions, and we will be unable to distinguish any one global city from another. (…) Its symptom (…) is that the edge of Mumbai will look like the beginning of Shenzhen, and the centre of Singapore will look like downtown Dallas.’1 What defines a city? Living in Hong Kong for many years now, widely known as the densest and busiest ‘Asia’s World City,‘2 the question of an urban image, in other words, its spatial identity appears more often these days. This is indeed a

4_ Ibid, p.1. 5_ Mark Shiel & Tony Fitzmaurice (ed.), Screening The City, Verso, London & New York, Introduction.

6_ Borio, Geraldine & Caroline Wüthrich, Hong Kong In Between, MCCM Creations and Park Books, 2015, p.78.

7_ Ibid, p.85. 8_ Ibid, p.85.

9_ Maurice Blanchot and Susan Hanson, Everyday Speech, Yale University Press, Yale French Studies, No. 73, Everyday Life (1987), p.17.

10_ Camillo Sitte: The Birth of Modern City Planning; With a translation of the 1889 Austrian edition of his City Planning according to Artistic Principles, George R. Collins, and Christiane Crasemann Collins (eds.), Rizzoli, New York, 1986, p.138.

11_ Lynne DiStefano & Lee Ho Yin’s “Hong Kong’s Back Alleys: The Ugly, the Bad and the Good,” in Informal Solutions: Observations in Hong Kong Back Alleys, Michael Wolf, WE Press, 2016, pp.79-93.

12_ 13_Ibid, p.84. 14_ Ibid, p.78. 15_ -18_Ibid, p.80. 19_ Borio, Geraldine & Caroline Wüthrich, Hong Kong In Between, MCCM Creations and Park Books, 2015, p.78

21_ Marc Feustel, “Everyday Monuments” in Informal Solutions: Observations in Hong Kong Back Alleys, Michael Wolf, WE Press, 2016, pp.5-8.

22_ Ibid, p.86. 23_ Borio, Geraldine & Caroline Wüthrich, Hong Kong In Between, MCCM Creations and Park Books, 2015, p.148.

Made for Hong Kong ‘It seemed appropriate, then, to examine a number of lovely old plazas and whole urban layouts – seeking out the basis of their beauty, in the hope that if properly understood these would lead to similar admirable effects.’10

vital question in post-colonial cities, hence in what follows is my interest to explore Hong Kong’s spatial oddities by means

In ‘Hong Kong’s Back Alleys: The Ugly, the Bad and the

of its cinematic representation. In the light of Mamoru Oshii’s

Good’11 Lynne DiStefano & Lee Ho Yin lay out a historical clo-

Ghost in the Shell (1995) and Wong Kar-wai’s In the Mood for

se up about back alleys spatial implications. Their title may be

Love (2000), the following seeks to understand my growing

understood as a reference to Sergio Leone’s close-ups me-

admiration for alley places in films. Despite the differences

thod in his classic western film The Good, the Bad and the

in cinematic storytelling and urban Stimmung, its mood sa-

Ugly (1966). Rather than framing emotions, the focus lies on

turated message, back alleys represent the often overlooked

the development of current law regulations to trace back the

spatial characteristic as connective spaces, in films and ever-

statutory origin of ‘scavenging lanes.’12 Accordingly, certain

yday life.

law orders and restrictions have been made after 1903 to ‘give up a specified amount of property for the creation of scaven-

In his discussion on the Great Pearl River Delta as the

ging lanes and the provision of open spaces.’13 Mentioned law

major production hub for Asian cinema, film theorist David

restrictions regulate these alley spaces to a width of six feet

Bordwell argues in Planet Hong Kong3 that ‘Hong Kong ci-

(1.8m), and are ‘the legislative consequence of understanding

nema is one of the success stories of film history. For about

the relationship between building design and public health,

twenty years, this city-state of around six million people

and especially the need to provide daylight and fresh air to the

had one of the most robust cinema industries in the world.

rear of the building.’14 The survey continues that during the

In number of films released, it regularly surpassed nearly all

19th century, shophouses in Southern China were built with a

Western countries. In export it was second only to the United

‘laneway-like rows of shophouses.’15

States.’4 For some time now, there is a growing body of work about the ways in which cinema is using the city, ‘both physi-

This famous shophouse type ‘developed in the dense

cally and as cultural constructs.’5 This becomes prominent in

urban settlements of Southern China’16 were necessary to re-

an arranged environment such as Hong Kong Island, consis-

duce congestion ‘by stacking homes on top of street-facing

ting merely of pencil towers and glossy monuments narrowly

shops (…).’17 Contradicting to today’s restricted law definition

standing on reclaimed land. Here, back alleys, in which every

of back alleys to a merely functional reason, these insights

day urban life appears to be ‘best represented’6, becomes

propose that historically back alleys have been used to ser-

recently a growing architectural interest. For the purpose of

ve and ‘create a common backyard shared by residents, who

this paper, we will look closer at left-over spaces to locate

could access their homes through backdoors facing a com-

their current appearance in the architectural discourse as

mon backyard.’18 What is important is the particular change

‘accumulations of junk,’ carrying a merely bad reputation

of use from a form of hygienic left over into a shared ba-

because they are occasionally tiny and ugly, yet friendly, and

ckyard space; a development which can be observed simil-

with a distinct architectural character worth investigating.

arly today, as back alleys commonly serve as an extension to

Here, the characteristics of being friendly refers to the possi-

the usually limited living space. ‘Hong Kong is largely a city

bility of daily occupations happening in these spaces, such as

without vandalism – who would want to destroy one’s own

narrow restaurants, shoe-makers, or hairdressers; even daily

living room?’19 This bizarrely common left-over space, which

routines no more than a temporarily cigarette break, propo-

seems to not only exist ‘to provide more air and light, and

20_ Camillo Sitte, The Art of Building Cities; City building according to its artistic fundamentals (1889), Translated by Charles T. Sterwart, Reinhold Publishing Corperation, New York, 1945, p.2.

