www.responsivedesign.de
SPHERE
responsive design studio
Sphere Modern information and communication technologies allow architects and designers to collaborate on projects from remote locations. In order to simulate this new way of design already during the students education, the ‘institute of industrial design’ at the University of Karlsruhe created the internet based platform ‘www.netzentwurf.de’ in 1997. Since then more than 1200 architectural students from different schools around the world participated in so called ‘web design studios’. In 2001 the project ‘liquid campus’ - a virtual school of architecture - was developed and is currently supported by five different schools in Germany. Students of ‘liquid campus’ can participate in design studios at participating schools without the need of being there.
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As a collaboration of the Universities of Karlsruhe, Weimar and Aachen a common design studio - called “Hülle fürs Diplom” - was realised in 2004. The goal was to develop temporary pavilions for the exhibition and celebration of this years thesis projects of the RWTH Aachen architecture class.
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The term was divided into three parts. First a student competition was held between the participating Universities. Then new teams were formed and three selected works further developed until they were finally built on site at the RWTH in Aachen at the end of July. Altogether a budget of 3500 Euro, eight weeks of planning and five days of construction were available. ‘Di-Plom’ was a screw like structure made from roof battens and covered in cling wrap. The project ‘Mamba’ was a curved lattice construction which was tensioned below a supporting platform. ‘Sphere’ in contrast to the other two was the only real enclosed space. The wooden framework of the six meter high dome was covered on the inside and outside with plastic foil. The gap in between these two skins was then filled with artificial smoke and illuminated by colorful lights. The smoke was constantly renewed and escaped to a hole in the top of the structure. This resulted in an on-going change of the facade.
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Manuel Kretzer is an architect and designer from Germany. He studied architecture at the Universities of Dresden, South Australia and Karlsruhe, where he graduated in 2008 with an interactive pavilion for the Burning Man Festival. He worked as Research and Teaching Assistant at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Karlsruhe and later he was employed with Philip Beesley Architect Inc. in Toronto, Canada. Since March 2010 he works at the Chair of CAAD at the ETH in Zürich. His focus lies on temporary, interactive art and architecture he has realized a number of large scale sculptures and installations.
Hans Sachs is research and teaching assistant at the School of Architecture at the University of Applied Sciences, Cologne. At the chair ‚CAD/CAM’ of Prof. Oliver Fritz he works in the field of appliance of medias in the architectural design processes and experimental building.
Publications and Press Reviews: Bauwelt (09.2004) www.netzentwurf.de - ‘Hülle fürs Diplom’ Jovis Verlag, Berlin (10.2009) Textile Architektur by Silvie Krüger
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responsive design studio www.responsivedesign.de
info@responsivedesign.de
Manuel Kretzer, 2010