WORKSHOP 1 Vienna / AT 30 november 2011
Supported by
Organizers
EUROPEAN FORUM FOR ARCHITECTURAL POLICIES FORUM EUROPﾃ右N DES POLITIQUES ARCHITECTURALES
This work programme has been funded with support from European Commission. This communication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible of any use which may be made of the information coutained therein.
platform for european architecture
Participants Underconstructions co-organisers Yvette Masson-Zanussi: EFAP - manager Marco Stathopoulos: EFAP - project manager Marie-Hélène Contal: Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine/Paris - directeur adjoint Margaux Minier, Cité de l’Architecture et du Patrimoine - project coordinator Hannes Schreckensberger: wonderland, platform for european architecture - project manager Célia Picard: wonderland, platform for european architecture - project manager
Underconstructions partners Jana Revedin: LOCUS foundation president - Global Awards for Sustainable Architecture Hans Ibelings: Architectural critic and historian, editor of A10 new european architecture Carl Zillich: Bundesstiftung Baukultur, Germany - Head of research
Underconstrcutions experts Silvia Forlati: wonderland board member, platform for european architecture, share architects, editor of the wonderland manual for emerging architects Barbara Holub: urban matters - Artist, architect, founder member of Transparadiso, research fellow at the Institute for Art and Design, Faculty of Architecture, Vienna Tatjana Schneider: Spatial Agency - Lecturer at the School of Architecture, University of Sheffield, where she teaches design studio, history and theory
Contact www.underconstructions.eu underconstructionsefap.wordpress.com send@underconstructions.eu
Workshop
Yvette Masson-Zanussi, who moderated the workshop, reminded in
Wonderland gave an overview of the call for projects. More than 100
the opening address what is Underconstructions, its objectives and its
submitted projects from around Europe provided the basis for the
specificity.
opening discussion about the observatory. These projects are of all
The first workshop was set in July 2011 aimed to define innovation, and how it could impact the architectural policies for better architectural and urban quality. After this launch meeting, Wonderland, organised a call for projects. In less than one month more than a hundred examples of innovative processes across Europe have been submitted. The workshop in Vienna occurs at this point of the process. Its aim is to analyse through the submitted processes the recurring questionings and needs they give response to.
kinds: we have social housing, alternative legal and financial plans, self-construction, cultural and social proposals; educational‌.They also came mostly from architects, but also inhabitants, professionals or local authorities. This confirms the general interest for architectural solutions and processes, as well as the political dimension of the topic. Among the projects that have been submitted we notice that there are some recurring questionings: cultural and social dimension, access to nature in the city, ecology, access to decent housing.... This indicates that processes for answering these matters are worth being put in common. Among these questionings, some are recurring, highlighting similar problems at European scale. The objective of the workshop was to identify and categorize these tendencies. Notably, the submitted innovative processes came from all over Europe. This indicates that the local experiments identified by the observatory can have relevance on a European scale.
SUBMITTED PROJECTS Austria Zwischenwasser Sustainable Development of town centre / Zweillern umbauwerkstatt / Linz Commons come to Liezen / Liezen teens open space / Eferding Parlife Lehen / Salzburg Experimentday 01.Wien / Vienna ika - The Venice Projects Linz The Illusiontank Institut Dreher Haus / Vienna - Schwechart LCT ONE = LifeCycle Tower One / Dornbirn LifeCycle Tower - multi-story buildings in timber / Bregenz Architecture for Astronauts / Vienna My Home My Bed My Mango Tree / Vienna Apartement complex Wagramerstrasse / Vienna Eightplus / Vienna NHK - Niderösterreich Haus / Krems Mobile Dome House IZM - Illwerke Center Montafon / Gaschurn Sleep Kit for astronauts / Vienna In the Mist / Vienna Fast Forward City / Vienna Regional Vocational School Graz / Graz Belgium Youth centre JOC Rabot / Gent La ville en imaginaire / Brussel Bosnia Limits as inspiration / Sarajevo Czerch Republic Floating office / Praha Denmark Prammen / Skanderborg Finland Low2No / Helsinki Touching water - floating housing system / Kotka France Petite Urbanités libres / Paris Un plus un, habitat collectif en autoconstruction / Paris démarche HQAC - programme TRANS305 / Ivry-sur-Seine REC, les serres / Bagnolet Place au changement / Saint Etienne Maison des Projets des Courtillières / Pantin Le Caillou / Nantes La fôret interactive Le Germoir / Bezons le lieu d’Herbes / Manneville la Pipard
Urban Foam / Paris ecosphère / Nantes La fumée du Paquebot / St Nazaire Maison Dupré-Vitramo / Strasbourg Cité République / Aubervilliers Jeu de Ville / Paris Tower City Towers / Marseille Marbre d’ici / Ivry-sur-Seine
Romania limes / Transylvania Transcentral Urban Bucharest / Bucharest COOP pe Strada / Cluj-Napoca Bringing vitality in the hart of our city / Targu Secuiesc