se all rich questions to a unique symbolic space captured by

to break the monotony of oceans of houses,’20 consequently

the lenses of various filmmakers. After all, we might consider

provides a ’series of interstices’21 for urban citizens. Thereby,

their unusual characteristics as unique in Hong Kong, in an

they do not exist only to serve pragmatic trash disposal, sani-

attempt to rethink the reputation of back alley spaces to a

tation and light injection reasons. The Ugly, the Bad and the

possible form of admiration. Additionally, examining their ci-

Good concludes that ‘Hong Kong’s back alleys have a unique

nematic representation provides food for thought about the

character, a distinctive identity. (…) [T]here is the risk of losing

insights of this ‘refuge from urban madness.’ Even so, ‘the

one of Hong Kong’s most undervalued creative incubators.’22

street, he [Henri Lefebvre] notes, has the paradoxical charac-

Through this particular situation they are more than a functi-

ter of having more importance than the places it connects,

onal necessity, they become a necessary connective space in

more living reality than the things it reflects. The street ren-

dense Hong Kong.

ders public.’

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24_ Borio, Geraldine & Caroline Wüthrich, Hong Kong In Between, MCCM Creations and Park Books, 2015, p.160.

25_ Ibid, p.78.

26_ Haralambidou Penelope, The Architectural Essay in Film, Arq (2015), 19.3, Cambridge University Press, p.236.

27_ Penz, François, Cinematic Aided Design, Routledge, 2018, Foreword.

28_ Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics; The Invisible Art, William Morrow, Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 1994, p.72.

29_ Ibid, p.79.

30_ Ibid, p.74.

31_ Kwai-Cheung Lo,”Tech-Noir: A Sub-Genre May not Exist in Hong Kong ScienceFiction Films,” in Esther C.M. Yau& Tony Williams (eds.), Hong Kong Neo-Noir, Edinburgh University Press, 2017, p.77.

32_ Taken from a discussion by Evan Puschak, https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=gXTnl1FVFBw

33_ Adam Bingham,”Doubled Indemnity: Fruit Chan and the Meta-Fiction of Hong Kong Neo-Noir,” in Esther C.M. Yau& Tony Williams (eds.), Hong Kong Neo-Noir, Edinburgh University Press, 2017, p.77.

34_ Score: A Film Music Documentary by Matt Schrader, Gravitas Ventures, 2016.

ADATO

In Geraldine Borio and Caroline Wüthrich investigation

differences between western and eastern comics, in particu-

‘Hong Kong In Between’ they examine the current situation

lar Japanese mainstream comics. He calls the dominant craft

of various back alleys across the city through potential de-

of visualising a narrative in Japan the ’aspect-to-aspect tran-

sign interventions. Their intention is to trigger a change of

sition.’28 By using this representational concept, which may be

perception through various applied design interventions, for

seen as a general tool to understand the art of drawn narrati-

instance through evenings of film screenings, an afternoon

ves, the medium of time is not existing for the exploration of

tea ceremony, or a nighttime DJ show, to ‘introduce people

space. Here, the focus of storytelling is laid on the mood of

to Hong Kong’s back alleys in poetic and organic ways….’23

a particular place, ’(…) time seems to stand still in these quiet,

Last mentioned intervention was particularly interesting for

contemplative combinations.’29 In other words, the importan-

the people who are already using this back alley and those

ce of the viewer’s spatial perception is at the centre of the re-

to be introduced to them as it raises question concerning the

presentation. Therefore, the story ‘bypasses time for the most

law regulations in this left-over spaces. Without any form of

part and sets a wandering eye on different aspects of a place,

permission, this evening event brought people through mu-

idea or mood.’30 This becomes important to appreciate Ma-

sic together before it was closed down by the police shortly

moru Oshii’s spatial exploration in 1995´s Ghost in the Shell.

before midnight. ‘Even the illegal part was completely part of

In this classical ‘tech-noir’31 (a potential sub-genre in sci-fi

it, because we didn’t ask for any permission.’24 The additio-

films mentioned by Kwai-Cheung Lo), citizens of a future

nal possibility to smoke in these spaces without penalties, ‘an

metropolis locate their identities in their ghosts, or minds, but

activity banned in [any] other public spaces’25 underlines that

because of the recent cyberattacks and successful hackings

back alleys can be considered as vital intermediate spaces in

of these minds, their memory, and thereby identity are questi-

the Pearl River Delta region.

oned. As identity and urban landscapes are both constructed, ‘the great radical hope [of cyberpunk] was that the blending

The following shift from an “in-between” study towards a

of man and machine would have the same effect on personal

‘flirting with the world of filmmaking’26 is to recognise that alleys

identity that multicultural cities like Hong Kong would have

are spaces in which everyday life takes place and can be obser-

on collective identity. It would break down the constructs of

ved. According to Michel de Certau is everyday life ‘(...) one of

gender, race and class.’32 In anime and reality, the constructed

the hardest things ... ignored.”27 In doing so, our perception shifts

scape of Hong Kong was for more than two decades the main

from spaces between housing blocks to valuable connective

physical site for film production, hence, as the ’Hollywood of

spaces within the city scape.

the East’33 its futuristic cityscape still serves as major source of

Made out of Hong Kong

be seen as the leading character for transferring a sense of

inspiration. In Ghost in the Shell, the tech-saturated city can urban mood. By zooming in, we recognise that the famous chasing scene starts at a street market, similar to the ones In ‘Understanding Comics; The Invisible Art’, Scott Mc-

still existing these days in Hong Kong. The scene leads into a

Cloud explains the art of visual storytelling by exploring the

back alley situation, and by entering the space, the viewer can

35_ Bordwell David, Planet Hong Kong; Popular Cinema and the Art of Entertainment, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, and London, England, 2000, Preface.

itself. 52

aboUt Hong kong about Kong

GKL: How much of a shift, though, is this? An inflection. Film, after all, is also a between-space, an a ClaSH oF SCale: Collage SeCtion tHroUgH tHe Urban FabriC oF Hong Kong witH itS landMarKS.

interstitiality of architectures and moods, a series of projective screenings and screened projections. Every規模對比:香港一般市區與其標誌性建築的橫切面拼湊。

450 M

thing in film happens as if it is just before and after the alluring mystery of midnight. Lights, camera, action! (What is artifice?). One of the very oldest divisions is here re-enacted—mind:body::ghost:shell—but now 400 M

with an attempt to re-enact this ancient dichotomy with the twists of cyberpunk and tech-noir. More recently, there is Altered Carbon and Upload. We are trying to think about our current situation. 350 M

300 M

250 M

200 M

150 M

100 M

50 M

關於香港

‘A Clash of Scale: Collage section through the urban fabric of Hong Kong with its landmarks’ in Hong Kong In Between, Borio, Geraldine & Caroline Wüthrich, MCCM Creations and Park Books, 2015, p.52-53.

GKL: The interstices of betweenings that fissure the supposed monolithic unity of the law and the police, forces that are ever-present as part of instrumental reason’s deployment that claims every space for

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GKL: Scavenging lanes are precisely regulated in an attempt to destroy scavenging for the sake of the clean air and daylight of public health. Commerce, surely, should occur in the open air of the law? But we’re all scavengers—hunting for scraps—and cities are arabesques of scavenger hunts. Planning and the unexpected intertwine in the alleyway, in the film. NE: Arguably, there is no such thing as ‘a’ lane. A crack between two buildings is a lane. A car-free back alley is a lane. An alleyway towards a courtyard can be a lane, while any random busy street can be a lane too. Hence, what combines them is the search for possibilities. It may be the search for the complementary and familiarity in people’s fate that makes these spaces so intriguing. GKL: Welcome to my backyard: have a sit, a smoke. Instrumental reason is present—as it is everywhere in Hong Kong—but the residue is something altogether different. It, as it were, hovers. These creative incubators are not controlled by glittering tech, glass, and the chrome sheen of splines. They will not lead to unicorn start-ups and another smart app. Each is a Denk-Bild working the city from its nooks-and-crannies, its peripheries. Visuality and mood are waiting for the camera to arrive. NE: This reminds me on Judith Schalansky’s Atlas of Remote Islands; Or Fifty Islands I Have Never Set Foot On and Never Will. Her interest sheds light on the overlooked, forgotten islands - the peripheral. She argues that only the peripheral constitutes the center; in other words, there would not be a capital without the marginal. With background stories to each of these fifty remote islands, they become feasible and one could trace and re-tell global histories through them. Let’s image the same here: Alleys as the peripherial crust, full of stories within a

Back alley construction in Sai Ying Pun, Image taken by the author.

sea of glass, steel and concrete – Mariana Trench deep.

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GKL: Hong Kong almost never takes time to catch its breath; it does not know the arts of slowing down. The alley enforces, and protects, such a change of velocity, a lowering of the heart-rate, the life-rate. GKL: Stimmungen: with a slice of the sky still visible through the frame of the skyscrapers.

02 GKL: What is this East/West slash? How does it operate as a differentiation-connection machine? What is this phantasm of East, of West and for whom does it function? Clearly this image shatters the directionality of a compass, which requires four directions and their infinite subdivisions. Hong Kong used to be Asia’s World City, a meeting-place of East and West into which enormously complex histories are compressed. Clichés, slogans, and the repetitious of ideological genres are shorthand codes created to express and obscure. The patience of reading and writing and filming and viewing must unravel them; histories must be restored; art must take up its multiple tasks. In the alleys just off of Queen’s Way, Neo and noir stir, awaiting a director’s touch...

GKL: The spectacle is still at work in Hong Kong, but it is no longer, not really, believable. There are no tourists lined up on the promenades to watch the nightly light-show play up and down and over the skylines on both sides of Victoria Harbour. It is a light-show of the smart city for the smart city driven by manic algorithms. The buildings enjoy dressing up, showing themselves off, but the Cabarets are closing. No one is coming to the show. NE: This calls for a footnote; Hong Kong's light-show is called A Symphony of Lights 幻彩詠香江, which is the largest permanently running sound and light show in the world – Guinness

World Record of course. It currently includes 42 buildings and starts every night at 8PM for the

Back alley analysis in Ghost in the Shell (1995), Mamoru Oshii (dir.), Production I.G., min. 18.48- 21.51.

last fifteen years.

https://ilovehongkong.org/hong-kong-symphony-of-lights-2017/

Light designer: How many lights do you want ? Hong Kong: Yes!.

GKL: Moods strike as if from nowhere. Moods are constructed like a film-set, are extravagant like costumes. Moods have voices, are atmospheres in and through which we exist. Thought, necessarily, is moody; film is moody; alleys are moody.

recognise an immediate change of mood provoked by

the longer runtime, no time for contemplation. In the newer

the film’s decreasing movement. In addition, the sound scape

version, the city view is represented by a flight through the

changes, starting from a busy city noise, to a frantic chase,

digitally created city scape, which arguably creates a distance

into the meditative score EXM Puppet Master composed by

from the observed city, as commonly citizens are not able

Kenji Kawai. Intentionally, the speed of the images slow down.

to experience the city through this particular flying viewpoint

As mentioned in Score; A Film Music Documentary34 direc-

perspectives. Here, in what McCloud explores as the ‘East/

ted by Matt Schrader in 2017, the sound of a film can actively

West Split’, comes the difference of storytelling into play and

shape how we perceive and interpret the image. Therefore,

might explain the criticized quality loss of urban mood in

sound can follow, recognise, or in this example highlight a

comparison to the first animated film version. ‘(…) In the east,

change of direction in the scene and should not be unde-

there´s a rich tradition of cyclical and labyrinthine work of

restimated. Besides the changing sound scape and image

art. Japanese comics may be heirs to this tradition, in the way

speed, this scene shows the gangster escaping into a back

they so often emphasise being there over getting there. Th-

alley where he finally has time to catch his breath, pull off his

rough these and other storytelling techniques, the Japanese

jacket, which helped him to stay invisible, and gaze into the

offer a vision of comics very different from our own.’36

canyon of houses. Here, the clear reference to Hong Kong’s urban situation is visualised by the appearance of an air plane ‘nearly scraping the rooftops of Kowloon City.’35 Within this described spatial contemplation the noisy city sound disappears and is replaced by a meditative dripping of water that may refer to the peaceful, quiet ambience of an Asian garden. The anime does this by visually framing the character 36_ Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics; The Invisible Art, William Morrow, Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers, 1994, p.81

in relation to the city around him and giving the viewer time to contemplate about the space in which the story takes place. This meditative sequence visualises Scott McCloud’s ‘as-

37_ In the Mood for Doyle, Yves Montmayeur (dir.), 2007, min.4.00.