Germany public office for architecture / Stuttgart The Knot / Berlin Querkräfte. Urban Futures of TXL Airport / Berlin Nexthamburg / Hamburg inverted theater / Giessen World Contemoprary Sites Institute / Berlin KAP 686 / Cologne sonic sofa / Nürnberg
Serbia Belgrade Wool Mill Reconstruction / Belgrade Ecka Industrial Living / Belo Blato
Greece Pxathens / Athens e_co_llectiva / Athens Nomadic instllations / Athens Hungary M4 Fovam ter underground station / Budapest Ireland Village Plan & Village Handbook for implementation / Waterfoot Italy MHC - Modular Habitat Community / L’Aquila Outside (from) Milan - Urbanslow - Analogical Observatory / Milan Un mega post it publico / Terni Green Island / Milano Nabito Sensational Garden / Frosinone Luxembourg LUX - Stahlhof Belval-Ouest / Esch-sur-Alzette DIM - Deux Immeubles Mixtes / Luxembourg Montenegro Magnifiers of Natural and Technological Elements / Mratinje Netherland the Making Of Greencitynetwork / Nijmegen Urban infrastructure / Amsterdam Poland The Art of Shaping Library Space / Warshaw Portugal Building-Manifesto / Lisbon
Russia Be in sunshine / Moscow
Slovakia Power Plant Piestany - hands-on-science center / Piestany stadlnova / Bratislava Nove Vajnory - Old Airport / Bratislava eco capsula / Bratislava Extraterrestrial / Slovensky Grob SPA pool Grand / Trencianske Teplice Slovenia Affordable Lofts / Ljubljana Spain Guerilla Bench / Madrid estonoesunsolar / Zaragoza Handmade Urbanism / Madrid #coloreatubarrio / Madrid Urban Solid Waste (RUS) All on wheels Urban Attributes / Andalucia 0+ Posative Void / Andalucia Arquikids Barcelona Mems Database / Vigo Vertical Garden Las Cigarreras / Alecante Palmaret-Alboraya subway Station / Valencia Floating by maio / Barcelona Trekking Tower / Barcelona Environmental Department of Zaragoza City Council / Zaragoza New Urban Worms / Madrid Fad Door Barcelona Sweden Materials of low embodied energy / Stockholm Ukraine Dnieper River Park / Kiev United Kingdom The Urban Island Project / London Re-imagining Portland Works / Sheffield We heart the Suburbs / Southend-on-Sea CSLCoEPS+CC / London
www.spatialagency.net
www.urban-matters.org
After the overview on the call for projects, Tatjana Schneider and Bar-
• Ethics are also an important dimension of innovation,
bara Holub presented their respective research work:
because innovation follows a political and social view. Innovation arises
www.spatialagency.net
when conventional processes lead to solutions that do not match with
www.urban-matters.org.
our expectations towards society. This reminds us that innovation often
Hans Ibelings gave his point of view as a critic and with Silvia Forlati talked about the actual European architecture scene. Carl Zillig presented the Bundestifftung Baukultur approach. All these presentations showed different points of view on innovative spatial processes.
needs courage; but it also shows that we need tools to adapt policies to reality. Underconstructions is about reproducing processes, not solutions. It is therefore a tool for capitalizing on local resources, serving the diversity of European cities. It is important to always keep in mind that Underconstructions is not a competition. It is an open process. The objective of Underconstructions
A debate with the participants followed these presentations, stressing
is that today’s innovations become tomorrow’s standards, and that
among others the following points:
such a process is kept open. Underconstructions, through its functioning, must contribute to ensuring that architecture in Europe remains
• When analysing architecture the risk is to fall into considerations related to fashion. In searching innovative projects Underconstructions analyses processes, not solutions, and not the building forms. It is therefore not about how the project is, which is indeed subject to fashion, but about what has made it possible: its tools, its economic, social, environmental and legal or juridical framework. Many of them work in bottom-up processes. • Times related to the projects are also very important. Innovation must be at the core of a long term process to be effective. • In parallel, the image of the architect designing solutions is a recent European point of view and it is changing. Innovation, as the call for projects has shown, comes also from the interactions between people that have made the project possible.
an evolving discipline.
Conclusions The objective was to identify common needs in Europe that are worth sharing experience for creating tools that can be used in similar situations. Now that recurrent needs have been identified, the next step will be to analyse the processes for answering these needs in order to build the tools. These tools will then also be used as a precious basis for adapting policies to urban reality. Most of he observed processes have in common the fact that they have been created in a difficult context, because they are on the edge of legal and normative framework. This reminds us that innovation often needs courage, to be daring; but it also shows that we need tools to adapt policies to reality. Underconstructions is about reproducing processes, not solutions. It is therefore a tool for capitalizing on local resources, serving the diversity of European cities.