Ghost in the Shell.

watch?v=G4VmJcZR0Yg

Film Still, Rupert Sanders. 2017.

https://www.youtube.com/

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pect-to-aspect transition,‘ a concept that allows the viewer to look at the places´ Stimmung. Represented as a dirty, packed, open ended alley, cut by a river of drainage water, the gangster finds himself starring at the skyline in front of him, contemplating and facially expressing his love to the city, shortly before he gets kicked down to the wet floor and gets arrested. The animated film from 1995 differs extensively from its recent adaptation directed by Rupert Saunders in 2017. The adapted version, as well titled Ghost in the Shell, has, despite

Made it about Hong Kong By making back alleys the very spectacle of current Hong Kong’s urban fabric, the last paragraph discusses the problem of a place in a constant flux. Both, back alleys as an essential locality and their spatial implications, such as constant neighbourhood surveillance, narrow voyeuristic viewpoints and a specific atmosphere, are the dominant themes in Wong Kar-wai´s films. As one of Hong Kong's most acclaimed Second Wave cinema directors, mostly active after the first New Wave Cinema Movement in the 90´s, Wong Karwai is well known for his atmospheric films like Fallen Angels from 1995, Chungking Express three years later, and 2046 from 2004. In all these films, he has worked with the Australian born, Asian fanatic Christopher Doyle; a cinematographer, who's artistic contribution to Kar-wai, Zhang Yimou, and Fruit Chan´s works brought him, and accordingly these motion pictures international recognition.

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GKL: Free air and urban circulation: the city as a body; the body as a city. The tracks of the metaphorai are inescapable, but the uncontainable work of the as must be attended to as well. The streets bleed. GKL: We remain (always) in the space of the “form of life,” of the Denk-Bild and of metaphor-I-city. We travel through the expressivity of the city in its nuances, its generosity of affect, its hyperobjects that extend

out of sight. Film opens infinitely. Expressivity indicates extra-human vibrancy: girder, atmosphere, the empathy of the buildings, plan, slickness, alleyway. NE: Let’s drill into alleys as Lebensform; as urban connectors - this is a stimulating provocation. Arguably, lanes physically connect streets, places, businesses, neighborhoods, and histories. Yet, beyond this important aspect as binders, their role in our everyday life – their mundane existence – needs to be further investigated. The attention and observation of the ordinary is nothing new in the Asian context; just think about ROJO KANSATSU or Thomasson's. Yet, another hint may be Juliet Floyd’s Chains of Life: Turing, Lebensform, and the Emergence of Wittgenstein’s Later Style. At least for now, Turing will be left aside and thereby focused more on mentioned notion of Wittgenstein’s Lebensform, developed in his later work Philosophical Investigations in 1945. As Floyd argues; ‘We are binders. We bind ourselves to one another and to procedures. We band into groups, friendships, cities. (…) We band through the binding of remarks and reminders. Here the notion of a “carpet” or “tapestry” of life [Lebensteppich] (…) is developed into that of a Band des Lebens. This is the image of a parade of life forms, a colorful ordering of life, lifted from a romantic tradition in which life itself is regarded as a ribbon. The passage is translated by Hacker and Schulte as a “weave” of life to pick up on the connection with the im-age of Lebensteppich; Anscombe had “pattern in the weave of our lives”, attempting to be a bit broader. But Band, more or less equiva-lent to “band” in English, On Lan Terrace, Kowloon, ca. 1940s, in Once Upon A Time - Hong Kong, FormAsia Books Limited, 2011.

is broader still, and more pertinent to Wittgenstein’s quarry with his idea of Lebensform (…).’ From here, we may need another discussion to bind Denk-Bilder to Ryūtanji Yū’s nansensu (nonsense) literature back to alleys as ‘tapestries of life’. Heartfelt thanks for the talk; more coffee, please.

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In our following filmic example, In the Mood for Love

Wong Kar-wai’s work In the Mood for Love, Mamoru

from 2000, Kar-wai and Dolye carefully dissect the social

Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell, and Fruit Chan’s Little Cheung from

structures of a colonial, pre-1997 vision of Hong Kong. By

1999 are only a few references of how filmmakers have taken

challenging the idea of the back alley as a meeting place for

existing alley situations as the main driving character of their

a next-door neighbours couple, their work crafts an image

enactment. This, then, leads back to the argument that Hong

of the life situation in Fragrant Harbour. Hence its closeness

Kong’s spatial characteristic lays within the cities body, which

to daily city life, In the Mood for Love's atmospheric street

is too often overlooked. Back alleys are running through the

scenes were all shot in Bangkok. Mentioned by Doyle that ’in

city like veins through a body, keeping it alive and as menti-

the film, it [a chosen alley in Bangkok] is supposed to be a

oned in Organic HK, a short film directed by Isabelle Mayor;

backstreet in Hong Kong, and what happens is, as we know,

‘high density cities need free and non-programmed space to

cities change, and especially Asian cities change so quickly,

be appropriated.’ Because ‘even the free air belongs to so-

so this one did not change so much, that’s why [we shot it

meone else; it belongs to street engineers and hygienists.’39

there].’

41_ Penz François and Lu Andong (eds.), Urban Cinematics; Understanding Urban Phenomena Through The Moving Image, Intellect, The Mill, UK, 2011, p.9.

ban life give a dense city like Hong Kong a human charac-

wonderful places, why you go all the way to this small al-

ter, a form of life in between concrete agglomerations and

leys and shabby places? Well, I said, I know the smell of it.

its constant struggle of limited space as visualised by various

So, whenever I look at the streets, I understand what kind of

filmmakers. Hereby, ‘by adding the dimension of time, space

person lives in this space, what do they do, what is their living,

becomes “alive”, so film offers the potential of generating an

so I can’t help it. (…) Each space can give you some kind of

affective relationship with architecture, a form of empathy,

drama; space can be emotional or queered, (…). Even though

where the architect/filmmaker more closely identifies with

when we are shooting in a very narrow street or one corner

the building.’40 ‘Indeed, through the framing process and the

of a street, that’s enough for me, because I can image what’s

subsequent screening, even the most anonymous and banal

happening. And sometimes, I will think, the space actually is

city location will be transformed from an unconsciously re-

the main character of that scene, because he is like a wit-

corded space (…) to an expressive space.’41

ness, everyday there are a lot of people doing the same thing around here, so it’s like hundreds of stories like this going on.’38

https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=dWVDZ98AFhI

In the Mood for Love.

40_ Haralambidou Penelope, The Architectural Essay in Film, Arq (2015), 19.3, Cambridge University Press, p.246.

Conclusively, these mentioned spaces of everyday ur-

said, we have grand buildings, we have a very nice beach;

Film Still, Wong Kar-Wai. 2000.

39_ Authors translation; Camillo Sitte, Der Staedtebau nach seinen kuenstlerischen Grundsaetzen (1909); vermehrt um “Grossstadtgruen”, Birkhaeuser, Basel, Reprint der 4. Auflage von 1909, 2002, p.93.

’Our location manager is extremely mad, because he

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38_ In the Mood for Doyle, Yves Montmayeur (dir.), 2007, min.16:30.

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It is only natural that the introduction of softwares, originally developed for the movie and animation industry, into architecture, made the visual languages of both disciplines merge as well – what was once seen in the cinema as science fiction is today actual, built reality, or at least 3D modelled fact.

The cryptic title – because we have taken as the overriding theme of this issue the dissolution of the “fourth wall”, that invisible, separating skin between actor and audience, between theatre or film and reality, as the result of artistic endeavour and technical progress.

set. Here, the worlds that were dreamed of were transformed parallel to the ever advancing and unstoppable progress in design and visualisation techniques.

ADATO "Architecture and Projection" will of course talk about film – about stage-managed spaces, worlds that are also – and perhaps especially – loved by architects and fellow-travellers.

Ever since the beginnings of the moving picture in the late nineteenth century, architecture and film have shared an analogue scenery, the

Read this magazine for free on ISSUU

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Alleys in Wonderland

Hong Kong’s back alleys as celebrated cinematic spaces originally published in ADATO #1_2018 Architecture and Projection

ISSN 2658-9974

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Archäo-Logik der Schichten: Nicolaus Steno und die Chronologie der Tiefe

Ein Essay von Jérôme Becker und weiterführende Gedanken von Kristian Faschingeder

Kristian Faschingeder ist Gastprofessor an der New Design University St. Pölten, Österreich und Lehrbeauftragter am FH-Campus Wien und an der Technischen Universität Wien. Von 2008-2010 war er wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter am Lehrstuhl für Entwerfen, Theorie und Geschichte der modernen Architektur an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, wo er 2011 promovierte. 2011-2013 kuratierte er die Dauerausstellung des Wissenschaftszentrums Sonnenwelt in Großschönau in Niederösterreich.

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A R C H Ä O - L O G I K D E R S C H I C H T E N | J E R O M E B E C K E R I M A U S TA U S C H M I T K R I S T I A N FA S C H I N G E D E R

PRINZGAU/podgorschek: Die Entdeckung der Korridore von Robert Jelinek, Paasdorf (Österreich), 1995. Foto: Christian Wachter

Arbeiter graben 1978 einen Ferrari Dino aus, der in einem Garten im Süden von Los Angeles gefunden wurde. Das Auto wurde vier Jahre zuvor als gestohlen gemeldet. Foto: Michael Haering.

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Jérôme Becker ist Universitätsassistent an der Plattform future.lab (Fakultät für Architektur und Raumplanung, TU Wien). Als Mitbegründer des MAGAZIN – Ausstellungsraum für zeitgenössische Architektur kuratiert er Einzelausstellungen junger, internationaler Architekturschaffenden. Er studierte Architektur und Philosophie in Wien. Seit 2019 ist er Teil des Redaktionsteams von ADATO.

R E-E DI T E D # 1

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Die archäologische Praktik der Grabung ist eine Operation, die sich vom räumlichen, wie auch vom zeitlichen Nullpunkt aus in nur eine Richtung bewegt: von oben nach unten und von der Gegenwart in die Vergangenheit. Parallel zur Bewegung in die Tiefe, verläuft die Suche nach Indizien über das Gewesene. Je tiefer die Grabung, umso größer die zeitliche Entfernung zur Gegenwart. Unsere materiellen Hinterlassenschaften scheinen einer vertikalen Ordnung zu unterliegen, welche sich im archäologischen Akt des Freilegens und vermutlich auch im Denken von Geschichte äußert.

... aus dem geologischen Modell der linear gestapelten Ebenen entwickelt Steno ein raumzeitliches Prinzip, welches man als eine Chronologie der Tiefe beschreiben kann.

Die Logik dieser vertikalen Ordnung ist auf die geologischen Erkenntnisse von Nicolaus Steno (1638–1686) zurückzuführen. In seiner Abhandlung über das Feste im Festen (De solido intra solidum) war der dänische Naturforscher der erste, der horizontal übereinander liegende Gesteinsschichten nicht als dauerhaft gegebene Struktur der Erdkruste interpretierte, sondern als Prozess einer chronologischen Abfolge von Sedimentüberlagerungen. Mit Stenos stratigrafischem Grundgesetz wird die Unterscheidung der Schichten zum archäologischen Instrument der relativen Zeitbestimmung und aus dem geologischen Modell der linear gestapelten Ebenen entwickelt er ein raumzeitliches Prinzip, welches man als eine Chronologie der Tiefe beschreiben kann. Der geordnete Zustand der Schichten ist jedoch nicht frei von Unregelmäßigkeiten. Neben tektonischen Überschiebungen der Kontinentalplatten, sind es aber vor allem auch vom Menschen verursachte Dynamiken, welche die Untersuchung der stratigrafischen Abfolge in Zukunft erschweren werden. Die Größenordnung der anthropogenen Umweltbeeinflussung lässt sich nicht mehr nur in ihrer horizontalen Ausdehnung messen. Sie äußert sich ebenfalls in der zunehmenden Abweichung von der Erdoberfläche, sowohl in die Tiefe als auch in die Höhe. Auf der russischen Halbinsel Kola erreichte ein Bohrkopf 1979 die Rekordtiefe von 12.262 Meter, während die Raumsonde Voyager 1 zwei Jahre zuvor auf Cape Canaveral startete, um schließlich 2012 als erstes von Menschen erzeugtes Objekt den interstellaren Raum zu erreichen. Die Spuren der Gegenwart ziehen sich bereits bis tief in das Erdinnere und gleichzeitig bis weit über das Heliossphärenäußere hinaus. Die Vertikalität der anthropogenen Aktivitäten hat Konsequenzen für das Stratigrafische System. Neben der Umwälzung des Alten – Zerstörung der geologischen Schichten der Vergangenheit durch die Förderung von fossilen Rohstoffen –, verursacht die Ausdehnung unserer materiellen Kultur nach unten und oben eine ständige Aufwirbelung des Staubs der Gegenwart. Der laminare Zustand der geschichteten Vergangenheiten droht sich zu einem turbulenten und entropischen Gefüge zu entwickeln. Wenn der Mensch also zum geologischen und atmosphärischen Einflussfaktor geworden ist, dann wird eine neue Logik der archäologischen Spurensuche zur Aufarbeitung der Gegenwart erforderlich sein. Das Modell der Schichten muss sich erweitern, von der linearen Chronologie der Tiefe zu einem multitemporären und polychronologischen Bezugssystem. Geschichte kann schließlich nicht mehr als geschichtet gedacht werden.

Jérôme Becker

01_21

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Geschichte kann nicht als geschichtet gedacht werden. Meist denken wir damit einen Abstand, den es zu überwinden gilt. Weil die Zeit aber im Grunde nur eine Anordnung ist, sind viele Ordnungen vorstellbar. Michel Serres macht allein für die Wissenschaftsgeschichte drei Möglichkeiten aus, deren Vielfalt mit unterschiedlichen Auffassungen von Zeitlichkeit korrespondiert: - Die totalisierende Akkumulation von Überliefertem, als Sammlung der Gesamtheit aller Dokumente, deren Ideal die Abwesenheit von Verlust ist. - Die wiederkehrende Geschichte, basierend auf der letzten Wahrheit, d.h. der Wahrheit. Von diesen Uchronien würde bei der Auswahl nur die jüngste ausgewählt werden. Das ist die Geschichte, die hinter jeder, das System der Wissenschaft umstrukturierenden Erfindung steckt. Diese Geschichte sammelt nicht, sondern selektiert aus. Die Gesamtheit dieser Geschichten kann wie eine Abfolge von übereinandergelegten Filtern gesehen werden.

Die Geschichte ist hier eine Strategie der Bearbeitung von offenen Resten und Rückständen, wodurch das Spiel an immer anderer Stelle wieder neu beginnen, neue (Natur-) Geschichte geschrieben werden kann.

- Die Geschichte, welche die Wissenschaft selbst ist, als eine ursprüngliche Bewegung, als undefinierte Bildung eines Systems. Die lineare Akkumulation von Geschichte im Geschichteten, das durch das Entdecken und Deuten von Verborgenem rekonstruiert wird, ist also nur eine Möglichkeit. Die Geschichte der Wissenschaft Geologie selbst hat das Modell von Steno verfeinert, verbessert, verworfen: Die Annahme einer linearen Akkumulation in der Geologie hat zur weiteren Erkenntnis geführt, dass die abgelagerten Schichten nicht fixiert sind, sondern sich in Bewegung befinden, das in der Natur in Festem eingeschlossene Feste also so fest gar nicht ist. So musste ein größerer Maßstab her und neue Sphären: die Lithosphäre, die Hydrosphäre, auch die Biosphäre; Begriffe, die der Geologe Eduard Suess einführte. Mit Alfred Wegener begannen gar die Kontinente selbst zu driften. Die Geschichte ist hier eine Strategie der Bearbeitung von offenen Resten und Rückständen, wodurch das Spiel an immer anderer Stelle wieder neu beginnen, neue (Natur-)Geschichte geschrieben werden kann.

Dieser Mobilmachung der Natur, ausgehend von einem lokalen hin zu einem globalen Maßstab, folgen ebensolche Objekte. Objekte in den Dimensionen der Welt selbst: für den Raum die ballistische Rakete, für die Rotationsgeschwindigkeit der geostationäre Satellit, für die Zeit die Halbwertszeit nuklearer Rückstände, schreibt Serres. Wir wissen heute, was es heißt, die Natur zu beherrschen: mit Maschinen, die ihr in ihren Dimensionen gleichwertig sind. Freilich lässt sich diese Geschichte sehr viel früher ansetzen: Bohrkerne aus den Eisschichten lassen den Beginn der Bronzezeit genau datieren, dank der Spuren der ersten Abgase, die von den archaischen Öfen des Mittelmeerraumes in die Atmosphäre freigesetzt, und so verstreut wurden, dass sie bis in den hohen Norden getragen wurden. Wer hätte gedacht, dass die Globalisierung schon in vorgeschichtlichen Zeiten begonnen hat, und dass sich Natur- und Kulturgeschichte derart vermengen. Sind hier wirklich noch Objekte im Spiel? Im wörtlichen Sinne ist ein Objekt das, was vor uns hingestellt oder vor uns geworfen ist, wie bei einem Gegenstand, dem wir als Subjekte gegenüberstehen. Diese Objekte haben einen lokalen Aktionsradius, werden von einem Subjekt manipuliert und beherrscht, um damit andere Objekte zu bearbeiten. Wir sind es gewohnt, auf solcherart begrenzte Objekte einzuwirken, die einen Abstand zum Subjekt implizieren. Unsere heutigen Handlungen jedoch, als Menschheit als Ganzes, werden mit den neuen Objekten zu Eingriffen von globalen Dimensionen, die uns umgeben. Die neuen Welt-Objekte sind kein Objekt im bisherigen Sinne mehr. Wir können sie nicht auf die gleiche Weise begreifen.

Kristian Faschingeder

01_21

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Der Begriff "Archäologie" findet seinen Ursprung im Altgriechischen und bedeutet wörtlich übersetzt soviel wie die "Lehre der Altertümer". Tatsächlich aber befasst sich die Disziplin, die es sich zur Aufgabe machte, das Leben des Menschen auf der Erde zu untersuchen, zu verstehen und für kommende Generationen festzuhalten, mit einem Raum von den ersten Steinwerkzeugen vor etwa 2,5 Millionen Jahren bis in die Zeitgeschichte - um nicht zu sagen, die Gegenwart. Wie Leonardo da Vinci bereits vor 500 Jahren feststellte, ist "bei einem Fluss das Wasser, das man berührt, das letzte von dem, was vorübergeströmt ist, und das erste von dem, was kommt." So sei es auch mit der Gegenwart. Hat man den Moment begriffen, gehört er auch schon der Ver-

gangenheit an. Das Jetzt ist ein Hauch und die Trennung zwischen Altem und Neuen eine inkonsequente Linie, die immer wieder verschwimmt. Die Entwicklungsgeschichte des Menschen wurde lange Zeit hinweg vertikal von unten nach oben - vom Erdinnersten zur Oberfläche - gelesen. So wie sich im Laufe von Jahrmillionen und als Resultat geologischer Prozesse Sediment und organisches Material ablagerten und schichtenweise neue Erdoberflächen generierten, wuchsen unsere Städte auf den Ruinen der Vergangenheit.

Blättere durch das Heft

R E-E DI T E D # 1

ADATO

Archäo-Logik der Schichten:

Nicolaus Steno und die Chronologie der Tiefe

erschien ursprünglich in ADATO #3_2018 Architektur & Archäologie

ISSN 2658-9974

IMPRESSUM AUSGABE | Issue 1_21 Special Edition #1 Re-Edited HERAUSGEBER | EDITOR Point Nemo Publishing S.à.r.l.-S KONZEPT | CONCEPTION Anna Valentiny REDAKTION | TEAM Jérôme Becker, Nikolas Ettel, Eleni Palles Anna Valentiny LEKTORAT | COPY-EDITING Point Nemo Publishing KONZEPT GESTALTUNG | LAYOUT Studio Polenta SOCIAL MEDIA Elena Valentiny PRODUKTION, DRUCK | PRODUCTION, PRINT Nikolaus Bastian Druck & Verlag GmbH REDAKTIONSANSCHRIFT | ADDRESS Point Nemo Publishing S.à.r.l.-S 19, Wisswee L-5441 Remerschen Luxembourg

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PROLOG Sie sagten mir fiele die Rolle zu, durch dieses Stück zu führen. Sie sagten (Nobody) "In here, your name shall be Nobody! ... by the way.. I'm the commenting choir of the classical drama... or... or also... the memory implanted by the park management" (ELENI) ... und, dass ich Zeit dieser Geschichte, stellvertretend für alle im Raum, durch eine Parklandschaft flanierte... Ich sei

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Anna Valentiny

Hortus Alienum Scenographies of Nobodys Voyage

Pages: 150 Format: to be defined Languages: EN/DE Publication Date: February 2022

"Jedermann" (ELENI) ...der sich zu einer Variation des ewig Ähnlichen aufmacht – austauschbar, unbekannt und allein im Garten. Kommen Sie, kommen Sie! mit nach Hortus Alienum und sehen Sie... nun, der Marketing Slogan meinte (Nobody) "The old story of humankind, searching for the true beginning. The path is an old native myth, a perfectly controlled environment. The park is an island in your mind, a

very designed dream landscape that you wander. There are no laws and there is no guidebook. You'll have the perfect illusion of dictating your adventure, which begins at the airfield, when we made you forget and you are finally free. One single memory, we will leave you, for every true voyage starts with a war... maybe something beloved that got taken away and was lost... forever?" (ELENI)

Anna Valentiny (*1991) earned a Master’s degree in Architecture from the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in 2018. Her thesis project, “Hortus Alienum – Scenographies of Nobody's Voyage”, can be read as the culmination of her overlapping interests in writing, design and the curation of thoughts through narration.

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Ella Felber

Unter der Hohen Brücke digging in a ditch writing for a place

Pages: 192 Format: 135x210mm Languages: EN/DE Publication Date: Octobre 2021

There is a place shared by architecture and poetry. It emerges by their overlay and requires us to enter, to adapt, and to actively participate in its configuration. By perceiving, by using, by engaging and behaving, we create realities and we change them. By interacting with our environment, be it the physical or the written, our experiences inscribe meaning, thereby we create a place. This publication is an experiment. It consists of multiple attempts to construct a place within architecture and poetry, as an exception of the

distinction. In a case study – a reading – of "Tiefer Graben/Hohe Brücke", various writings assemble in this book. While digging in this place, an essay, a sequence of encounters, and a sketchbook arise: a reflective investigation, directed explorations and raw, intimate approaches. By writing for a place, the work is unsealing potentials and setting up possibilities to enter, interact and practise in the ambiguous space within architecture and poetry.

Ella Felber, *1994, is a writing architect in Vienna. She recently graduated from the Institute of Art and Architecture at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. She is a co-founder and -editor of the magazine ‘blank’. In her works, she attempts to create polyphonic places, which emerge from sensation, memory, movement and interaction. ‘Unter der Hohen Brücke’ is her first book.

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Gianna Prein & Katrin Euller

Motion sickness

Pages: 108 Format: 246 x 196 mm Language: EN Publication Date: Autumn 2021

In unserer Arbeit „motion sickness“ treffen zwei queere Narrative rund um die Themen Orientierung und Schwindelgefühl aufeinander: Der Hörsturz einer pendelnden Person, mit darauffolgender Implantation eines Cochlea Implantats (Soundprozessor) auf der einen Seite des Buches trifft auf die aufkommende Übelkeit einer arbeitenden Person in einem dröhnenden Maschinenraum auf der anderen Seite. Verbunden werden sie durch eine Bildreihe, die mittig in der Publikation liegt. Dadurch, dass von beiden Seiten (A und B) jeweils ein Narrativ beginnt, hat das Buch kein klassisches Anfang/Ende sondern startet statt-

dessen von beiden Seiten und endet in der Mitte. Hier befinden sich Fotografien von Wellenbrechern, also den typischen Beton-Dreiarmern, die den Seegang an den Küsten lenken bzw. beeinflussen. Mit den Bildern vermischen sich Innen- und Außenraum; so auch die Wahrnehmung der beiden Protagonist*innen. Experimentellen Essayfilmen ähnlich, werden die beiden Erzählungendurch theoretische Zitate (u.A. Sara Ahmed zu Orientierung, Karen Barad zu Wellentheorie), Fotostrecken performter Semaphoren im häuslichen Bereich, sowie Stills der Überschwemmung 2019 in Venedig begleitet.

Gianna Virginia Prein (geb. 1990) arbeitet als Künstlerin und Autorin in Wien. In ihrer multimedialen Praxis untersucht sie Verbindungen zwischen körperlichen, handwerklichen und technisierten Phänomenen – Bewegungen, die faktisch im Alltag sowie in spekulativen, posthumanistischen Ansätzen gesellschaftlich eingebettet sind. Katrin Euller (geb. 1987) arbeitet als Künstlerin und Ökologin in Wien. Sie studierte Ökologie an der Universität Wien, sowie Video und Videoinstallation an der Akademie der bildenden Künste, Wien. Sie arbeitet vorwiegend mit Bewegtbild, Sound und Text und interessiert sich unter anderem für Sound/Noise, düstere Ökologien, Freundschaft und Zusammensein.

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I. Culture

III. From Past to Present

III. Living

IV. Leisure & Sports

II. Learning & Working

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ISBN 978-2-9199670-9-4 Distribution Luxembourg: Point Nemo Publishing International Distribution - except Luxembourg : Birkhäuser

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Anna Valentiny (Editor )

40 Years Valentiny hvpArchitects Stories from the Inside One box with Five Books Pages : 2 150 Format : 488 x 290 mm Price: €99.95 Languages : EN/FR/DE Publication Date: June 2021

With prefaces by: Axel Christmann, Daniela Flor, Jeanne Petesch, Laurye Pexoto, and François Valentiny With text contributions by: Ingeborg Flagge, Klaus Hartmann, Hubert Hermann, Wilhelm Holzbauer, Cornelia Müller, Jan Teunen & Christoph Quarch, Ian De Toffoli, Rob Krier, Anna Valentiny, François Valentiny and Liesbeth Waechter-Böhm

François Valentiny and Hubert Hermann founded the architecture office Hermann Valentiny Architekten shortly after graduating from the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, where they had studied together in Wilhelm Holzbauer's master class. The Stadtvillen, conceived in the context of the IBA (International Building Exhibition), were the young team's first project in the early 1980s. The book is a retrospective that looks back over forty years and tells the stories behind the numerous designs and buildings by Valentiny hvp Architects. Five richly illustrated volumes showcase previously unpublished material from the Valentiny Foundation archives and present current projects to the public for the first time.

A monograph concludes the publication. From Past to Present is dedicated to the Valentiny Foundation, the office building at address 19, Wisswee in Remerschen and the adjoining family home and garden, where François Valentiny created an ideal microcosm: Here, soul and architectural creativity flourish and major international projects are created, from the World Exhibition Pavilion in Shanghai to the Teatro L'Occitane in Bahia and the House for Mozart in Salzburg.

All Photos: Rick Tonizzo

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ADATO #1_2020

Architecture and Medicine Pages: 62 Format: 210x270mm Price (Print): 10,00 euros Price (Digital): FREE Language: DE/EN

The relationship between architecture and medicine is fundamental, as we design for people that first of all inhabit a body and only in a second step a home. Vitruv or LeCorbusier based their theories on the proportions on the human body, which is supposed to play the architecture.

tour of an instrument, as we no longer see with our proper eyes, but through the gaze of the camera with which we immerse into the patient‘s or our virtual model‘s tissue.

But in times of 3D bio- or concrete print, the disciplines share more than only the subject: Already today procedures and technologies lead us, architects as physicians, to a new form of craftsmanship, in the exercise of which we no longer work with our bare hands, but via the de-

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ISSN 2658-9974

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THE MAGAZINE ADATO is a print magazine for architectural positions by young professionals, designers and theorists. ADATO creates a place for speculation, research and exploration. ADATO fosters a post-disciplinary discourse, and thrives through the global scale of its editorial network. adato was founded in 2002 as an international communication platform for renowned experts from the grand duchy and abroad discussing their work through reports and critical analyses. ADATO encourages change. In the year 2017, Studio Polenta and the new editorial board of ADATO adapted not only the magazine’s skin but also its content: In the form of essays, interviews, reportages or Werkschau, ADATO is practicing and thinking architecture in relation to neighbouring fields such as fine arts, film, and theatre, yet always within the socio-political context of the spheres we share. ADATO is published by Point Nemo - a publishing house founded by Anna Valentiny, Chief Editor since 2017.

THE EDITORIAL BOARD Three issues of ADATO are realized every year in an edition of 2 000 copies by a striving team of friends and young professionals: Eleni Palles, Nikolas Ettel, Jérôme Becker and Anna Valentiny shared for many years a self-chosen home in Vienna and work & live today scattered across the planet. This opens a huge potential to ADATO in its emancipation from local trends and the research for new and innovative content. ADATO speaks English, German and French. ADATO encourages a debating culture beyond disciplines, while allowing young thinkers to test ideas and thereby connecting diverse critical voices across the globe.

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